Mahler's "version" of Beethoven IX. in London on 4. Feb. 2009

[DavidP]

On 4. February at 7:30pm the London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Neeme Järvi will play Beethoven's Ninth Symphony with Mahler's Retuschen in the Royal Festival Hall. The score will soon be published by Josef Weinberger as a new volume of the IGMG critical edition.  The editor of this volume is the undersigned.

David

Am 4. Feber um 1930 in dem Royal Festival Hall spielt das London Philharmonische Orchester unter der Leitung von Neeme Järvi Beethovens IX. Symphonie mit Mahlers Retuschen. Die Partitur wird als neuer Band der IGMG kritische Edition von Josef Weinberger Ltd. bald veröffentlicht. Der Herausgeber ist der Unterzeichnete.

David

[Mike Bosworth]

Dear David,

I taped a PBS documentary some years ago called "Mahler's Beethoven" which refers to a score for the Beethoven IX that belonged to Ossip Gabrilowitsch and was kept in the Detroit Symphony archives.  The program also included a performance of GM's 'version' with the Detroit Symphony conducted by Järvi.  Is this Detroit score, presumably with annotations by Mahler, one of the sources for the new IGMG volume?

Thanks,

Mike Bosworth

On 4. February at 7:30pm the London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Neeme Järvi will play Beethoven's Ninth Symphony with Mahler's Retuschen in the Royal Festival Hall. The score will soon be published by Josef Weinberger as a new volume of the IGMG critical edition.  The editor of this volume is the undersigned.

David

Am 4. Feber um 1930 in dem Royal Festival Hall spielt das London Philharmonische Orchester unter der Leitung von Neeme Järvi Beethovens IX. Symphonie mit Mahlers Retuschen. Die Partitur wird als neuer Band der IGMG kritische Edition von Josef Weinberger Ltd. bald veröffentlicht. Der Herausgeber ist der Unterzeichnete.

David

[DavidP]

Dear Mike,

The edition is based upon Mahler's own score and parts.  These are the materials that he prepared for his own use in Vienna and used for the rest of his career.  They were first used at his performance with the Vienna Philharmonic on 18. February 1900.  One should not confuse this "version" with the "version" of Beethoven IX. that Mahler prepared in 1895 and conducted in Hamburg.  That was for a smaller orchestra than he had available in Vienna and New York, and is further identified by the use of an offstage band at the beginning of the Finale's Alla Marcia section.  Because of the smaller instrumentation, the Retuschen in this score are more extreme. I did not mix these two sources in the edition to be published and performed.

The score in Detroit was copied at the behest of the erstwhile music director, Ossip Gabrilowitsch, possibly from Mahler's score, though it might have been made from a copy of that score.  Nobody know exactly when it was made or who the copyist was.  The curious thing is that Alma Mahler lent other scores with Mahler's Retuschen to Gabrilowitsch and gave him permission to copy and perform them, BUT Beethoven's Ninth is not among those mentioned in their correspondence.  Furthermore, those copies that are mentioned are not in the DSO library.

Most important to realize is that the Gabrilowitsch score of the Ninth Symphony has a considerable number of additional Retuschen that do not come from Mahler.  For instance, if you watch the performance you have on video, you will hear and see the tuba playing with the trombones at their entry in the Finale (Seid umschlungen...), and the violas play along with the cellos and basses in the opening recitatives of the same movement.

Best wishes,

David