With Mahler having held two prominent New York conductorships during the writing of his Eighth Symphony, many listeners at the piece’s 1910 premiere commented on its ‘American’ dimensions. It’s hardly surprising, then, that when Gustavo Dudamel was looking to make a larger statement, he turned to Mahler’s Eighth. With the most reliable attention-getter in the symphonic repertory, Dudamel sees Mahler’s New World and raises him a continent.

It’s difficult to overstate the magnitude here. Dudamel’s 2012 Mahler Project, pairing the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra with a vast array of Venezuelan choristers, culminated with more than 1400 performers – a likely Guinness record – and sets a standard for cross-cultural music-making. Few events have been as primed for the camera yet prepared with such precision for the microphone.

Dudamel’s charisma, supremely necessary in unifying his onstage forces, also proves photogenic. So too does the camera take the viewer to the most interesting vantage points. But, unlike Bernstein’s 1975 outing with the Vienna Philharmonic (the obvious DVD comparison), this has CD-quality sound. In the accompanying documentary footage, Dudamel describes the piece as a ‘choral orchestral’ piece, rather than the other way around, which perfectly marks the strengths here. Rarely has a chorus come off so perfectly balanced, even in the softest sections.

Unfortunately, balance and precision do not always translate into depth. Dudamel’s concept of Mahler has deepened noticeably since his initial Fifth with the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra but, once past the bombast of the ‘Veni, Creator Spiritus’, he still treats the music more as a series of effects than a fuller narrative. The camera that frames soprano Kiera Duffy’s climatic cameo shifts the emotional tone far more effectively than the performance itself does.

The simple logistics of assembling these forces is laudable, as are the results. But with so impressive a gathering, one wishes they would have left a bit more room on the stage for Mahler.