"deryck Cooke"

Gustav Mahler - Symphony 10 (complete version by Deryck Cooke)
Berliner Philharmoniker / Simon Rattle
EAC+LOG+CUE | FLAC: 323 MB | Full Artwork: 59 MB | 5% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: EMI # 7243 5 56972 2 6 | Country/Year: Europe 2000
Genre: Classical | Style: Late Romantic, Contemporary

The Symphony No. 10 by Gustav Mahler was written in the summer of 1910, and was his final composition. At the time of Mahler's death the composition was substantially complete in the form of a continuous draft; but not being fully elaborated at every point, and mostly not orchestrated, it was not performable in that state. Only the first movement is regarded as reasonably complete and performable as Mahler intended. Perhaps as a reflection of the inner turmoil he was dealing with at the time (Mahler knew he had a failing heart and his wife had committed infidelity), the 10th Symphony is arguably his most musically dissonant work…

Gustav Mahler - Symphony No.10 ed. Cooke (BBC National Orchestra of Wales - Mark Wigglesworth)
Classical | EAC | FLAC, IMG+CUE, LOG | Covers | 1CD, 313 MB
Label: BBC Music | Catalog Number: Volume II Number 12 | TT: 74'23''

This is unlike Rattle, or Harding; it is a remarkably Austro-German-Czech-styled performance, with more of a Central European than a Western European character to it, and with the big structural line dominant over everything. Imagine the Vaclav Neumann recording of the lone First Movement, and you know generally how that movement is played here (which is terrific); and Wigglesworth carries that approach consistently to the end of this, Mahler's most otherwordly, and perhaps greatest, symphony. The difference from Neumann (who was a very great Mahler conductor on the late symphonies 6-10, and great on the ones before) is that Wigglesworth's approach is a bit more on the dramatic side, and is a bit less on the sensuous side. However, if you like Neumann in the late Mahler symphonies (and I think he does a better job with them than anyone else, actually), you'll love this performance. It is chilling. (Not cold – chilling, like scary.)
Eric Zuesse

As we all know, Gustav Mahler didn't actually compose a 10th symphony, or if he did, it was "Das Lied von der Erde," which he didn't call his 10th symphony because he was superstitious enough to believe that since Beethoven died before he could write a 10th, so might Mahler. He turned out to be right. Of a "10th" symphony, he wrote only the first movement more or less completely; the second is half done; the third is mostly unorchestrated; and the last two are well structured but remain almost entirely unorchestrated.

• 55 CD original jacket, original couplings collection celebrating Maestro Riccardo Chailly’s 40 years on Decca
• Includes complete cycles of Beethoven, Brahms (x2), Schumann (x2), Bruckner and Mahler
• Featuring the orchestras with whom Chailly has been most closely associated: the Gewandhausorchester, the Royal Concertgebouw, and the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin

Chailly's Mahler Tenth has certainly withstood the test of time since its original release in 1988. Simon Rattle's new Berlin recording offers perhaps a more highly inflected, characterful performance, but Chailly has both the better playing and sound, and this pays particular dividends in the dark, rich string textures of the opening and closing movements. Both Rattle and Chailly use Deryck Cooke's revised performing version (Chailly sticks to it more literally than does Rattle), and this remains the edition of choice. Recent releases of other completion attempts, including a pretty ghastly one by Remo Mazzetti, only confirm the excellence of Cooke's work.