I haven't paid the work all that much attention, and I'm not sure why. I have enjoyed Martin Yates completing Vaughan Williams, and having others orchestrate works from four-handed piano, or some such source, can provide much satisfaction. Realizing the end product is a mix of hands at work will please and displease in equal measure.
I know there are listeners who don't want to listen to this work, and do not consider it Mahler. Is the Tenth merely an academic exercise, then? Perhaps, and Deryck Cooke's is far from the only performing version around, although it remains the most popular.
Of the music, I like the inner movements the most. The ever-changing meters of the 2nd mvt. and the brevity of the 3rd mvt. are all a lot of fun. The outer movement's are more serious, and certainly bear the brunt of the runtime, where I really like the leaping melodic lines of the opening opposite its dance-like, plucked musical ideas.
Yet, this is a work I don't visit often, even if it provides a through-line from Das Lied von der Erde and Symphony no. 9 as Mahler's most modern concepts married to his familiar late-Romantic style.
As far as recordings go, Sir Simon Rattle seems to have a monopoly on Symphony no. 10, both for high quality performances and listener respect in the work. Rattle has certainly taken advantage of hindsight, picking and choosing scholarly choices in the symphony. Since I am not particularly attached to its music, I really could care less over the various tinkerings this work has received over the decades, even if I don't like the Bruckner treatment given to Mahler (or any other composer for that matter).
2006: Philadelphia, Ormandy (1964)
1992: Frankfurt RSO, Inbal
For now, we will have a very basic list of Mahler reviews above. The current list covers the most recent spate of listened recordings, not necessarily the best or most worthwhile. The older recordings are from our collection but newly reviewed, and the newer recordings represent recordings which were recommended to me. Until we at The Oozy Channel Keep have gotten ourselves up and running, this should suffice and we can reorganize the page a little more coherently in the future.