Posted by Barry Guerrero on November 27, 19101 at 02:53:44:

In Reply to: Re: Bruckner ninth posted by warren malach on November 14, 19100 at 22:58:33:

I have a problem with the proposed completions of the Bruckner 9th: So far, they sound more like a start for a 10th symphony, than they do a completion for the 9th - at least to my ears, anyway. I say that because the thematic material and harmonic structure (tonalities) seem so radically different than the rest of the 9th symphony - at least to me. Although some of the 9th symphony's thematic material does get used in the process, I'd almost prefere that the current proposed completions be called B10:1, and not B9:4.

Anyway, more in line with my own interests, I've heard pirated recordings now of both the Samale/Mazzaca Mahler 10th (Martin Sieghart/Vienna Symphony), and the Rudolf Barshai Mahler 10th (Junge Deutsche Philharmoni/Barshai from Dusseldorf). Of the two, inspite of their somewhat more inept orchestration, I greatly prefere the solutions that Mazzuca and Samale come up with. They're far more in line with my own perceptions; instincts; and beliefs about the the piece. Predictably, Barshai displays great skill in his orchestration efforts. However, he strikes me as having simply added more seasoning to the straight Deryck Cooke version. I could go into a tremendous amount of detail here, but won't. I'll simply conclude by saying that I'm hopeful that full-n commercial recordings will someday be available of both versions. As of this moment, I've begun studying the score to the Barshai version, which Universal Editions has been kind enough to dispatch to me for "perusal" (their word, not mine). As I suspected, the details are wonderful (although, sometimes too busy sounding), but Barshai doesn't really address the major issues of the work - he simply takes Cooke at this word, so to speak.

Barry Guerrero
San Francisco

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