# Mahler's Farewell



## tahnak (Jan 19, 2009)

Mahler's Tenth Symphony completed by Deryck Cooke has seen many performances. I have heard many. The third is Ormandy with the Philadelphia Orchestra. Second is Wyn Morris with the New Philharmonia Orchestra and the one that has towered above all is the one that I have heard recently: Sir Simon Rattle with the Berliner Philharmoniker. The conductors who do not touch the symphony except the opening Adagio are missing out on the content and the honest hard work done by Cooke. The piano edit as well as the markings have guided him to unmistakable Mahler etchings. In Cooke's word, "Nothing that Mahler wrote even in its unelaborated state could be insignificant". The two inner scherzos and the Purgatorio is heavenly.

Right from the opening Adagio declaration to the superlatively emotional and elaborate strains of the beautiful finale, it is a magnificent rendition by the Berliners and this live recording of 1999 deserves the Gramophone Award and the Grammy it picked up in 2000.

Even Gustav would have cried if he had heard this. The cellos and the double basses in the penultimate bars before the horn takes away the last breath signify the passing away of the soul as it is pulled from the soles of our feet. Kudos to Cooke (who also was snatched away from us in his fifty-seventh year as Mahler's fiftieth) and Rattle for rattling the world by this super charged performance. It is crisp, clear, concise and penetrating.


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## World Violist (May 31, 2007)

I haven't heard Rattle's BPO performance in a while now (actually, that was the very first Mahler CD I ever bought! It's at my dad's place now, though). Meanwhile, I do have James Levine's unjustly maligned recording with the Philadelphia Orchestra. What the critics say about it is utterly ridiculous: that the first movement is too slow. In fact, Rattle's BPO recording is about a full minute slower in the adagio, not to mention that the only thing really "slow" about Levine's adagio is the monstrous climax; he and his orchestra make it into a truly wrenching moment.

No, what I really love about the Levine performance is the fifth and final movement. It is simply glorious (and what pushed this recording into 2-CD territory; it's about 28 minutes as opposed to the more normal 24-25). The slow tempo, as so often with Levine's Mahler, only intensifies the emotion as the sensitivity to the long line of the phrases form an unbelievable tension. It doesn't reek of self-pity, either; it's just incredibly moving. And at the end, what is very interesting is how the violins execute the 2-and-a-half octave glissando; it's less like a slow intake of breath than a sharp gasp, and then the brass slam into their last chord, timed to absolute perfection.

I don't know how well Rattle could do against Levine in this regard. Combined with RCA's glorious, full sound and the genuine feel of a live performance, I consider Levine to be about as close to perfection as can be gotten in this symphony.


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## Aramis (Mar 1, 2009)

I have two performances, one by Rattle and another one by his famous student which name I can't recall and I'm too lazy to check it. 

The symphony is kikolakopaia, but I must say I'm not sure if it should really be considered Mahler's farewell. Indeed, the last part of the symphony is beautofully fading away and it's very tempting to assignt some symbolic meaning to it, but at the other hand there are a lot of doubts about how much of this symphony is really a Mahler work. 

I was very disappointed and confused when I found out that what we hear on these recordings did not come entirely from his hand.


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## Delicious Manager (Jul 16, 2008)

I never got along with Ormandy's version at all - the performance just seems to get through the music without any real understanding of what's behind the notes. Wyn Morris's recording is worth hearing, as is Rattle's 1982 recording with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra on EMI (I was there at the sessions and the live concert performances before the recording - incredible). Of course, the Berlin Phil version has since eclipsed this recording, but look-out the Bournemouth one if you can.

Of course, there have been several other realisations of Mahler's 10th apart from Deryck Cooke's. It is useful to listen to Joe Wheeler's far more pared-down realisation on Naxos and also Rudolf Barshai's version on Brilliant Classics (some argue the most successful realisation).


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## tahnak (Jan 19, 2009)

World Violist said:


> I don't know how well Rattle could do against Levine in this regard. Combined with RCA's glorious, full sound and the genuine feel of a live performance, I consider Levine to be about as close to perfection as can be gotten in this symphony.


I will make a note of this Levine performance and give it an ear.


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## drth15 (Dec 12, 2007)

*M 10*

The Levine is a beautiful and convincing performance. I was luck to find it about 10 years ago, since only Levine's 4th and 5th are currently in print. Hoping RCA's next 'owner' will at least issue this 10th, as well as the great Chicago 3rd and 7th.


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## World Violist (May 31, 2007)

drth15 said:


> The Levine is a beautiful and convincing performance. I was luck to find it about 10 years ago, since only Levine's 4th and 5th are currently in print. Hoping RCA's next 'owner' will at least issue this 10th, as well as the great Chicago 3rd and 7th.


That would be the least for me... I'd hope all the recordings to be released, and hopefully Levine's performance of the 2nd with the BSO will be released and hopefully they'll do the 8th next season... hey, I can dream right?

Oh, and DG needs to reissue the Levine/Jerusalem/Norman/BPO Das Lied von der Erde...


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## christmashtn (Aug 29, 2009)

*Kurt Sanderling's 10th!*

Kurt Sanderling's performance of Cooke II (with some alterations by Sanderling himself) is nearly always overlooked because of its limited distribution outside of Europe. This gets my vote as the most staggering and emotional performance ever recorded. It is currently available from amazon.co.uk on the Berlin Classics label. The final ten minutes of the finale can be heard on youtube. Type in: maybe the most beautiful music ever, in the youtube search engine. Also see my review on amazon.co.uk


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## christmashtn (Aug 29, 2009)

The Levine was re-issued in Japan a couple of years back and might still be available from amazon.co.jp You should really check out Kurt Sanderling's 10th as well from amazon.co.uk If Bernstein had ever conducted the Cooke score, I would imagine it would sound very much like Sanderling's.


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## Chi_townPhilly (Apr 21, 2007)

tahnak said:


> ...the one that has towered above all is the one that I have heard recently: Sir Simon Rattle with the Berliner Philharmoniker.


This is actually one of the more recent acquisitions in my collection. Before this, I had Jean Martinon and his performance of Cooke I with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and Jesús López-Cobos & Cincinnati in the Remo Mazzetti completion.

Never heard the Joe Wheeler version.


tahnak said:


> In Cooke's word, "Nothing that Mahler wrote even in its unelaborated state could be insignificant".


_Great_ quote!


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## Keikobad (Jul 9, 2010)

"....as is Rattle's 1982 recording with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra on EMI........ Of course, the Berlin Phil version has since eclipsed this recording, but look-out the Bournemouth one if you can." - Delicious Manager (08-17-10)

Delicious Manager, I must pleasantly disagree with you on this. Yes, the Berlin Phil recording may appear more polished, and its audio superior, but there was something about that initial Bournemouth Symphony recording which, to my mind, made it much superior. There was a gritty quality to the string sound which imparted (it seemed to me) an appropriate sense of struggle, difficulty, of pain and loss. So, IF the BPO recording has eclipsed the earlier one for you (and many others, too, by the way), there are some of us who have set the Bournemouth recording on a somewhat higher, though admittedly imperfect, pedestal.


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

Robert Olsen's Wheeler version (on Naxos) and Rudolf Barshai's own reconstruction (on different labels but worth getting the Brilliant Classics double-disc set as there's also a fine version of the 5th) are worth investigating for those who'd want to compare with the Cooke version(s).


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## handlebar (Mar 19, 2009)

While I prefer Rattle's recording, I just cannot get too into the fully orchestrated Cook or Wheeler versions. I do admit I like the partially completed adagio on it's own. I'm more of a completest and like my compositions to be from the pen of the composer. Hence my preference for the Bruckner 9th the way it is.

Just the way I'am.

Jim


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## Delicious Manager (Jul 16, 2008)

Keikobad said:


> "So, IF the BPO recording has eclipsed the earlier one for you (and many others, too, by the way), there are some of us who have set the Bournemouth recording on a somewhat higher, though admittedly imperfect, pedestal.


Actually, you are not disagreeing with me, but that's my fault for making you think you were. When I suggested that Rattle's Bournemouth recording had been 'eclipsed' by the Berlin one, I only meant in the eyes of critics, reviewers and (perhaps) the general music-loving public. I was actually involved in the 1982 Bournemouth recordings and so it will always remain on a high pedestal for me too.

So, we agree!


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