The First Night of the Proms

The 92nd season of Henry Wood Promenade Concerts opens with Mahler's Symphony No 8 in E flat. Mahler himself conducted the triumphant premiere of his vast Eighth Symphony in Munich in 1910, little more than eight months before his death. The massive choral work was nicknamed

(without Mahler's approval) 'Symphony of a Thousand', because of the number of performers at the premiere.