Gustav Mahler
Symphony No 10 Completed by Joe Wheeler (1966)
Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra
Conducted by Robert Olsen
Recorded in Grzegorz Fitelberg Concert Hall, Katowice, Poland
from 29 May to 3 June 2000
28 NAXOS 8.554811
Mahler 's 10th and Bruckner's 9th symphonies must stand as the
greatest incomplete works of the late romantic symphonic repertoire,
but whereas Bruckner's last symphony is nowadays usually performed
without any finale (ignoring the composer's own suggestion to use his
blazing Te Deum as a choral culmination) the history of reconstructions
of Mahler's great final symphony has been much more complex. There have
been in fact at least five attempts to create a performing edition
which includes the three movements the composer left incomplete at the
time of his death. Of these completions time has smiled favourably on
that by Deryck Cooke which has become the most usually performed
version. Indeed, this recording of the Joe Wheeler version, begun in
1952 and therefore one of the oldest completions, is recorded here for
the first time, and had never received a complete performance
previously. Wheeler (1927-1977 ) was an English amateur brass player who
spent most of his working life as a civil servant. The history of the
various attempts at reconstruction is fascinating and is outlined in
detail in a well written booklet note. Among other considerations was
the problem that Alma Mahler, the composer's widow, banned attempts to
complete the symphony (much in the way the Elgar family stood in the
way of Anthony Paine 's masterful elaboration of the sketches for
Elgar's 3rd symphony) only relenting when she finally heard the Cooke
version performed and pronounced it to be " Wunderbar!".
Performance of the Wheeler version has not been made easier
by its still being unpublished and existing in copies that have been
photocopied so many times as to be almost as hard to decipher as
Mahler's own sketches. Additionally, Wheeler wrote on a quality of
paper that has, over the course of the years allowed areas of the ink to
become badly run, making interpretation all the more difficult. As a
result of all this , there is another hand to be discerned in this
score, that of Robert Olson, who edited Wheeler version of the
completion and conducts the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra in
this recording. As well as the background notes to the composition , the
reconstruction, and Alma Mahler's ban, Robert Olson contributes an
enlightening article to the booklet outlining the requirements for the
editor. The result may sound like it is going to be composition by
committee" but the reality is far from that.
Wheeler 's completion is probably closer in spirit and
orchestration to the image that Mahler had in mind than any of the
other versions. The orchestration is notably leaner than in Cooke's
completion, but is arguably in line with the sparser textures that the
composer favoured from about 1907 onwards. At this time, Mahler had sold
his villa in Maiernigg and spent his summers in rooms in a villa at
Toblach in the Austrian Tyrol (now Dobbiaco, in Italy). While composing
with tremendous fluency , he was at the same time shattered by the
discovery of Alma's affair with the architect Walter Gropius, and the
various outbursts and mutterings scribbled in the margins of the
autograph of Mahler's score testify to the extent to which this played
on his mind during the composition of this work.
The performance here recorded shows Robert Olson's standing
as a Mahlerian interpreter well. Based in Kansas, Olson is probably one
of the foremost Mahlerians working in America, and has is artistic
director and conductor of the Colorado MahlerFest. In the Polish
National Radio Symphony Orchestra he finds a group of partners steeped
in the Central European traditions of orchestral playing and it is in
the shaping of the prodigiously long lines in the strings that they
show their expertise at its finest. The performance is excellent
throughout and really makes a convincing argument for the Wheeler
completion of this great work. Certainly, anybody familiar with the more
usual Cooke version will notice the difference, but there is something
essentially Mahlerian in every bar of this score that makes the work
feel totally convincing as a work of that master. That its gestation
should have been so look only serves to heighten the impact of this
monumental work. Overall it is a fascinating document of musicological
archaeology brought to fruition in a radiant performance of great music.
Well worth -while and credit must be due to Naxos for bringing this work
to a wider audience than has been possible for the last
half-century.
Peter Wells 2003
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