Mahler: Symphony No. 10

by Jesus Lopez-Cobos / Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra

With an acclaimed re-recording by Simon Rattle, featuring Deryck Cooke's edition of the score, Mahler's unfinished 10th Symphony has clearly gotten a new lease on life. All the more timely, then, for a recording of a completion that's not by Cooke. Remo Mazzetti's involvement goes back over two decades: he completed his first realization in 1989, revising it over the next decade. Those familiar with Cooke will find Mazzetti's perspective altogether more austere, applying considerable restraint in the fleshing-out of detail in Mahler's score, while evoking a more intimate sound world familiar from the Ninth Symphony and Das Lied von der Erde. The two scherzos often benefit from this lightness of touch, particularly the capricious second movement, but the emotional impact of the outer movements is at times sold short, while the Finale's closing minutes don't have the emotional intensity that Rattle brings to them. Jesús López-Cobos gets alert, sensitive playing from his Cincinnati forces in clean, if small-scale, acoustics. If you already have Rattle, this is worth considering for an alternative view of a fascinating symphonic torso. --Richard Whitehouse