Giancarlo Guerrero
Talk about a swan song. For his final performance as music director of the Nashville Symphony Orchestra, Giancarlo Guerrero programmed one of the most massive works in the entire symphonic repertoire. That would be Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 (Symphony of a Thousand). Mahler scored this work for enormous forces, including eight vocal soloists, two mixed choirs, a boys’ choir, a super-sized orchestra and a veritable battery of percussion. The piece makes a big noise and invariably leaves audiences with a lasting impression. Guerrero conducted the work with ardency, sweep and breathless emotion. It was a masterful performance that momentarily turned Music City into Mahler Town.
