Textcritical Edition edited by Christian Rudolf Riedel [orch] Duration: 75'
- string parts with and without Mahler’s bowing marks
(marked part is included with the set as a set-up aid)
- scoring with two harps as arranged by Bruno Walter
- spacious layout for optimal legibility
- suitable page turns and cue notes
- aids for orientation and instrument changes
Mahler’s Ninth sings of beauty, love and impermanence “World! Farewell!” noted Mahler above the final measures. His last completed symphony embraces the world of yesterday, while pushing the door wide open to the modern age.
The composition, created in a “mad urgency and haste,” had already posed puzzles for his copyists. While Mahler was able to clarify some of them already in the engraver’s model, others remained unsolved. Performance and printing had to be left to posterity.
The text-critical edition offers interpreters for the first time a reliable foundation for what is definitely completed, and what must be considered as unfinished, open, questionable.
Among the special challenges of the Ninth are Mahler’s innumerable bowing marks in the string parts, which Otto Klemperer described as “partly unfeasible,” and the open question of the harp scoring, for which Bruno Walter found a convincing solution at the world premiere.
Finally an edition that not only reflects the orchestral practice of Mahler’s time, but also utilizes it for today’s needs. Helpful notes in the score and practical solutions in the parts are owed to the cooperation with experienced conductors and orchestral musicians.
Composer: Gustav Mahler
Instrumentation: picc.4.4(cor ang).5(Eb-clar.Bb-clar).4(dble bsn) – 4.3.3.1 – 2hp.timp.perc(4) – str
Publisher: Breitkopf & Hartel
PB 5639 full score
ISMN: 979-0-004-21536-4 (240 pages, 27 x 36 cm, 1,225 g, Softbound)
Contents
1. Andante comodo
2. Im Tempo eines gemächlichen Ländlers: Etwas täppisch und sehr derb
3. Rondo – Burleske: Allegro assai: Sehr trotzig
4. Adagio: Sehr langsam und noch zurückhaltend