Mahler: Symphony No. 10 in F sharp major

“[Zinman] draws a rich, burnished sound from his superb Zurich orchestra. There's no doubting their concentration and conviction, or the quality of the individual players (some beautifully shaped woodwind solos, for instance).” International Record Review, January 2011

“Zinman and his orchestra play it wonderfully, and their accounts of the two movements that were completed, the opening Adagio and the third, the Purgatorio, are superb” The Guardian, 27th January 2011 ***

“Zinman has chosen (not without some reservations he voices in the booklet) the more speculative completion by Clinton Carpenter. It is very well suited to the warm, ample textures of his Zurich orchestra who play with total commitment...for Mahlerians it's a fascinating comparison, superbly played.” The Observer, 6th February 2011

“Zinman and his sound team expose some additional inner detail in the atmospheric Zurich acoustic, and the interpretation, always sensibly paced, can sound less radically overstuffed.” Gramophone Magazine, March 2011

“voluptuous” Financial Times, 11th June 2011 ***

“Throughout, the orchestral sound is striking, lighter in the ass than usual, with glorious horn-playing and burnished unanimity from frequently high-lying strings.” Gramophone Magazine, July 2008

“This reading of the 1989 revision of Deryck Cooke’s performing version is an impressive journey. By the finale, with its dramatic bass-drum death stroke and that exquisitely beautiful flute melody, we have been sucked into the vortex of the music’s swirling psychological complexities, able to see not only Mahler’s tragedies, fears and emotional vicissitudes, but also our own.” Sunday Times, 22nd June 2008 ***

“[This] is a powerfully wrought reading, which seems to gain in authority and conviction as it goes on - Harding's account of the finale is particularly impressive, so that it now seems one of the greatest, and bleakest, of all Mahler's symphonic movements. The opening Adagio, though, never quite generates the intensity one knows that it should, so that the agenda for all that follows is not made as distinct as it might be. Even the characterful playing of the Vienna Philharmonic, especially in the central three movements with their ghosts and distortions of the popular musics that haunt all of Mahler's output, can't quite compensate for that, so, for all its strengths, Harding's performance doesn't quite measure up to either Rattle's with the Berlin Philharmonic or Chailly's with the Berlin Radio.” The Guardian, 20th June 2008 ****

“Harding made his Philharmonic debut with this symphony in 2004, and you feel the team’s mutual comfort the moment those questing viola phrases launch the epic adagio. He’s wise enough not to stop the Viennese musicians from sounding Viennese. Their natural lilt brings major dividends in the fourth movement, where the waltz rhythms spin us into a neurotic nightmare. After this turn round the haunted ballroom, another high point arrives with the finale’s flute solo, so tender and sad, underpinned in the orchestra by another exquisite Viennese touch – phrases hugged as though no one wants to let them go.” The Times, 6th June 2008 ****

“a thrilling recording of what was clearly an electrifying event. Rattle and the BPO are set to be a combination that will hold the attention of the musical world. In these straitened times recordings more be rarer, but if they scale the heights witnessed here, each will be a major event.” Gramophone Magazine, May 2000

“Rattle previously recorded Deryck Cooke's performing version of Mahler's incomplete 10th in June 1980 and the passionate sensitivity of his reading helped win over a sceptical public at a time when we were much less keen to tamper with the unfinished works of dead or dying artists. These days, it's almost as if we see in their unresolved tensions some prophetic vision of the life to come.
Over the years, Rattle has performed the work nearly 100 times, far more often than anyone else. Wooed by Berlin, he repeatedly offered them 'Mahler ed Cooke' and was repulsed. He made his Berlin conducting début with the Sixth. But, after the announcement in June 1999 that he had won the orchestra's vote in a headto- head with Daniel Barenboim, he celebrated with two concert performances of the 10th. A composite version is presented here. As always, Rattle obtains some devastatingly quiet string playing, and technical standards are unprecedentedly high in so far as the revised performing version is concerned. Indeed, the danger that clinical precision will result in expressive coolness isn't immediately dispelled by the self-confident meatiness of the violas at the start. We aren't used to hearing the line immaculately tuned with every accent clearly defined. The tempo is broader than before and, despite Rattle's characteristic determination to articulate every detail, the mood is, at first, comparatively serene, even Olympian. Could Rattle be succumbing to the Karajan effect? But no – somehow he squares the circle. The neurotic trills, jabbing dissonances and tortuous counterpoint are relished as never before, within the context of a schizoid Adagio in which the Brucknerian string writing is never undersold.
The conductor has not radically changed his approach to the rest of the work. As you might expect, the scherzos have greater security and verve. Their strange hallucinatory choppiness is better served, although parts of the fourth movement remain perplexing despite the superb crispness and clarity of inner parts. More than ever, everything leads inexorably to the cathartic finale, brought off with a searing intensity that has you forgetting the relative baldness of the invention.
Berlin's Philharmonie isn't the easiest venue: with everything miked close, climaxes can turn oppressive but the results here are very credible and offer no grounds for hesitation. In short, this new version sweeps the board even more convincingly than the old. According to reports of the first night, Rattle was called back and accorded two Karajan-style standing ovations after the orchestra had left the stage. There's no applause here, but it isn't difficult to imagine such a scene. Rattle makes the strongest case for an astonishing piece of revivification that only the most die-hard purists will resist. Strongly recommended.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“Rattle steals the prize in the three scherzo: Purgatorio is devilishly fast and sly, Schnelle Viertel explosive, and the lightning switches of mood in the Allegro pesante handled with flair.” BBC Music Magazine, May 2005

“One of the finest interpretations on record of Mahler’s great unfinished symphony… Rattle supremely allies mesmerising detail to awesome scale in an intense, award-winning live account” Classic FM Magazine *****

“Mark Wigglesworth has performed the Tenth regularly since a BBC Symphony Orchestra concert in 1991 brought him wide attention...This live Melbourne performance...[is] consistent with a vision of the piece that was clear and distinctive over two decades ago...if there is a Wigglesworth sound, the Melbourne orchestra are well schooled in it.” Gramophone Magazine, November 2011

“Tempos in the first, third and fifth movements are slightly more deliberate than you might expect...The first scherzo takes off at a cracking pace here, a notch too fast for its executants to manage...A firm, purposeful reading then, of more than local interest” International Record Review, January 2012

“The Australian orchestra play with an aching beauty of line and an implacable weight that’s deeply affecting...Good - very good – in parts, but not the penetrating performance I’d hoped for.” MusicWeb International, December 2012

“The Third’s adagio finale unfolds in a measured way (26 minutes!) that draws out its profound humanity awesomely. No 10’s searing adagio has an unbeatable immediacy.” Sunday Times, 27th February 2011 ****

“The Vienna SO plays magnificently…Adler knows and loves this music, conducts it with unwavering conviction and draws a movingly committed response from his players…I do urge collectors to try this: I’ve found it a tremendously powerful experience.” International Record Review, March 2011