Gustav Mahler was a somewhat superstitious person. He knew that Beethoven’s last symphony was the Ninth, and so Mahler avoided that number. Ultimately the Ninth was completed after Mahler created his “Lied Von Der Erde”. This is actually a symphonic work based on Chinese poems by Li Tai Po.
While the first movement of the symphony number 10 was largely done, the other movements were not composed when Mahler died in 1911.
Now we have a new recording of the Symphony #10 by Gustav Mahler.
Mahler: Symphony No. 10 in F sharp major
Reconstructed and elaborated by Yoel Gamzou.
Performed by the International Mahler Orchestra, conducted by Yoel Gamzou.
On 5 September 1910 Mahler wrote his last notes: exactly 100 years later, the 23-year-old conductor and composer Yoel Gamzou presented his new reconstruction of this extraordinary work. The world première with the International Mahler Orchestra took place at the Ryckestrasse synagogue in Berlin as part of the Jewish Cultural Days 2010.
Yoel Gamzou first came in contact with the Adagio from Mahler’s unfinished 10th Symphony when he was about 12 or 13 years old, while fishing curiously through a jungle of books and scores in a local library.
Yoel Gamzou wrote:
“Already at first glance, it was obvious to me that this symphony has – or indeed would have had, considering it was almost lost and forgotten for decades – a unique meaning in musical history. When I discovered that it was only the first movement of a large unfinished symphony, I instantly started investigating.
I became indescribably fascinated and intrigued, in fact hypnotized, by the sheer magnitude of meaning and content hiding within this manuscript. It was immediately clear to me that the piece was entirely thought-through and that the meaning behind this hurried testament was an almost unbearably painful albeit thoroughly planned legacy. It seemed like the sketch was staring at me demanding to be heard, like a message in a bottle that hasn’t really been found, let alone entirely understood, for almost a century.”
Here is a complete performance of this reconstructed symphony:
