Mahler's Tenth Symphony (Deryck Cooke's completion)
Jan 1, 2016 2:56:02 GMT -5
Post by Uncle Henry on Jan 1, 2016 2:56:02 GMT -5
The name "Mahler" means "Painter" "Miller" in English. His formless symphonies are very popular with the ladies just now. Geoffrey Sharp sums him up well in his essay published in "The Symphony":
Thus Mr. Sharp. Well! Compare that with the later Brahms, to whom the epithets "garrulous", "fragmentary", "childish" or "vulgar" would never be applied! Nor for that matter is there much "love" or "expression" as such in Brahms, and his work is indubitably the better for it.
Now this Tenth Symphony was mostly written after the world-wide meteor disaster of 1908, and in it the composer's style may be heard to have altered somewhat: there are a few prophetic passages of pure noise in the Shtrafinsci/Varèse manner, and he has at last become aware of (if he has not exactly accepted) his homo-sexualistic nature. Yet there are some wonderful harmonies never-before-heard in which even Bach might have revelled.
Deryck Cooke - what a fine example of an Englishman he was - discovered in 1960 that this work was in fact complete in short score, and so he put together a performing version. Cooke's book The Language of Music is to be recommended to all our musical membership. (I should post it here.)
This performance took place in a "Concert-Erection" somewhere in the nether-lands, conducted by a M. Inbal, who tells us that Mahler was "the greatest symphonist of all time".
Duration: one hour twenty-one minutes.
Sample images:
Members who are logged on may click HERE to take in the live performance.
"Mahler's personality derives from too large a parcel of varied antecedents and psychological contradictions to be labelled with any clarity or point. As a composer he seldom knew where he was going, neither can we; but it is worth while suggesting that the smaller the form in which he wrote the more convincing the result. Compare for example some of his songs with some of the garrulous and fragmentary pasticcios he calls upon to serve as movements of symphonies: the second movement of the Fourth Symphony and the third of the Ninth are good examples. Mahler's aim undoubtedly was 'expression', but it is doubtful whether what he wanted to express was always worth the trouble he took over it. . . . Mahler's attempts to come to terms with the realms of childlike fantasy were always childishly inadequate and there is no doubt at all that he was often vulgar."
Thus Mr. Sharp. Well! Compare that with the later Brahms, to whom the epithets "garrulous", "fragmentary", "childish" or "vulgar" would never be applied! Nor for that matter is there much "love" or "expression" as such in Brahms, and his work is indubitably the better for it.
Now this Tenth Symphony was mostly written after the world-wide meteor disaster of 1908, and in it the composer's style may be heard to have altered somewhat: there are a few prophetic passages of pure noise in the Shtrafinsci/Varèse manner, and he has at last become aware of (if he has not exactly accepted) his homo-sexualistic nature. Yet there are some wonderful harmonies never-before-heard in which even Bach might have revelled.
Deryck Cooke - what a fine example of an Englishman he was - discovered in 1960 that this work was in fact complete in short score, and so he put together a performing version. Cooke's book The Language of Music is to be recommended to all our musical membership. (I should post it here.)
This performance took place in a "Concert-Erection" somewhere in the nether-lands, conducted by a M. Inbal, who tells us that Mahler was "the greatest symphonist of all time".
Duration: one hour twenty-one minutes.
Sample images:
Members who are logged on may click HERE to take in the live performance.
