Mahler : Symphonie n° 10 (version Clinton A. Carpenter)

Album review

For his final installment in Gustav Mahler's symphonic cycle on RCA, David Zinman has recorded Clinton Carpenter's completion of the unfinished Symphony No. 10, a choice that some will find provocative. Not only is this realization seldom recorded, unlike the performing versions by other Mahler authorities (Deryck Cooke, Remo Mazzetti, Jr., Joe Wheeler, and Rudolf Barshai are prominent figures in this specialized field), but it presents solutions that many Mahlerians would find dubious and out of character. Most notable in Carpenter's version are the myriad quotations from Mahler's symphonies, which stick out too identifiably and distract from the musical arguments of the work at hand. While quotation was not foreign to Mahler's practices, especially when he adapted his own songs, he rarely borrowed material from his previous symphonies. Furthermore, he was restrained compared to Carpenter, who uses so many references that the Tenth begins to sound almost like a pastiche or a parody, rather than a serious attempt to finish the symphony on its own terms. That said, Zinman and the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich offer a splendid performance that more than compensates for the eccentricities of the score, and the genuinely attractive aspects of Carpenter's completion, largely in his highly original orchestration, come across in clear, rich sound on this masterfully produced SACD. While Mahler fans will likely have a favorite Tenth that they return to, time and again, Carpenter's quirky completion should be heard at least once, and this is the recording to hear.

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