Mahler ( Or is It ? )

I think that I'd better start this post by quoting the booklet notes ; Gustav Mahler Symphony No 10 : a performing version of Mahler's draft prepared by Deryck Cooke in collaboration with Berthold Goldschmidt, Colin Matthews and David Matthews. The performers on the disk are the Berliner Philharmoniker conducted by Sir Simon Rattle and I guess if you are going to present a project like this it doesn't hurt the credibilty of the venture to have artists of that calibre on board. Like all such posthumous completions by other hands ( such as Elgar's 3rd Symphony, Mozart's Requiem, tacking Pluto onto the end of the Planets ) there are always ethical questions and doubts. The ultimate test is probably the quality of the music and this realisation most certainly sounds Mahlerian. The booklet notes make the musicological case, I'm not expert enough to offer any opinion as to how true it might be to Mahler's intentions. There is the danger of reading too much into the fact that his death was imminent and thinking that he was composing with that in mind. In fact, although he knew he was in fragile health, he was continuing to make career and personal plans. I thoroughly enjoy the work as presented, even if I wonder whether the elegiac ending has been put together with hindsight. It's curious though that in these days of never ending Mahler performances, this version of the 10th hasn't really become a concert or recording regular.