Rare Mahler Score Found
   NY Times 23 November 2002

   JERUSALEM, Nov. 22 (AP) - Musicologists are hailing the discovery
   of a score of the First Symphony by Gustav Mahler that contains
   his handwritten revisions, found in the archives of the Jerusalem
   Academy of Music and Dance by a teacher, Charles Bornstein. It
   had been filed away for more than 40 years, said the academy's
   chairman, Avner Biron.

   Musicologists said the discovery of such a rare manuscript held
   enormous value, shedding light on the composer's thought process.
   But they said that Mahler constantly revised his works and that
   this was probably one of many versions of the symphony.

   "It's a fantastic discovery for Mahler scholarship," said Leon
   Botstein, a Mahler expert and music director of the American
   Symphony Orchestra. "Will it really change our view of the
   symphony? I doubt it."

   Mr. Bornstein, a conductor himself, said the score was an early
   version of the symphony, published by the Viennese music publisher
   Josef Weinberger, probably in the 1890's. He said Mahler
   subsequently made substantial revisions.

   Mr. Bornstein described the thrill he got when, while teaching
   a class one day, he noticed that trumpet notes toward the end
   of the first movement had been marked out by red-inked M's.

   "I got shivers down my spine," he said. "I realized that I had
   given a lecture on Mahler's First Symphony, holding his own
   score. This was something sacred."

   To confirm his suspicions, Mr. Bornstein said, he arranged to
   have the score sent to a Mahler expert and musicologist in Paris,
   Henry-Louis de la Grange, who confirmed the handwriting as
   Mahler's.

Scott Morrison <[log in to unmask]>