Post by erik on Apr 8, 2023 19:07:38 GMT -5
This week, the Classical Works Spotlight looks at the incomplete (at the time of his death) Tenth Symphony of Gustav Mahler, as completed by English musicologist Deryk Cooke.
Mahler: SYMPHONY NO. 10 IN F SHARP MAJOR (EDITED BY DERYK COOKE)
One of the great mythologies is the so-called Curse of the Ninth, as in a Ninth Symphony that becomes a composer’s last such work in that form, a myth perhaps started by the overwhelming success of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, which totally revolutionized not only the symphonic form in particular, but Western classical music in general. Gustav Mahler was in the process of trying to break that, after the massive success of his Symphony of a Thousand (#8) and the grim but passionate Ninth. During the summer of 1910, he started work on what he had hoped would be his Tenth Symphony, in the extremely unusual key of F Sharp Major. It was a time when he knew that he was in failing health, despite being only 50 years old, and also that he knew his wife Alma was having an affair. The work dominated the final ten months of his life; but even when he died in May 1911, only the elongated first movement was really in a completed state; the other five movements, which brought the symphony to a length of 77-78 minutes, had still not reached orchestral completion. Indeed, nobody actually wanted to take on the idea of really “completing” this work in any serious way (indeed, Arnold Schoenberg said that nobody could possibly even write a Tenth Symphony unless they were “close to the hereafter” (a reference to the Curse of the Ninth). During the second half of the 20th century, however, as Mahler’s symphonies started getting serious hearings in concert halls and on records, the English musicologist Deryk Cooke put together his own “edition” of this enigmatic symphony, the most dissonant of any of Mahler’s works (even if the Ninth was a more unnerving work). This edition is the interpretation of the Mahler 10th that is the most frequently recorded on records and in concerts, although its extreme length frequently means that it would normally be the only work performed in any concert that has it.
Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra/RICCARDO CHAILLY (London/Decca)
Mahler: SYMPHONY NO. 10 IN F SHARP MAJOR (EDITED BY DERYK COOKE)
One of the great mythologies is the so-called Curse of the Ninth, as in a Ninth Symphony that becomes a composer’s last such work in that form, a myth perhaps started by the overwhelming success of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, which totally revolutionized not only the symphonic form in particular, but Western classical music in general. Gustav Mahler was in the process of trying to break that, after the massive success of his Symphony of a Thousand (#8) and the grim but passionate Ninth. During the summer of 1910, he started work on what he had hoped would be his Tenth Symphony, in the extremely unusual key of F Sharp Major. It was a time when he knew that he was in failing health, despite being only 50 years old, and also that he knew his wife Alma was having an affair. The work dominated the final ten months of his life; but even when he died in May 1911, only the elongated first movement was really in a completed state; the other five movements, which brought the symphony to a length of 77-78 minutes, had still not reached orchestral completion. Indeed, nobody actually wanted to take on the idea of really “completing” this work in any serious way (indeed, Arnold Schoenberg said that nobody could possibly even write a Tenth Symphony unless they were “close to the hereafter” (a reference to the Curse of the Ninth). During the second half of the 20th century, however, as Mahler’s symphonies started getting serious hearings in concert halls and on records, the English musicologist Deryk Cooke put together his own “edition” of this enigmatic symphony, the most dissonant of any of Mahler’s works (even if the Ninth was a more unnerving work). This edition is the interpretation of the Mahler 10th that is the most frequently recorded on records and in concerts, although its extreme length frequently means that it would normally be the only work performed in any concert that has it.
Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra/RICCARDO CHAILLY (London/Decca)