One last masterpiece for Yutaka Sado! Under the direction of their then Music Director, the Tonkunstler Orchestra performed Gustav Mahler‘s monumental Eighth Symphony in June 2025 at the Musikverein Wien. «Imagine the universe beginning to ring and resound. It is no longer human voices circling, but planets and suns»: In his Eighth Symphony, Gustav Mahler reaches for the stars – and no wonder that this vast musical event was announced at its premiere as the «Symphony of a Thousand». The Whitsun hymn «Veni, creator spiritus» and the conclusion to Goethe’s «Faust II», which was written a thousand years later, come together via musically underpinned connections to form an overwhelming festival of sheer creativity. Celebrated in collaboration with an eminent team of soloists and magnificent choirs, it will be Yutaka Sado’s monumental farewell as Music Director of the Tonkunstler Orchestra: Arigat¯o gozaimasu – a thousand thanks! As a Viennese orchestra with a musical tradition dating back more than 120 years, the Tonkunstler Orchestra, like the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, plays Viennese instruments. Gustav Mahler’s life story is also closely linked to Vienna, where he worked as Court Opera Director of the Vienna State Opera for ten years. He conducted the premiere of his Eighth Symphony on 12 September 1910 – in Munich.