Abridging mahlerₑs symphonies: A historical perspective

A hundred years after Gustav Mahler's death, it is widely considered blasphemous to cut any notes from the composer's symphonies. In recordings and live performances, the symphonies generally remain intact. In discographies, the few recordings listed in which material has been cut-including well-known ones by Hermann Scherchen in the 1960s-are viewed as curiosities that reflect the values of certain idiosyncratic conductors at specific moments in time. But the documentary evidence surrounding American performances of Mahler's works in the fifty years after his death in 1911-a time before his music became widely accepted-tells a different story. Performing scores, newspaper reports, and materials in orchestra archives demonstrate that cutting Mahler was a tradition with deep roots, and that several noted conductors regularly made significant deletions in Mahler's music. Special attention is given here to Wilhelm Gericke's performances of the Fifth Symphony and Serge Koussevitzky's premiere of the Ninth.