Mahler: Symphony No.10

Left unfinished at the death of the composer, Gustav Mahler's Tenth Symphony has exerted an enormous fascination on musicologists as well as musicians - a kind of Holy Grail of 20th-century music. Recognized as an intensely personal work, it was initially consigned to respectful oblivion, but over the years, Alma Mahler, the composer's widow, released more and more of Mahler's sketches for publication, and gradually it became clear that he had in fact bequeathed an entire five-movement symphony in short score (i.e. written on three or four staves). Of this, nearly half had reached the stage of a draft orchestration, while the rest contained indications of the intended instrumentation. Over the years a number of different completions or performing versions of 'the Tenth' have seen the light of day. One of the most often performed and recorded of these is that by Deryck Cooke. Cooke himself insisted that his edition was not a 'completion' of the work, but rather a functional presentation of the materials as Mahler left them. Cooke's performing version of the symphony is the one that Osmo Vanska has chosen to use for the seventh installment in his and the Minnesota Orchestra's Mahler series, a cycle characterized by an unusual transparency and clarity of sound as well as musical conception.

The Minnesota Orchestra, founded in 1903 as the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra, is recognized as one of America's leading symphony orchestras, winning acclaim for its performances at home and in major European music centres. In 2015 it became the first American orchestra to perform in Cuba following a thaw in relations between the two countries, and in 2018 it became the first professional US orchestra ever to tour South Africa. The Finnish conductor Osmo Vänskä was appointed the orchestra's tenth music director in 2003, joining a long line of celebrated music directors: Eiji Oue, Edo de Waart, Sir Neville Marriner, Stanisław Skrowaczewski, Antal Doráti, Dimitri Mitropoulos, Eugene Ormandy, Henri Verbrugghen and Emil Oberhoffer. The Minnesota Orchestra's radio history began in 1923 with a national broadcast under guest conductor Bruno Walter and continues today with regional and national broadcasts. Historic recordings of the orchestra, which date back to 1924, include releases for RCA Victor, Columbia, Mercury 'Living Presence' and Vox Records. The orchestra's recordings of the Beethoven and Sibelius symphonies with Vänskä have been hailed internationally, with their album featuring Sibelius's First and Fourth Symphonies winning the Grammy Award for Best Orchestral Performance in 2014.

Hailed as 'exacting and exuberant' (The New York Times), Osmo Vänskä is recognized for his compelling interpretations of the standard, contemporary and Nordic repertoires. Music director of the Minnesota Orchestra since 2003, Vänskä has received extraordinary acclaim for his work with many of the world's leading orchestras, including the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Berliner Philharmoniker, Czech Philharmonic Orchestra and Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra. He has also developed regular relationships with the Mostly Mozart Festival (New York) and the BBC Proms. His numerous discs for BIS continue to attract the highest acclaim, as testified by a 2014 Grammy Award for the performance of Sibelius's First and Fourth Symphonies with the Minnesota Orchestra; in 2017 his Minnesota recording of Mahler's Fifth Symphony earned Vänskä his fourth Grammy nomination with the ensemble. Vänskä studied conducting at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki and was awarded first prize in the 1982 Besançon International Young Conductor's Competition. During his tenure as principal conductor of the Lahti Symphony Orchestra (from 1988 to 2008), he raised the orchestra's international profile, taking it on successful tours and making recordings. His conducting career has also included substantial commitments to such orchestras as the Tapiola Sinfonietta, Iceland Symphony Orchestra and BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. Vänskä is the recipient of a Royal Philharmonic Society Award, Musical America's 2005 Conductor of the Year award, and the Arts and Letters award from the Finlandia Foundation.