When I first heard of this new reworked revision of the Symphony No. 10 in F-Sharp Minor by Gustav Mahler I must admit that I was a bit leery and sceptical as to its end result. After all there already exists about a dozen or so arrangements, completions, orchestrations, adaptations and/or revisions of this "unfinished" symphony, the most famous and commonly used one being the version by Deryck Cooke. What Maltese composer and conductor Michelle Castelletti has done here is a fusion of the Cooke and Barshai versions pared down to a chamber-sized orchestration, similar to the many revisions Arnold Schoenberg did on other Mahler works and important orchestral pieces in order to bring about more public performances at a lesser cost.

Scored for single woodwind, horn, trumpet, percussion, harp, piano/harmonium and single (chamber) strings, it may not have the emphatic weight and scope of the full orchestral versions, but don't let that detract you from acquiring a copy of this recording. Let me point out that the essence of Mahler's intent is intact in this highly expressive account. Passages where Mahler seems to have caught a glimpse of the cosmos, like the ending of the first movement for example, are sublime. The "devil may care" spirit of the first Scherzo, the odd and impish pastoral feel of the Purgatorio movement, the turn of the century decadent waltz that is the Allegro pesante. It's all there and projected extremely well by the members of the Lapland Chamber Orchestra and conductor John Storgards. In this "chamber" attire, all the crucial thematic details come through clear and sharp. And I was worried that the grim and fatalistic elements opening the final movement would go missing, but was I ever wrong. It's as foreboding as it gets and the supremely beautiful flute melody that rises out of it is stunning. And to me, this final movement is pure, unadulterated Mahler at its best. And this performance exemplifies this very well. The final 5 minutes or so could melt the heart of a yeti.

This is the world premiere recording of this chamber version by Michelle Castelletti, presented in trademark BIS superb audio engineering.