Customer Reviews

Mahler: Symphony No. 10

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

What might have been? Gustav Mahler was only fifty when he died, from heart-failure exacerbated by a throat-infection, in 1911. Under proper treatment, his life would certainly have spanned another decade, maybe two, maybe three. That would have brought him to 1941. What response would World War I have elicited from him, what response events in Germany and Austria beginning in 1933? Would he have come again to America, as Alma did? Or perhaps to Great Britain? Allowing for the best, he would assuredly have extended his canon of symphonies, completing the orchestration of the Tenth and launching thereafter into worlds unknown. Appreciative of science and technique (see Kurt Blaukopf's biography), he might well have embraced the recording studio. Electrical recording would have enabled him to make permanent documents of his own work. In fact, he died young, leaving the score of the Tenth incomplete in its orchestration. Only the opening Adagio reached performance, although Ernst Krenek, Alban Berg, Arnold Schoenberg, and even Dmitri Shostakovich considered following up Mahler's annotations for the full partitur thus rendering all five movements playable in concert. None could fulfill the challenge, leaving it to an Englishman, Deryck Cooke, to finish the job around 1960. Even then, and for some time, Mahler's widow forbade performance of the work. Hearing a tape of rehearsals, she relented, and the Tenth found its first public in London under Berthold Goldschmidt, using Cooke's version of the score, in 1964. Eugene Ormandy and Wynn Morris made early recordings. By now, the Tenth has ensconced itself immovably in the concert programs and many conductors have included it in their tours of the Mahlerian canon. Simon Rattle has recorded it twice. Listeners have had to familiarize themselves with competing fulfillments of the score - Cooke's, Carpenter's, Mazzetti's. Jésus Lopez-Cobos and Telarc bring us a new Tenth, using Mazzetti's edition, with the Cincinnati Symphony. Some ambiguities remain in the Tenth, like the tempi in the First Movement. The score says "Adagio," but Lopez-Cobos takes it rather faster, almost as "Andante non Troppo." (Hermann Scherchen, who played only the First Movement, took it this way.) Lopez-Cobos' timing (22.01 - Rattle in Berlin needs 25.11) affects the balance of the whole work, giving greater prominence to the remaining four movements, with their weird moods. This in turn dispels the tragic character with which Rattle and Chailly imbue the symphony. Dispel the tragedy? It sounds like heresy. Yet, as Cooke points out in his useful notes on the Tenth in "Gustav Mahler: An Introduction To His Music," this final work from the master conforms to his tendency by ending, not in the minor, but in the major. Furthermore, over the last movement, Mahler inscribed the words, "To live for you! To die for you! Alma!" - not a morbid sentiment. "This is not the music of death," Cooke avers, "but... of love. There was still plenty of life left in Mahler when death claimed him." And that describes Lopez-Cobos' treatment throughout, giving the apocalyptic "organ chord" of the "Adagio" (it reappears in the Finale) its appropriate and terrifying emphasis, but otherwise letting the life-affirming elements come to the fore, as in the first of the two Scherzi. Telarc has produced a number of impressive Mahler discs, including two Ninths, one with Lopez-Cobos and the other with Benjamin Zander, both impressive. So too is this Tenth impressive, not for taxing us with Angst but for illuminating the moments of hope and reconciliation in this important modern score. Telarc's engineers create a fine, translucent recording, and the Cincinnatians play superbly.

The plethora of Mahler Tenths by now available proves how hard it is to live with the unfulfilled promise of yet another work of genius. Though many conductors and listeners have qualms about tampering with Mahler's sketches, completing Mahler's tenth has branched into a veritable musicological industry. Not only are there several completed versions, there are even several versions of these completions! All these possible permutations allowed by Mahler's outlines seem to me the ultimate tribute to his unique and versatile genius; at the same time they prove conclusively that nobody but he could truly finish the work.
The Cooke edition, not a completion but a 'realization', remains of course paramount. The austerity resulting from its spare textures lend it an appropriately otherworldly, shadowy atmosphere missing in other editions: truly music from beyond the grave. But then again, it is not what Mahler intended to be played. So for all of us who want to hear an echo of an inkling of a suggestion of a conjecture of what it might just possibly have sounded like, maybe, had Mahler indeed lived to finish it, bring in the Carpenters, Wheelers and Mazzetti's.
On this Telarc disc the Cincinnati orchestra under Lopez-Cobos has recorded the second edition of Mazzetti's version. It is definitely an improvement over his earlier attempt, which was grossly over-orchestrated and sounded curiously like a concerto for bass drum. In this version on the other hand the textures have a transparency reminiscent of chamber music, and the work doesn't sound nearly as dark and grim as we're used to - at times I was reminded more of the Fourth symphony than of the Ninth. Actually there are moments where I felt Mazzetti had been pruning his work a little too enthusiastically - the cymbal crash crowning the first Scherzo surely would have deserved to stay, wouldn't it?
Tempo's are fairly brisk, taking away some of the mystery. In general it seems to be not only the edition, but also the performance that lends a coziness to the music that is often surprising and refreshing, though not always apt: the spine-chillingly sinister 'danse macabre' at the end of Scherzo II sounds just too matter-of-fact and flies by in a whiff. On the other hand, the tender resolution of the finale is realized to its full potential, sounding as touching as ever. The absurd drum-roll that destroyed the final ecstatic leap in the earlier edition was wisely deleted in favor of an aptly sonorous chord from the lower brass.
The recording itself is rather dry, giving little sense of acoustic space around the players. At times, especially in fortes involving trumpets, it grows fierce. It is also very close-up and unforgiving, thus unfortunately revealing that the Cincinnati Orchestra is, maybe, not quite a top drawer group. The balance is generally quite good, though the editors occasionally indulge in magnifying solo instruments: the principal cello especially is blown up to giant size. Secondary voices are sometimes too prominent, as if deliberately showing off Mazzetti's clever inventions. In both scherzo's this effect sometimes clouds the sense of musical direction, resulting in a somewhat fragmented, even collage-like sound picture. I could not make out if this is also an editing effect, or was intended by the conductor.
Nevertheless this is a very interesting and engrossing release, that no Mahler fan should miss. Irrespective of editions it sheds a new light on the Tenth, showing it as a work preoccupied with life, not death.

This new version of Mahler's 10th has the advantage of being cool and cerebral enough that you can listen to it more often and cozy up to it.

I love the original Cooke version by Ormandy but the fact is, its one of the most emotionally wrenching pieces of music I have ever heard to the point I am rarely up to it. Cooke may have had to invent more than current musicologists would permit, but you know its close to dead-on when you get the full Mahlerian wallup. The genesis of this piece in Mahler's late marital crisis is of course well known and I have little doubt in my bones Cooke is as close as you can get to an actual Mahler seance.

But then, as we Mahler fans know and rarely admit except to each other, Mahler can at times be just too much. Which is why we love him after all. But the 10th can push the most devoted afficionado to the wall. So its good to have this almost academic alternative -- and in about as clean and tonally sensitive a recording as you could hope. The Bavarian folk melodies are just plain wonderful. And of course there's plenty of heaviness and angst left to go around -- it can hardly be erased. Just that if you pop this one into your car stereo, you may actually reach your destination refreshed and enlightened.

And of course you can always still pull the Ormandy/Cooke out of the closet at 2 a.m. in a thunderstorm . . . .

Subsequent to the release of Leonard Slatkin's recording Mazzetti's version of the Mahler 10th, Mazzetti decided to withdraw the score. Mazzetti subsequently went back to work to produce a new version, which Maestro López-Cobos premiered and has since recorded for Telarc, and that is the disk under consideration here.
In reviewing the Rattle (Cooke version) recording, I mentioned that the first movement (which Mahler completed in its entirety, meaning that it is the same in all versions) seemed less shattering in its impact under Rattle's baton than it had under Solti's. This movement also seems a bit soft under the baton of López-Cobos. Soft, yes, but still, quite moving.

Under Solti, however, it was simply overwhelming, and I am still looking for a recording with that kind of emotional wallop, which neither Rattle nor Lopez-Cobos deliver, alas. In the other movements (which, remember, Solti did not record), López-Cobos certainly seems to make the music come to life.

The Rattle and the Lopez-Cobos are both excellent recordings, and choosing between them is just about impossible. I suppose I am already tipping my hand regarding a recommendation, but allow me first to discuss these two recordings for a few paragraphs more.

In the first movement, which was completed by Mahler, three differences between these two recordings make themselves noticed right away. First, the Telarc CD is mastered at a slightly but noticeably higher level than the EMI, making sonic comparisons somewhat tricky. That said, I will express a slight preference for the sonics of the Telarc release, which strike me as just that last bit more detailed than the EMI. But the EMI is very good, too. In some ways, in fact, the EMI is preferable, in that it presents a slightly more "live" sonic account; it was recorded in a live performance, and has a more "blended" sound.

The second thing I noticed is that the Telarc recording allows you to hear a bit deeper into the score, with the various sections of the orchestra presented in great clarity. Musically, the threads of the score are easier to follow in the Telarc account, and primarily for that reason I slightly prefer the Telarc sonics.

The third thing I noticed right away is that Rattle takes things more slowly than López-Cobos in this first movement. Neither conductor, however, tries to push things over the top in the big massed orchestral passages; as I have pointed out previously, I would prefer more dynamism.

In the second movement, Rattle's is now the speedier account, but perhaps because of the sound quality, and because of the different versions of the score, the López-Cobos reading seems more energetic and colorful. Another plus for the Telarc CD in this movement is its better foundation of bass.

My notes for the next two movements say pretty well the same thing as they did for the second movement, as the Telarc disk just seems to have more color and energy, and the music just seems more interesting when presented this way.

Surprisingly, when we get to the finale, one of the clear differences between the two recordings is that classic Telarc bass drum sound -- as reproduced on the EMI recording. Talk about role reversal! The bass drum sound on the EMI is bigger, deeper, and fuller than on the Telarc. Rattle apparently wanted his drum to sound dramatic, while López-Cobos went for a more damped sound. But there are more differences in the finale that just the sound of the bass drum. Rattle seems to emphasize the drama of the music by making the quiet parts very quiet, while López-Cobos seems to present a more "objective" view of the score. This was the only movement where I clearly preferred Rattle's performance. At the same time, I preferred the Mazzetti orchestration to the Cooke. If only Rattle would record the Mazzetti version, and let Telarc record it!

But that's not going to happen. So how do we choose between these two fine releases? For the person who has never heard the Mahler Tenth, I would recommend the Rattle version on EMI. It is a fantastic account, full of emotion, that presents a remarkably well-recorded version of a passionate live performance of Mahler. For the person who is already somewhat familiar with this symphony from other recordings, I would recommend the López-Cobos version on Telarc, because the Mazzetti scoring is well worth hearing, the performance is excellent, and the Telarc sound lets you hear every little detail of the score in clean, natural sound. And yes, for the real Mahler fanatic, it should go without saying that both of these disks are must-haves.

The Mahler 10th has always been dubious due to the fact others have tried to complete a great composers work that was left unfinished at the time of his death. The question is and always was, should the attempt have been made? In my own opinion, the Deryck Cooke version was too ambitious in the way of scoring and orchestration. Others have been attempted. I have not heard those.

An earlier effort by Remo Mazetti was recorded with Leonard Slatkin conducting, and I was not really a fan of that version either. Would I try again? Yes, and so it was more the surprise that the version that won me over, was again, a later version by Remo Mazetti, updated from his own earlier version.

Mazetti has gotten it right this time, or as close I think that we can imagine that we will ever get to hearing the Mahler 10th as the composer might have finished it himself. This version is a treasure, emotionally charged, and given a wonderful performance.

Some may say that the Mahler 9th was a look at death, and something of a requiem, and that may be true. But if that was the case with the 9th, than the Mahler 10th was very looking forward. Much of the work was finished by Mahler himself, and some of the music very bright, often bittersweet and full of angst and even hope at times.

I think that Mazetti has given us a very intelligent, loving and well thought out look at what might have been.

There isn't much one can say about exquisite playing. This CD rounds out my Mahler collection and I bought this on recommendation from a friend of mine. When people think of the worlds best orchestras many people forget about Cincinnati, they shouldn't. This is a great CD and if you are a Mahler fan, this is the one to buy.

A magnificent recording by one of the world's great orchestras. I only wish I had a SACD player to hear it in true DSD. A truly remarkable work of art.