question: The first recording of the Mahler Symphony No. 8 was conducted by which Jewish-Polish-Irish bandleader?
answer: Leopold Anthony Stokowski
context: Title: Symphony No. 6 (Mahler)
  Passage: Symphony No. 6 in A minor by Gustav Mahler is a symphony in four movements, composed in 1903 and 1904 (revised 1906; scoring repeatedly revised).  Mahler conducted the work's first performance at the concert hall in Essen on May 27, 1906.  It is sometimes referred to by the nickname "Tragische" ("Tragic").  Mahler composed the symphony at what was apparently an exceptionally happy time in his life, as he had married Alma Schindler in 1902, and during the course of the work's composition his second daughter was born.  This contrasts with the tragic, even nihilistic, ending of No. 6.  Both Alban Berg and Anton Webern praised the work when they first heard it.  Berg expressed his opinion of the stature of this symphony in a 1908 letter to Webern:
  Title: Symphony No. 1 &quot;The Gothic&quot; (Brian)
  Passage: The Symphony No. 1 in D minor (The Gothic) by Havergal Brian is a symphony composed between 1919 and 1927.  At around one and three quarter hours, it is among the longest symphonies ever composed (with Mahler's 3rd Symphony, Sorabji's nine-hour 2nd Organ Symphony and Dimitrie Cuclin's unperformed No. 12) and, along with choral symphonies such as Beethoven's Ninth Symphony or Mahler's 8th Symphony, it is one of a few works attempting to use the musically gigantic to address the spiritual concerns of humanity.  With a key-scheme that begins in D minor and comes eventually to a closing in E major, the work is an example of progressive tonality.
  Title: Beethoven's 5th (Nikisch recording)
  Passage: The 1913 recording of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony by Berlin Philharmonic conducted by Arthur Nikisch has been regarded as the first complete recording of a full length orchestral work, attributed by Joseph Szigeti as the first recording of Beethoven's "Fifth".  The recording was widely distributed and has been described as having marked an "epochal" change in the music industry.  In fact the first recording of Beethoven's "Fifth" was three years earlier, by Friedrich Kark and the Odeon Symphony Orchestra in Berlin in 1910.  Though both the Kark and Nikisch recordings were cut in performance and the first fully and wholly complete recording of Beethoven's Fifth was only made by Albert Coates around 1920.
  Title: Symphony No. 7 (Mahler)
  Passage: Symphony No. 7 by Gustav Mahler was written in 1904–05, with repeated revisions to the scoring.  It is sometimes referred to by the title Song of the Night (German: "Lied der Nacht" ), which Mahler never knew (and certainly would be unlikely to have sanctioned).  Although the symphony is often described as being in the key of E minor, its tonal scheme is more complicated.  The symphony's first movement moves from B minor (introduction) to E minor, and the work ends with a rondo finale in C major.  Thus, as Dika Newlin has pointed out, "in this symphony Mahler returns to the ideal of 'progressive tonality' which he had abandoned in the Sixth".  The complexity of the work's tonal scheme was analysed in terms of "interlocking structures" by Graham George.
  Title: Oskar Fried
  Passage: Oskar Fried (August 1, 1871July 5, 1941) was a German conductor and composer.  An admirer of Gustav Mahler, Fried was the first conductor to record a Mahler symphony.  Fried also held the distinction of being the first foreign conductor to perform in Russia after the Bolshevik Revolution.  He eventually left his homeland to work in the Soviet Union after the political rise of Adolf Hitler's Nazi Party, and became a Soviet citizen in 1940.
  Title: Leopold Stokowski
  Passage: Leopold Anthony Stokowski (18 April 188213 September 1977) was an English conductor of Jewish-Polish and Irish descent.  One of the leading and influential conductors of the early and mid-20th Century, he is best known for his long association with the Philadelphia Orchestra and for appearing in the film "Fantasia".  He was especially noted for his free-hand conducting style that spurned the traditional baton and for obtaining a characteristically sumptuous sound from the orchestras he directed.
  Title: Symphony No. 1 (Mahler)
  Passage: The Symphony No. 1 in D major by Gustav Mahler was mainly composed between late 1887 and March 1888, though it incorporates music Mahler had composed for previous works.  It was composed while Mahler was second conductor at the Leipzig Opera, Germany.  Although in his letters Mahler almost always referred to the work as a symphony, the first two performances described it as a symphonic poem or tone poem.  The work was premièred at the Vigadó Concert Hall, Budapest, in 1889, but was not well received.  Mahler made some major revisions for the second performance, given at Hamburg in October 1893; further alterations were made in the years prior to the first publication, in late 1898.  Some modern performances and recordings give the work the title "Titan", despite the fact that Mahler only used this label for two early performances, and never after the work had reached its definitive four-movement form in 1896.
  Title: Symphony No. 8 (Mahler)
  Passage: 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 popular success when he conducted the Munich Philharmonic in its first performance, in Munich, on 12 September 1910.
  Title: Alexis Soriano
  Passage: Alexis Soriano is a Spanish-Lithuanian orchestral conductor and composer.  A pupil of Ilya Musin, and later of Valery Gergiev, he has been Principal Associate Conductor of The Hermitage Orchestra for ten years and is Artistic Director of the "Spanish Evenings Festival" in Saint Petersburg.  On the invitation of Gergiev, he made his debut at the Mariinsky Theater, conducting Mozart's "The Marriage of Figaro".  Since 2009 he has been Artistic Director and principal conductor of the chamber opera company, "Opera Incognita" and conducted the company's first fully staged opera, "The letters of Van Gogh" by Grigory Frid, at the Hermitage Theatre.  The production was nominated for the Golden Mask Award.  His repertoire also includes contemporary and rarely performed music, especially Spanish.  He was chief conductor of INSO Lviv Symphony Orchestra between 2010 and 2012.  He has conducted the first recording of José Lidón's 1792 opera, "Glaura y Cariolano".  Since 2012 he has been Artistic Director of New York Opera Society.  In 2014 he was elected as one of the "100 Spaniards" which excelled abroad in their own discipline.  Among the orchestras he has conducted are those of the Mariinsky Theatre, Teatro Colón, and the Teatro Real in Madrid as well as the Lithuanian National Orchestra, Saint Petersburg Symphony, Prague Symphony, English Chamber Orchestra, and Taipei Symphony.
  Title: Mahler Symphony No. 8 discography
  Passage: The first complete recording of Gustav Mahler's Eighth Symphony was made on 9 April 1950, with Leopold Stokowski conducting the New York Philharmonic and combined New York choirs.  The recording was of a live performance at the Carnegie Hall.  Nearly two years earlier the Hungarian-born conductor Eugene Ormandy had recorded the "Veni Creator Spiritus" movement, with the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra in a performance at the Hollywood Bowl in July 1948.  Since Stokowski's version at least 70 recordings of the symphony have been made, by many of the world's leading orchestras and singers, mostly during live performances.  This number includes recordings which were for private or limited distribution and were not issued under commercial record labels.
citations: Leopold Stokowski Mahler Symphony No. 8 discography