Mahler's marvellous Tenth

Mahler was haunted by the Tenth Symphony that he felt he would never accomplish. When the Austrian composer died in 1911, only two movements were completed, and the remaining three were, admittedly, substantial sketches.

Schoenberg and Shostakovich resisted invitations to finish the symphony - Schoenberg, in particular, seems to have been suspicious of tempting fate by extending symphonic ventures beyond the nine achieved by Beethoven.

The musicologists moved in, starting with the American, Clinton Carpenter, in 1949. The usually accepted concert hall version these days is Deryck Cooke's completion, best known through Simon Rattle's 1980 recording.

Enter charismatic Russian conductor Rudolf Barshai, determined to explore the heart of darkness at the core of this work, bringing the symphony more emphatically into the 20th century, when it was written.

New colours are on display, such as a brittle xylophone in the central Purgatorio movement, and the scherzo that follows has an unexpected peppering of percussion.

All this can be experienced on a new Brilliant Classics release, with Barshai and the young German players of the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie.

With a recording spacious enough to allow a gong stroke to chill the soul, the huge architectural spans of the first and last movements are effortlessly sustained, and the musicians seem to enjoy tinting the occasional harmony in darker hues than Cooke sanctioned in the 1970s.

The woodwind is alpine crisp, the brass not afraid to be cataclysmic and the strings have a Slavic persuasion. When a solo violin line comes out of the texture (Barshai is fond of this), the anonymous leader of the orchestra can turn the sweetest of phrases.

Barshai has talked of the way in which "young, gifted musicians who are detached from the routine habits of some more seasoned players, can achieve great heights and results". Here, his point is proved.

The two-CD set retails for only $24.95, and a second disc contains the orchestra's 1997 performance of the composer's Fifth Symphony, an interpretation that quickly achieved legend status in Mahler circles.

* Mahler, Symphonies 5 and 10, conducted by Rudolf Barshai (Brilliant Classics 92205, through Ode Records).