Symphony No. 8 (Mahler) Symphony No. 8 (Mahler) The Symphony No. 8 in E-flat major by Gustav Mahler is one of the largest-scale choral works in the classical concert repertoire. Because it requires huge instrumental and vocal forces it is frequently called the "Symphony of a Thousand", although the work is normally presented with far fewer than a thousand performers and the composer did not sanction that name. The work was composed in a single inspired burst, at Maiernigg in southern Austria in the summer of 1906. The last of Mahler's works that was premiered in his lifetime, the symphony was a critical and
Symphony No. 1 (Raff) Symphony No. 1 (Raff) Symphony No. 1 in D major "An das Vaterland" ("To the Fatherland"), Op. 96, was composed by Joachim Raff between 1859 and 1861. The work was Raff's first numbered symphony, though not the first symphony he had written. He composed a Grand Symphony in E minor, WoO. 18, in 1854, but only two of the work's original five movements survive. Raff entered the completed symphony in a competition organized in Vienna, sponsored by Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde and judged by Ferdinand Hiller, Carl Reinecke, Robert Volkmann and Vinzenz Lachner. It won first prize out of 32 entries.