10th Symphony (Mahler)

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The 10th Symphony is an unfinished symphony by Gustav Mahler . It is the composer's last work (whereas the 9th Symphony is the last completed work). From the second half of the 20th century onwards, various people tried to complete them.

Emergence

Gustav Mahler began in July 1910, shortly after the completion (fair copy) of his ninth , to work on a tenth symphony , which should comprise five movements and be written in the key of F sharp major . Mahler could not complete the score - he stopped work in September 1910 and was not able to resume it until his death in 1911 because of the workload and his poor health. However, the first movement, an Adagio , and the third, called Purgatorio , were brought into a performance-ready form by Ernst Krenek based on the drafts and premiered on October 12, 1924 by Franz Schalk at the Vienna State Opera . The score for these two movements was published in 1951. A facsimile, edited by Alma Mahler , appeared as early as 1924.

Usually Mahler's work on his works took place in several stages: After the first sketches the work was initially in short score on three to five grading systems developed and then transferred to a score design. In the subsequent fair copy, further revisions were usually made, and before going to press the engravings were corrected again and instrumentation-related retouching was incorporated, which mostly resulted from the experiences of the first performances.

None of the five movements of the 10th Symphony has reached the stage of a fair copy of the score. Only the first and second movements and 30 bars of the third movement exist as a draft score. But only the draft of the first movement (Adagio) is so orchestrated that it can be played by someone else's hand without further additions. However, this is not a final version. The symphony, however, is completely in the short particell, so that Deryck Cooke was able to state with a certain justification that the symphony was not a fragment, but a torso sui generis .

construction

The draft for the complete symphony provides the following structure:

  1. Adagio: 275 bars in score and draft score
  2. Scherzo . Fast quarters: 522 bars in short score and partly as a draft score
  3. Purgatorio. Allegretto moderato: 170 bars in short score, of which the first 30 are also in draft score
  4. [Scherzo] Allegro pesante. Not too fast: 579 bars in particell
  5. Final. Slow, difficult: 400 bars in short particell

Gustav Mahler's 10th Symphony was to become a great autobiographical song of pain and lament in the far-reaching outer movements, as indicated by many annotations in the score. After sketching the first two movements, Mahler found out about his wife Alma's relationship with the architect Walter Gropius , which plunged him into deep despair. During this time, he sketched the remaining three movements and began working on the score, which he only completed in the first movement. His orchestration of the second and third movements is very sketchy . The fourth and fifth movements are also available in partly rudimentary but uninterrupted sketches.

At the center of the five-movement symphony is a short intermezzo ( titled Purgatorio ), which is surrounded by two Scherzi , which in turn are framed by the two most extensive movements (Adagio and Finale) . Seen from the center, the symphony is thus mirrored. After the contrasting middle section, Mahler simply prescribed a “ da capo ”, which would have left the later editors no choice but to quote the first part again.

The typical duration of the performance depends on the version used and is around 75 minutes.

1st movement - Adagio

The first movement of the symphony, which had developed the furthest, was the only one to be included in the Complete Critical Edition of the Works of Gustav Mahler and has now become an integral part of the concert repertoire .

After the 9th symphony , which ended in the triple piano , the Adagio shows a consistent further development. In the middle register, on the c sharp 1 (as it were the enharmonically reinterpreted D flat major ending of the ninth) begins a recitative- free viola line reminiscent of Tristan and Isolde . Their unison melody will appear several times at key intersections. This ponderous beginning of the Andante is answered by the actual Adagio , which begins with a long violin melody and is later continued in its inversion. The violins lead back to the viola in unison . This second new beginning is taken up and intensified by the Adagio . What is remarkable is the dense polyphony that Mahler builds up from a single line in this movement. Gradually, the elements of both topics are interwoven in a kind of implementation. In the recapitulation the adagio theme seems to be united with its inversion. The music finally seems to ebb away on a triple piano as a huge chorale in A flat minor sounds. The sound is reduced initially, but then piles up as dissonant , thirds aufschichtender Neuntonakkord on - unique in Mahler's oeuvre , which the expressiveness and harmonic terms. This chord forms the actual culmination and turning point of the movement. Jens Malte Fischer writes that this famous nine-tone chord (in the 1st and 5th movements) is related to the infidelity between Mahler's wife Alma and the architect Walter Gropius . This is followed by a swan song with fragments of a chorale, but also the beginning of the viola and the adagio theme appear before the music dies away.

2nd movement - Scherzo

Structure of ATA'-T'-A '' - Coda (A '' '- T' '- AIV)

The first of the two Scherzi is only provisionally and fragmentarily orchestrated towards the end. There is no doubt that Mahler would have changed a lot in the movement, which is one of his most peculiar Scherzi even in the raw state at hand. Formally, an A section contrasts with constant, constant excitement-generating, time changes with a more comfortable, rural-like B section, which is largely kept in 3/4 time. The opposite sections are greatly shortened in the repetition; the movement ends in a coda in which elements from both parts come together. Never before had Mahler used changing metrics so obsessively, which resulted in an extraordinary concentration on the rhythmic .

3rd movement - Purgatorio

Structure: ABA ('?)

With its four minutes, this simply structured dance movement is one of Mahler's shortest movements, along with the “angel song” of the 3rd symphony . Originally “Purgatorio or Inferno” stood above it until Mahler crossed out “Hell”, so that the thought of a purification persisted.

Despite its brevity, the purgatory is central to the five-movement concept. Framed by two scherzi , this arrangement is reminiscent of Mahler's 7th Symphony , in which there is, however, a scherzo in the center between two “night music”. Krenek probably had little trouble completing this movement, because Mahler had laid it out in a simple, almost song-like manner - with a literal recapitulation, which was preceded by a large outburst from the orchestra in the middle section. Its seemingly isolated occurrence, like the nine-tone sound, fits into the larger context. Mahler had envisaged it as important musical material for the fourth movement.

4th movement [Scherzo] - "The devil dances [it] with me"

The second Scherzo goes attacca into the finale , in that the composed rhythmic ebb is intercepted by the forte beat ("hammer blow") of a large, completely muffled drum . This beat is also the impulse for the beginning of the finale and is repeated several times. Both movements exist only as sketches with occasional information about the instrumentation. It corresponds to the demonic type of Mahlerian music that the scherzo in the manuscript is preceded by the motto “The devil dances with me”. The form of this piece is delirious - threatening scherzo and waltz-like trio themes constantly alternate .

5th movement - finale

The beginning of the finale is fed by the motifs from the Purgatorio movement , which is processed in the fast middle section. The two far-reaching cantilenas , which are then introduced by the flute and the violins respectively, later characterize the third part of the fifth movement. The finale is at the same time the most ambitious and most unfinished part of Mahler's 10th Symphony, as he only noted a single part or only provided it with a few simple harmonies. It is certain that he not only completes the existing linear structure here, but that he would also have decided to make some changes in the completion process. The form is almost three-part: The gloomy introduction is followed by a central, changeable Allegro moderato , which, through massive broadening, leads to the return of the first movement , which functions as a climax and connection to the broad, solemn swan song. The entire final section acts as a coda for the entire symphony.

Attempts to complete

After Mahler's death, the first thing to do was to premiere Das Lied von der Erde and the 9th Symphony. It was not until the 1920s that Alma Mahler published large parts of the 10th Symphony as a facsimile . She hoped for additional royalties in times of inflation . Her son-in-law Ernst Krenek arranged the Adagio and Purgatorio , the versions of which were premiered in 1924. Since Mahler's enthusiasm had already ebbed, the excerpts from the work had little success. After 1933 there were only single performances in the USA . It was only in the course of the Mahler renaissance from around 1960 that several reconstructions of the entire work were made.

In 1960 the English musicologist Deryck Cooke produced a first, as yet incomplete, performance version of the first, third and fifth movements, which was broadcast by the BBC in a sensational radio concert conducted by Berthold Goldschmidt . In 1964 Cooke presented a performance version of the complete symphony, which was strictly rejected by many performers (including Leonard Bernstein ), but has since been included in their repertoire by well-known orchestras and conductors such as the Berlin Philharmonic under Simon Rattle (many recordings exist, most recently also a CD of the “Seattle Symphony” under Thomas Dausgaard, which was discussed in detail by Deutschlandradio on July 3, 2016.) Cooke later revised his version twice, from 1966 to 1972 (published in 1976) and from 1972 to 1975 (published posthumously in 1989 ).

Further attempts to complete the symphony come from Clinton Carpenter (1949, revised 1966), Hans Wollschläger (1954–1960, withdrawn), Joseph Wheeler (1953–1965), Remo Mazzetti (1989, revised 1997), Rudolf Barshai (2000), Nicola Samale and Giuseppe Mazzucca (2002) and by Yoel Gamzou (2004–2010), the founder and artistic director of the International Mahler Orchestra (IMO).

The premiere of the latest version of Gamzou took place by the "IMO" under his direction in Berlin on September 5, 2010, exactly 100 years after Mahler wrote the last note on it.

British electronic musician Matthew Herbert reworked the symphony in 2010. The result appeared on the CD Recomposed by Matthew Herbert. Mahler Symphony X .

expenditure

literature

  • Renate Ulm (Ed.): Gustav Mahler's Symphonies. Origin - interpretation - effect . Bärenreiter-Verlag, Kassel 2001, ISBN 3-423-30827-3 .
  • Mathias Hansen: Reclam's music guide Gustav Mahler . Reclam-Verlag, Stuttgart 1996, ISBN 3-15-010425-4 .
  • Jörg Rothkamm: Gustav Mahler's Tenth Symphony. Creation, analysis, reception . Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main a. a. 2003, reprint and ebook 2012.
  • Jörg Rothkamm: Tenth Symphony . In: Peter Revers , Oliver Korte (ed.): Gustav Mahler. Interpretations of his works , Volume 2. Laaber-Verlag, Laaber 2011, pp. 364–404.
  • Jörg Rothkamm: Tenth Symphony . In: Bernd Sponheuer , Wolfram Steinbeck (Ed.): Mahler Handbook. Bärenreiter, Kassel / Metzler, Stuttgart 2010, pp. 380–389.
  • Jörg Rothkamm: The Tenth Symphony: Analysis of its Composition and 'Performing Versions' . In: Jeremy Barham (ed.): The Cambridge Companion to Mahler - Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2007, pp. 150-161.
  • Jörg Rothkamm: Between tradition and modernity: Adagio from the Xth Symphony in F sharp major . In: Mahler's symphonies . Ulm (2001), pp. 302-313.
  • Jörg Rothkamm: "My time will come". Stations and backgrounds of the Mahler reception . In: Mahler's symphonies . Ulm (2001), pp. 314-321.
  • Jörg Rothkamm: When did Mahler's Tenth Symphony come about? A contribution to biography and work interpretation . In: Heinz-Klaus Metzger , Rainer Riehn : Gustav Mahler. Enforced? (Music Concepts, Vol. 106), Edition text + kritik, Munich 1999, pp. 100–122.
  • Jörg Rothkamm: Five-movement orchestral versions of Gustav Mahler's Tenth Symphony . In: Nachrichten zur Mahler Research , 53, 2006, pp. 48–66.
    • Jörg Rothkamm: Five-Movement Orchestral Versions of Gustav Mahler's Tenth Symphony . In: News about Mahler Research , 53, 2006, pp. 48-66.
  • Jörg Rothkamm: Who composed the songs published under Alma Mahler's name? Unknown letters from the composer regarding the revision of her works in 1910 . In: Die Musikforschung , 53, 2000, 4, pp. 432–445.
  • Jörg Rothkamm: Berthold Goldschmidt and Gustav Mahler. On the creation of Deryck Cooke's concert version of the Xth Symphony . von Bockel, Hamburg 2000, ISBN 3-932696-29-8 .
  • Gerd Indorf: Mahler's symphonies. Rombach, Freiburg / Berlin / Vienna 2010, ISBN 978-3-7930-9622-1 .
  • Wolfgang Dömling : On Deryck Cooke's edition of Gustav Mahler's Xth Symphony. In: Die Musikforschung , 32nd year, issue 2, April / June 1979, pp. 159–162, JSTOR 23231534 .

Web links

References and comments

  1. ^ A b Gerhard Meyer: Gustav Mahler: 10th Symphony. Information and didactic advice. ( Memento from June 12, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 141 kB) lehrer.uni-karlsruhe.de.
  2. ↑ a b c d Gustav Mahler 10th Symphony in F sharp interpretation and version comparison. on music production Jürgen Höflich; Retrieved August 11, 2013
  3. ↑ Daniel Harding ( live video , published on the Digital Concert Hall ) required 85 minutes for a performance version of Deryck Cooke with the Berliner Philharmoniker in 2013
  4. ↑ a b Gustav Mahler. Symphony No. 10 (by Thomas Meyer). daviszinmanmusic.wordpress.com; Retrieved August 15, 2013.
  5. ↑ Page no longer available , search in web archives: Farewell: from the apprenticeship, from love, from music. the cultural chronist; accessed on August 16, 2013.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / kulturchronist.twoday.net
  6. ↑ This somewhat misleading term was used in the radio review of the CD by Thomas Dausgaard mentioned below.
  7. ↑ In the aforementioned performance published in the Digital Concert Hall in 2013 with the Berliner Philharmoniker under Daniel Harding, this is not only audible, but also explicitly visible. Incidentally, this corresponds to Mahler's particel and is not a very hard bang .
  8. ↑ Georg Waßmuth: Mahler's tithe reconstructed . Deutschlandfunk, July 3, 2016, "Die neue Platte"
  9. ↑ Matthew Herbert: "Recomposed: Mahler Symphony X" . In: FAZ , July 17, 2010, p. 37; Retrieved August 17, 2013.