Page 234 - Vinkler, Jonatan, in Jernej Weiss. ur. 2014. Musica et Artes: ob osemdesetletnici Primoža Kureta. Koper: Založba Univerze na Primorskem.
P. 234
musica et artes
On the other hand Remo Mazzetti attempted to improve on Cooke in vari-
ous ways and Rudolf Barshai made the orchestration stronger and more em-
phatic, possibly clearer in its processes. The orchestration of these versions is
effective in this sense, but the distinctive sound of Mahler’s orchestral score is
missing. It is a well known problem that one musician scoring another’s mu-
sic does not necessarily sound authentic.9 There is also a sixth version from
2001, by Nicola Samale and Giuseppe Mazzuca, which also attempts to make
improvements on the Cooke version. Listening to recordings of the differ-
ent realisations, one is left with different impressions of the work. The key to
the success of the realisations is the sound and the unique orchestration. Da-
vid Matthews who collaborated with Cooke on his version put the issue very
succinctly:
And we were also aware that the closer we got to what we believed was a Mahlerian
sound, the more likely it was that the audiences would forget that what they were lis-
tening to was only the realisation of a draft and accept it simply as Mahler’s Tenth
Symphony, which it could never quite be. Yet we all believed the risk was worth tak-
ing.10
In my own experience, while admiring the efforts of all the other mu-
sicians who have elaborated the sketch that Mahler left, the only version that
convinces one of the truth of the statement above by David Matthews is the
version that was achieved by Deryck Cooke and his collaborators.
One more difficulty stood in the way of the universal acceptance of any
of the realised versions of the sketches. The German musicological establish-
ment, represented principally by Erwin Ratz and Theodor Adorno, expressed
the opinion that no attempt should be made to present the sketches in a per-
formable way or, the more extreme situation, to “complete” the work in any
form. One consequence of this was that it was reported that Ratz persuad-
ed the German musicologist, Hans Wollschläger, who was working from
1954 to 1962 towards a realisation of the sketches, to stop his work altogeth-
9 Schönberg’s orchestration of Brahms’s Piano Quartet in G minor op.25 is very skilfully done,
but often it does not sound like Brahms. The same criticism can be applied to Edmund Rubbra’s
expert orchestration of Brahms’s Variations on a Theme of Handel, and Mahler’s own rescoring of
Schumann’s Symphony No.3 in E f lat major (The Rhenish). The exceptions to this trend are Ravel’s
masterly orchestration of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition and Anthony Payne’s realisation of
the composer’s sketches for Edward Elgar’s Symphony No.3 which sounds like authentic Elgar
throughout.
10 David Matthews in notes to CD recording of Gustav Mahler: Symphony No.10, BBC Philhar-
monic conducted by Giandrea Noseda on CHAN 10456 (Chandos Records: Colchester, UK,
2008), 9-10
232
On the other hand Remo Mazzetti attempted to improve on Cooke in vari-
ous ways and Rudolf Barshai made the orchestration stronger and more em-
phatic, possibly clearer in its processes. The orchestration of these versions is
effective in this sense, but the distinctive sound of Mahler’s orchestral score is
missing. It is a well known problem that one musician scoring another’s mu-
sic does not necessarily sound authentic.9 There is also a sixth version from
2001, by Nicola Samale and Giuseppe Mazzuca, which also attempts to make
improvements on the Cooke version. Listening to recordings of the differ-
ent realisations, one is left with different impressions of the work. The key to
the success of the realisations is the sound and the unique orchestration. Da-
vid Matthews who collaborated with Cooke on his version put the issue very
succinctly:
And we were also aware that the closer we got to what we believed was a Mahlerian
sound, the more likely it was that the audiences would forget that what they were lis-
tening to was only the realisation of a draft and accept it simply as Mahler’s Tenth
Symphony, which it could never quite be. Yet we all believed the risk was worth tak-
ing.10
In my own experience, while admiring the efforts of all the other mu-
sicians who have elaborated the sketch that Mahler left, the only version that
convinces one of the truth of the statement above by David Matthews is the
version that was achieved by Deryck Cooke and his collaborators.
One more difficulty stood in the way of the universal acceptance of any
of the realised versions of the sketches. The German musicological establish-
ment, represented principally by Erwin Ratz and Theodor Adorno, expressed
the opinion that no attempt should be made to present the sketches in a per-
formable way or, the more extreme situation, to “complete” the work in any
form. One consequence of this was that it was reported that Ratz persuad-
ed the German musicologist, Hans Wollschläger, who was working from
1954 to 1962 towards a realisation of the sketches, to stop his work altogeth-
9 Schönberg’s orchestration of Brahms’s Piano Quartet in G minor op.25 is very skilfully done,
but often it does not sound like Brahms. The same criticism can be applied to Edmund Rubbra’s
expert orchestration of Brahms’s Variations on a Theme of Handel, and Mahler’s own rescoring of
Schumann’s Symphony No.3 in E f lat major (The Rhenish). The exceptions to this trend are Ravel’s
masterly orchestration of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition and Anthony Payne’s realisation of
the composer’s sketches for Edward Elgar’s Symphony No.3 which sounds like authentic Elgar
throughout.
10 David Matthews in notes to CD recording of Gustav Mahler: Symphony No.10, BBC Philhar-
monic conducted by Giandrea Noseda on CHAN 10456 (Chandos Records: Colchester, UK,
2008), 9-10
232
