Gustav Mahler Leonard Slatkin Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra - Gustav Mahler Symphony No 10 in FSharp edited by Remo Mazzetti Jr Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra Leonard Slatkin (6 tracks) +Album Reviews

Great Recording and Inforamtive Bonus Disc

R. Ashley | New Jersey | 05/20/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is a really engaging performance. Even if you have a few other recordings of this work, this is worht getting because of the bonus disc. On the bonus disc Slatkin talks about the different performing editions of the 10th and the SLSO plays some examples. This was very enlightening to me. Usually, with a work like a Mahler Symphony, we compare recordings and make our choices based on how the conductor handled the score. In this case, it is not just that, but Slatkin takes us through the process of choosing which score to play.If you are serious about this symphony, I would say to get a recording of the Deryk Cooke version, and also this record, and compare."

Reincarnation?

Mr John Haueisen | WORTHINGTON, OHIO United States | 12/19/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Okay, we all realize that reviews can be quite subjective. I just can't help saying that this performance sounds just like what Mahler intended. (I realize that sounds presumptuous of me, but Mahler is my favorite composer, and I have listened to nearly every available performance of everything he wrote.) This sounds like vintage Mahler. It's spellbinding. I felt as if Mahler had come back from the grave to direct this beautiful, moving performance.

Mahler never finished his tenth symphony, but he did leave some pretty good outlines of what he intended. The trick is choosing the orchestration: which instruments play each theme. Several people have attempted to go on from the outlines and prepare performing versions of Mahler's 10th. American Remo Mazzetti, Jr. produced this version, performed here by Leonard Slatkin and the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra.

Compared to other versions (by Cooke, Carpenter, and Wheeler) this version just sounds more like Mahler: there is the bigger than life Mahler sound, presented on a grander scale. There is more emphasis to the horns and timpani, especially in the second movement. There is simply a better choice of instruments and combinations of instruments to sing the various Mahler themes. The whole symphony is full of warmth, forboding, pain, love, and drama, and ends in a sweet and peaceful exit from life.

I apologize for getting so passionate about this, but it was as if Mahler had guided Mazzetti's pen and Slatkin's baton to see that his unfinished symphony was set forth as a fitting gift to us, nearly a century after his death."

Beautiful performance, powerful climaxes

Gregory M. Zinkl | Chicago, IL | 11/21/1999

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I find this disc to be a revelation, especially after hearing a pile of dead-boring 10ths. The playing alone (as is often the case with St. Louis) warrants at least a serious listen, if not the price of the disc. The first movement climax, with one incredible trumpet blast that seems to stretch for infinity is just incredible. However, if you like late Bernstein (agogic and grotesquely self-indulgent) Mahler (or more appropriate, Mahler-Bernstein), you should forego this disc. Slatkin cares much more about presenting Mahler as Mahler, and not Mahler as edited by Slatkin."

Finally, a finale!

William Michaels | Hillsborough, NJ United States | 03/28/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Although this version of the symphony (and the performance) have a great deal to recommend throughout, the thing that stands out for me is that Mazzetti, unlike Wheeler, Cooke, and Carpenter, has managed to create a finale worthy of the rest of the symphony--and of Mahler! I have been listening to the five-movement version of this work since the Ormandy recording came out in 1966, and have heretofore always been a bit disappointed in the final movement. But to me, Mazzetti has created a version that contains the emotional turns and transitions, the telling orchestral details, that I like to believe Mahler would have created if he had lived. Mazzetti may also have done the best version of the second movement, though most of the orchestrators have done well with it. For the "Purgatorio," I would recommend both this and the Cooke versions (preferably in one of Simon Rattle's performances); they are highly fascinating and quite different. (I regard this as one of the best under-five-minute pieces of music ever written, along with the Mozart/Tchaikovsky Gigue from the "Mozartiana" suite, and Stravinsky's "Fireworks.")

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Wonderfull Completion, Fantastic Performance, and a second "

Steve Forsyth | Denton, TX USA | 12/28/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I have been going through all of the four major completions of Mahler's tragically unfinished 10th symphony. I came across them in this order - Wheeler, Cooke, Mazzetti, and I'm awaiting the arrival of my Carpenter version. I fell in love right away with the Wheeler recording (my first hearing of the symphony) - it wasn't till several months later that I stumbled upon a Cooke version (Inbal's) and gave it a whirl. Right away I noticed the fuller sound in many portions where Wheeler had purposefully left things bare. However, I was not too impressed with the poor recording quality of the Inbal performance (too much room noise for my taste, especially as this was supposedly a studio recording).

Well, since I am a completist, I ordered this disc of the Mazzetti for my collection. When I first listened through it, I almost took it out and chucked it without finishing! It was drastically different enough to shock me (particularly the 4th movement and parts of the 5th). However, I then listened to Slatkin's explanatory disc (about a 15 - 20 minute discussion of each completion including samples of the same passages from all four composers and descriptions of the differences) - for whatever reason, after listening to that and then giving the Mazzetti completion another whirl, it almost instantly became my favorite! Now, I understand Carpenter took the most liberties with the score and added much of his own style which was distinctly un-Mahler - so, I've yet to hear his version, but the clips played by Slatkin sounded a little too over the top to be taken as anything more than an "interesting alternative" to what Mahler intended.

Mazzetti likely took his own liberties (the consensus seems to indicate that Wheeler left it the barest and closest not only to the original notes, but also to the style Mahler had adapted in his final symphonies). Even so, I like Mazzetti's ideas - whether or not it is Mahlerian, I cannot say, but it sure makes the piece sound more complete and fleshed out - it was beautiful to begin with, but now it brings tears to the eyes! Not only is it a great interpretation, but the recording is near flawless - particularly impressive if it was indeed recorded in live sessions as Slatkin indicates.

This is a great package, along with the bonus disc. A steal at any price, to be sure!"

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