Wednesday, January 28, 2009

The Legendary Mahler 10th Performance That Started All The Fights and Nonsense


BBC's Illustrated Introduction to the Tenth Symphony
 with Deryck Cooke playing and speaking

Gustav Mahler 
Symphony No. 10
fragments and completions

Deryck Cooke, piano and lecture
Berthold Goldschmidt, conductor
Philharmonia Orchestra

December 19, 1960 broadcast




This is simply invaluable, essential Mahler stuff. If you're a fan, or just interested, then hear this through at least once before your own final hammer strokes resound... 


"...Deryck Cooke began work on his score in 1959 in connection
with the impending Mahler centenary, and on 19 December 1960,
Berthold Goldschmidt, who had assisted Cooke, conducted a partial
performance with the Philharmonia Orchestra in London. This was a
lecture-demonstration for radio, but the objections of Mahler's widow,
Alma Mahler Werfel, to any sort of "completion" had to be overcome
before there could be a full performance..."

Excerpt from Michael Steinberg's "Symphony no.10 by Gustav Mahler",
found at
www.mahlerarchives.net/archives/steinberg.pdf

Thanks to Psanquin for this rarity.


12 comments:

Guillermo said...

http://www.mediafire.com/?wwngnk3wwz2

maready said...

Thanks so much for this ... I had no idea it existed in audio form, or that it included a performance of the symphony in addition to Cooke's talk. Was this ever released? (it sounds like the source is vinyl). For years I have boycotted the 10th, except of course for the incredible Adagio. I downloaded it to hear Cooke's justification for his completion and wound up hearing the darn thing! Still not sure of the validity or ethics (I feel the same way about Bruckner's ninth and, to lesser extent, "Lulu"), but I guess I'll rip the shrink-wrap off the Sanderling and Gielen recordings and give 'em a go. Thanks again; also it's about time I thanked you for, among others, the Kurtag, that great Harnoncourt LVB 5th and especially the Paul Lewis. I haven't understood the fuss about him, finding the studio LVB dull, dull, dull, but live he is red-hot! (There's a terrific Schubert D894 radio broadcast out there worth checking out as well.)

Guillermo said...

Thank you, maready! Thank you. Im grinning like a chestshire cat!

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the gift . .

Downloading now !!

Anonymous said...

Thank you very much for this broadcast. I'm surprised it hasn't been officially reissued by BBC Legends. Thanks again.

Anonymous said...

Fascinating - thank you so much for sharing it!

Anonymous said...

Guilermo,
Thanks for making the Cooke notes - and Golschmann performance available. Re: the performance - maybe it's just the improved sound, but I find the commercial release with Morris, Barshai, Litton more to my liking.

Guillermo said...

You know, I have a soft spot for thew Wheeler completion on Naxos, wth Olson. I think the purgatorio movement does evilly well there, but there are O SOOOOOOOO manu adagios to pick from maybe the recent Alsop broadcast (which I may have to make available, now!)

crab9 said...

Many thanks. Look forward to hearing the man talk.

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