MUSIC REVIEW:Mahler Ten. Melbourne Symphony Orchestra

A rare opportunity to hear a version of Mahler’s unfinished Tenth Symphony has proven to be a major artistic and popular success for the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (MSO).

The original symphony was uncompleted at the time of Mahler’s death in 1911, and his wife Alma Mahler, refused access to the sketches. Although editions of the Adagio and Purgatorio had been performed, a full draft of the symphony was not performed until 1960, prepared.

In this performance, Mark Wigglesworth conducted a version prepared by famous UK musicologist Deryck Cooke in collaboration with Berthold Goldschmidt, Colin Matthews and David Matthews.

I’ve never had the good fortune to hear this symphony and I must confess to being a bit green about this work, but I was looking forward more from a historical, rather than an aesthetic point of view. What I hadn’t been prepared for was how evocative and approachable the music was.

The opening Adagio seems to start where his ninth symphony finishes, providing a weird sense of compositional continuity. However, right from the start, there were spine chilling moments that leave no doubt that the musical ideas came from the pen of the master himself.

Both of Scherzi (second and fourth movements) were full of joy, and life, and a wonderful contrast to the following Purgatorio (third movement), with its epic emotional intensity. There was the typical Mahlerian folk dance here too (Ländler, I think).

Mahler symphonies often give individual orchestral players a chance to shine with solo work, and this performance was no different. This was a night for the woodwind section, with the breathtaking flute solo played by Prudence Davis, with equally memorable moments from Jeffrey Crellin on oboe, Geoffrey Payne on trumpet and too many others to mention here.

Wigglesworth was in fine control especially in the tricky timing of some of the contrasting sections in the second movement — but I’m being too cerebral, as I would be more honest if I told you that I found myself totally absorbed and lost in the music throughout this entire performance. Judging from the rapturous applause, so were the other audience members.

In the past, unfinished works often leave me unconvinced that the works should probably have been left untouched, but this is not one of them. I could just leave it and say that this version of Mahler’s Tenth is interesting for historical and musical reasons, which it is, but more than that, it is also a great joy to listen to.

Mahler Ten
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.
Thursday 13, Friday 14 and Saturday 15 November 2008 at 8 pm
Hamer Hall
For more information visit http://mso.com.au/cpa/htm/htm_event_list.asp?page_id=76&event_date=2008/11/13