Leeds Festival Chorus will be joined by Manchester’s Hallé Choir, York Minster Choir’s boys and girls and the York Guildhall Orchestra for tomorrow’s performance of Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No 8 at York Minster.

This massive and moving work is known as the “Symphony of a Thousand” on account of the enormous number of voices and instrumentalists required.

Just over a century ago, Mahler himself conducted the symphony as the last of his works to be premiered in his lifetime; this weekend, the conductor will be Guildhall Orchestra musical director Simon Wright.

Instead of the usual structure of a symphony, Mahler splits his Eighth into two: Part One is inspired by a hymn dating from the ninth century – Veni Creator Spiritus – and Part Two is based on the final scene of Goethe’s Faust. The idea that permeates both parts is redemption through the power of love.

Mahler, who was in an uncharacteristically optimistic frame of mind, saw the symphony as an expression of confidence in the eternal human spirit. He thought it was the grandest work he had ever done, a completely choral symphony with all his previous ones leading up to this “great joy-bringer”.

“Try to imagine the whole universe beginning to ring and resound,” he urged his audiences. “There are no longer human voices, but planets and suns revolving.”

Admirers of composer John Williams, who was responsible for the beautiful soundtrack to Schindler’s List, will recognise his homage to Mahler: the opening bar of the Symphony of a Thousand is practically identical to the main melody from Steven Spielberg’s 1993 film, Infirma Nostri Corporis, played by the violas.

Tomorrow’s 7.30pm concert reunites the Leeds Festival Chorus with the Hallé Choir, maintaining a link forged in recent years. Soloists will be Tollerton soprano Lynne Dawson, fellow sopranos Verity Parker and Katherine Broderick, altos Madeleine Shaw and Catherine Wyn Rogers, tenor Paul Nilon and bass Julian Close.

Tickets are available at £35, £25 or £15, £8 for students, on 0844 939 0015 or from chorus and orchestra members. A donation from the concert proceeds will go to the North Yorkshire Music Therapy Centre.

* In acknowledgement of Liszt’s bicentenary, York Late Music is to commission five York-based composers to write a short, three-minute piano piece.

The five pieces will form the Liszt Project, in homage to Liszt’s radical piano legacy, and will be performed by Ian Pace on Saturday, August 6 as part of the 2011 Late Music Concert Series.

“We’re therefore sending out a call to composers to send us a proposal and short CV,” says concert administrator, Steve Crowther, who can be contacted by email via steve@latemusic.org