Concert Review: Too Many Cookes

Sir Simon Rattle conducts the completed Mahler Tenth.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Sir Simon Rattle at study.
Photo by Monika Rittershaus for EMI Classics/WBC. 

When Gustav Mahler died on May 18, 1911, he left behind five folders of musical sketch material. There were two completed movements and three of four-stave sketches: the bones of his unfinished Symphony No. 10. On Monday night, in the concluding performance of a three-movement series, Sir Simon Rattle and his London Symphony Orchestra gave their first New York performance together of this still controversial work, in a five-movement performing edition created in 1960 by musicologist Deryck Cooke.

Concert Review: From Ten to One

The San Francisco Symphony encapsulates Mahler's career.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Busted: Michael Tilson Thomas (right) with Rodin's bust of Gustav Mahler.
Photo taken in the Musikverein, Vienna © San Francisco Symphony

When Gustav Mahler died in 1911, he was working on the Symphony No. 10. He had completed sketches of its five movements, and the orchestration of the opening Adagio. On Saturday night, Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony paired that movement with the composer's Symphony No. 1, offering a fascinating look at the end and beginning of a composer's legend.

Concert Review: Mahler's Last Words

Daniel Harding conducts the (completed) Mahler 10th.

by Paul J. Pelkonen

The last photo of Gustav Mahler.

When Gustav Mahler died in 1911, he had completed his second season as music director of the New York Philharmonic, a post he took in 1909. He was also in the middle of working on his Tenth Symphony, a five-movement instrumental work built on a vast scale. At the time of his death, the first movement was completed. The remaining four were only sketched.