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Case file s1911 · Music and sport · 1911
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1911
Gustav Mahler: Photo of Gustav Mahler by Moritz Nähr 01
Gustav Mahler. Moritz Nähr. Public domain, Wikimedia Commons.
Died
18 May 1911
Place
Vienna · Austria
Field
composer and conductor · Music on the timeline
Legal tradition
Austrian law · Civil law
Historical event
The Vienna of 1911; the 1960 BBC broadcast of the Cooke version
Religion
Gustav Mahler: Atheist and agnostic, Catholic, Jewish (recorded as Austrian Roman Catholics, Austrian agnostics, Converts to Roman Catholicism from Judaism on Wikipedia)
Member of
Schlaraffia (Wikidata)
Music and sportBurned papers and destroyed workIndustry and empireEuropeAustria

Alma Mahler held Mahler's unfinished Tenth Symphony for decades and first demanded a veto over Deryck Cooke's completion

Gustav Mahler died in May 1911 with the Tenth Symphony in draft. No one tried to complete it at once. A mistaken report led Richard Specht to suggest Mahler wanted the manuscript burned. His widow, Alma Mahler-Werfel, asked Ernst Krenek to prepare a copy. In 1924 Krenek copied only the first and third movements, and Paul Zsolnay published parts in facsimile that year. Franz Schalk conducted the Krenek-based score on 12 October 1924. On 19 December 1960 the BBC broadcast Deryck Cooke's performing version. Alma first demanded a veto over further performances, influenced by Bruno Walter. After she heard a recording, she reversed. A letter postmarked New York on 8 May 1963 gave Cooke full permission. Alma died in December 1964. Her daughter Anna Mahler then gave Cooke access to the full set of sketches, many unpublished in 1924. Cooke's completed version had its first concert performance at the Proms in London on 13 August 1964, conducted by Berthold Goldschmidt. Sources disagree on which movements Krenek finished and on the date of Alma's veto†.

What the law took from it

A widow who holds the sole manuscript decides whether the work exists, so a composer should leave written permission for completion.

Sources
  1. mahlerfoundation.orgPress
  2. nashvillesymphony.orgPress
  3. Wikipedia (English)Encyclopedia

Cite as: celebrity.estate, “Alma Mahler held Mahler's unfinished Tenth Symphony for decades and first demanded a veto over Deryck Cooke's completion,” story s1911, https://www.celebrity.estate/mahler-1911, updated 30 October 2026.

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Where this case sits

Music and sportBurned papers and destroyed workIndustry and empireEuropeCivil lawAustria