. . . then there's the whole issue of the alleged note corrections that Rudolf Barshai made. The problem is, Mahler's scribbling was awfully difficult to disseminate - especially when climbing many ledger lines above the treble staff.
Which is why they shouldn't be called "alleged note corrections" but "interpretations".
In "The Musical Times, Winter 2001, p. 43-51" Frans Bouwman wrote an article titled "Editing Mahler 10 - Unfinished Business". He was proofreader for the Mazetti, revised Wheeler and Barshai editions and he mentions a few examples about the decision making choice regarding notes and chords in Barshai's version. Here's an excerpt:
"1. Disagreement
Four examples out of many [where Barshai choose to disagree with Cooke]: bars 170-71 of the Adagio (ex. 3). Barshai (as well as Mazzuca and others) reqad the second voice in the G clef as in OD [orchestral draft]. I agree here with Cooke et al. that Mahler made a mistake in copying. In bar 74 of the Adagio, the Matthews brother read the first note in the bass as C#, as in all previous drafts (for the first time so played by Chailly and his KCO), not as B in the OD (forming a diminished triad in root position) and which Barshai retains. Similarly I fail to agree with Barshai's E in bar 95 of 'Purgatorio', repeated in bar 83 of the Finale. The manuscript seems to sugegst Eflat. Finally I disagree with Barshai's leading-note E# instead of tonic F# in bar 390 of the Finale. The analoguous bar in the Bflat draft read the tonic Bflat.
2. Agreement
Maestro Barshai agreed to include Bflat-E-G chord (ex.5) of the second to last bar of 'Purgatorio' (so did Mazzucca & Samale), and to prefer earlier readings, as in bar 67 of the Adagio, last two quavers in horn: B-B# concert pitch, as in the short score and two earlier drafts (so did Erwin Ratz in his edition of the Adagio); in bar 145 of the F# Scherzo Cooke gives a low D, whereas Barshai agrees to F, as is more likely, reading all the drafts. In one instance, in bar 101 of Adagio he adopts Mahler's OD, whereas all editions copy the passing note A (concert pitch) from the SS [short score]. Alban Berg's notes support this: 'wouldn't this reading be possible, or something like it! That would be also thematically applicable and the parallel octave in cello would be avoided'. In bar 194 of the Adagio, the Bass tuba has a low note with many ledger lines. Barshai opts for a low Eflat. This results in 6/4 chord that occurs also in bar 181. To make this example even more ambivalent I could add that the newly unearthed SS page does not seem to support 6/4 chord assumption:"
As you all can see, there is a
lot of guess-work and painstaking reasearch as to what Mahler actually wanted.
I would also like to add, that Frans Bouwman is putting together all known sources of the M10 that will be published by the IGMG for the 2010/11 jubilee. Should be a fascinating read, even for amateurs like me!
Topic: New release M 10 Piano Transcription (Read 12929 times)