A Question About Mahler Symphony #10

[haydnguy]

I have heard bits and pieces about Mahler's 10th symphony but I haven't ever gotten the complete picture.

As I understand it, he never finished the symphony and I think I read somewhere that some guy named Cooke finished it or wrote a version of it. Could someone fill in the blanks as to what Cooke did, and is this the version we normally hear today?? Thanks......

[Chi_town/Philly]

Deryck Cooke's first effort was the "performing version," which premiered in 1960. [a.k.a.: Cooke I].

Cooke felt that his initial try could be improved upon, so with the help of Colin & David Matthews, he finished up the "finally revised perfoming version" (i.e.: Cooke II) <I guess this time, he really meant it>, which was first played in 1972. It is the most common version heard today.

The American Remo Mazzetti finished a complete Mahler 10 in 1985, and it was performed in full for the first time in 1989. He, too, had second thoughts on his opening attempt, and revised again in the late 90s, with his newer work first airing in 1999. Leonard Slatkin has championed the piece, and Jesus López-Cobos has a widely disseminated disc for this rendition (Telarc). It is probably the next most commonly heard version.

Joe Wheeler of England finished a version sometime in the 50s, and completists can find recordings of it, with some effort.

Versions by Clinton Carpenter (U.S.A.) and Hans Wollschlägger (Germany) currently languish in obscurity...

[Balthazar]

According to Cooke, only the opening movement and the first scherzo were drafted in orchestral score by the time Mahler died. The rest was in various stages of completion, but there was at least a reliable short score and dozens of pages of sketches for the ones that Mahler didn't manage to orchestrate.

It's wrong to consider any of the working orchestral scores Chi lists above as "Mahler's Tenth." They're just speculative attempts to orchestrate Mahler's drafts for the symphony.

However, let's be careful not to dismiss the attempts as doomed from the start. I'm glad to be able to hear the ideas Mahler was working on when he died, and wonder what the work would have sounded like if he had survived to complete it.

[audiophilia]

I remember playing the Cooke version at Southwark Cathedral in 1978 (World Cup final day - missed!). It made a hell of an impression on me considering the last three mvts are Cooke/Mahler rather than Mahler/Cooke. The last movement is really sublime, especially if you play the flute.

My conducting teacher's teacher, Berthold Goldschmidt also did a version, IIRC.