Announced as a commemoration of the 150th anniversary of Mahler’s
birth, this recording by the Singapore Symphony Orchestra is
also apparently the first video/Blu-ray release of his Symphony
No. 10 as completed by Clinton Carpenter. This version is
less frequently heard than the ‘performing version’ by Deryck
Cooke, but as discussed in Tony Duggan’s excellent comparative
review of recordings of Mahler’s Symphony No.10,
Carpenter was the first to begin working on this project, commencing
as he did in 1946. The first edition was completed in 1966,
ten years before Cooke’s was published in 1976. As well as these
two, there are also versions by Joe Wheeler, and more recently
Remo Mazzetti, Rudolf Barshai (1924-2010), Nicola Samale and
Giuseppe Mazzuca.
Beginning with the Adagio, the only movement completed
by Mahler and which has often appeared as a single movement
on Mahler symphonic cycles, we get the measure of the Singapore
Symphony Orchestra and Lan Shui’s conducting. Directing without
a score, Shui doesn’t linger or cloy with over-sentimental fussiness.
This is perhaps not quite the most gripping of Adagio recordings,
but it works well enough – clean and efficient, rather than
streaked with the blood and sweat of intense and daring risk-taking.
The real passionate work comes later on. The recording is detailed
and bright, and although the absolute sheen of the strings may
not be quite as glossy as Sir Simon Rattle in his later Berlin
Philharmonic recording this is clearly a crack band, standing
up well to the edge-of-the-seat scrutiny of microphones and
assorted cameras. The impact of ‘that chord’ at 19:15 will make
you jump out of your seat, cleverly preceded by some disarmingly
innocent celestial ceiling-gazing by the video director.
Musically things become interesting with the second movement
Scherzo. Carpenter clearly had a different idea to Cooke
about what Mahler might have done had he lived to revise his
scoring, and there are quite a few extra trills, counter-melodies,
darting changes of tempo and other twiddly bits added to what
was actually quite a substantially notated original. The overall
effect is for this reason not hugely different to the Cooke
version, and the extras either add character or pickiness, depending
on your mood or point of view. Having become so used to the
Cooke version it’s hard to know whether the opposite would be
the case were the tables turned, but to my ears the music is
eccentric enough without too much extra superimposed material.
The rather Hollywood tinsel of the final section, marked ‘Pesante’
with Cooke is a case in point. This does stand very well as
a performance in its own right however, and with absolute conviction
from the performers as good a case as any is made for Carpenter’s
version of this movement.
There is some structural adjustment going on in the ‘Purgatorio’,
unnamed as a movement in this version. However, in essence the
extra thematic flights and different approach to texture don’t
create as much of a ‘new’ movement when compared to Cooke as
you might think. It is with the fourth movement Scherzo that
the sense of an alternative vision becomes most immediately
apparent. Cooke’s version is rich and effective, but for me
always leaves the sense of an unfinished work – the realisation
that Mahler would certainly have done more had he lived to create
a definitive and complete piece. Carpenter’s working of the
material doesn’t sweep away all of the musical idiosyncrasies
left by the bare bones of Mahler’s short score, but at least
gives a more immediate impression of something established and
rooted in its own tradition. There are some magical moments,
and the Singapore players if anything warm to their task in
this movement even more than in the rest of the piece. There
are too many differences between Carpenter and Cooke to mention,
and I have to admit to getting lost while trying to follow Carpenter
using the Cooke score, but the overall effect is more important
than the technical analysis in my view. I found myself sold
on this version the more I listened.
The fifth movement Finale opens with that now famous
damped bass drum, and sounds suitably funereal. Carpenter uses
the keener edge of trumpets to top the brass chorale at bar
23, and the flute solo from 30 has a nice harp accompaniment
illustrated well in a split view on the video. There is a certain
amount of schmaltz in the orchestration which might take a bit
of getting used to, but these sorts of things are questions
of taste. The orchestral colourings to my ear sometimes have
a Tchaikovsky-like flavour: the joviality of the Nutcracker
drawn into pits of despond by the mood of the Sixth Symphony
amplified by overwrought early 20th century late-romanticism.
There is no doubting the effectiveness of Carpenter’s orchestration,
but there are moments where Cooke’s closer alliance to what
historical Mahler research might consider a more ‘authentic’
realisation allows a clearer window into what Mahler actually
left, rather than what someone else feels he might have done.
This doesn’t quite tip into over-working of the material, but
sails close enough at times. I don’t dislike the result, but
am rather glad this plush cast of extras isn’t the only Mahler
10 we have.
The programme of this DVD also gives us Wu Xing or ‘The
Five Elements’ by Chinese composer Chen Qi-gang. The five short
movements each represent a different element: Water, Wood, Fire,
Earth and Metal respectively. Clever camerawork helps the ear
identify some of the effects which arise, but as with most pieces
with such clear themes, the music is not difficult to interpret
and follow. There is plenty of interesting percussion with Wood
for instance, Britten-like brass chimes and licking flames
rising from the double–basses and bass drum in Fire. This
is all highly effective stuff, essentially romantic in idiom,
but with some gorgeous melting harmonies and sonorities. Bonus
features for the DVD include some introductions on both pieces
in English from conductor Lan Shui and some photographs including
backstage souvenirs, and some of the orchestra’s other concert
performances.
With good booklet notes by Marc Rochester and clever use of
Klimt’s ‘Der Kuss’ to illustrate Mahler’s marital crisis at
the time he was working on the symphony, this is a very nicely
produced DVD and an excellent recording of Clinton Carpenter’s
completion of Mahler’s Symphony No.10. I have to admit
to being far more used to hearing the Deryck Cooke version in
a variety of recordings, and so accept any comments I may have
on the Carpenter version will be compromised by having this
as an ingrained reference point. I accept the validity and effectiveness
of Carpenter’s version, but ultimately feel closer to Mahler’s
intentions in the piece – at the state in which he left it –
with Cooke. What this DVD shows is that there is most certainly
more than one way to deliver this remarkable piece, and having
the choice is most certainly more of an enrichment than a distraction
from any one ‘true’ version of the score – something which can
never exist in any case.
Dominy Clements
Singapore Symphony Orchestra/Lan Shui 
AV
2217 [107:00] 
