Now available on DVD: Oleg Dorman’s documentary about Rudolf Barshai, entitled Rudolf Barshai: The Note – A lifelong quest for one single note, where, among other things, Barshai talks about his completion of Mahler’s Symphony No. 10.

Bernt Feuchtner on Barshai: “Rudolf Barshai conducted the Tenth with the Austrian Radio Orchestra at the end of the 1980s, in Vienna and Montpellier, but soon discovered that the dissatisfaction he felt could not be dispelled by a few corrections here and there. Changing details was pointless: he had to make his own revision. [...] Such refinements, which of course critically determine the overall musical form, could only have become first apparent to a musician like Rudolf Barshai, who has devoted his life to the interpretation of the great European symphonic tradition and lived with Mahler’s music for several years.” (Read the full text).

Listen to an excerpt of the finale from a recording of Barshai conducting the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie in September 2001 at the Konzerthaus Berlin:

A trailer for the DVD is available on YouTube:

Naxos: Rudolf Barshai: The Note – A lifelong quest for one single note