Download the greatest musical manuscript ever to be offered at auction

Media Release
For Immediate Release
Sotheby’s London | +44 (0)20 7293 6000 |Toby Skeggs | [email protected]
Rosie Chester | [email protected]
‘THE GREATEST MUSICAL MANUSCRIPT
EVER TO BE OFFERED AT AUCTION’
Monumental Manuscript of Mahler’s Complete Second Symphony
(The “Resurrection”)
Estimate in excess of £3.5m
On 29 November 2016, Sotheby’s in London will offer at auction the complete manuscript of Gustav
Mahler’s Second Symphony (the “Resurrection”). This dramatic manuscript, spanning 232 pages and
written in the composer’s distinctive hand throughout, is the highest-estimated musical manuscript
ever to be offered at auction, estimated in excess of £3.5m.
This hugely significant monument of musical history is made all the more noteworthy by its
remarkable provenance. It is being offered by the estate of the American economist and
businessman, Gilbert Kaplan (1941-2016), who, having become infatuated with Mahler’s Symphony
No. 2 upon seeing the piece performed at New York’s Carnegie Hall in 1965, dedicated his life to
realising his dream of conducting the piece with the world’s greatest orchestras.
“No complete symphony by Mahler, written in the composer’s own hand, has ever been offered at
auction, and probably none will be offered again. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to acquire a
manuscript of truly outstanding historical importance.”
Simon Maguire, Sotheby’s Senior Specialist, Books & Manuscripts
THE “RESURRECTION” SYMPHONY
The “Resurrection” symphony, which premiered in Berlin in 1895, is a truly monumental work - one
of the grandest, longest, and yet most accessible of Mahler’s creations. Performed with a 90-piece
orchestra, soprano and alto soloists, chorus and organ, the epic symphony extends to 90 minutes.
This was the first major work that saw the composer confront the universal themes of life and death,
which were so characteristic of his oeuvre.
Written in the composer’s own hand, the manuscript remains completely unaltered, untrimmed and
unbound – including deletions, alterations and annotations, many in vivid blue crayon. The work
retains the form in which Mahler left it, reflecting and revealing the compositional process for the
work. This manuscript was given by Alma Mahler, the composer’s widow, to Mahler’s friend the
conductor Willem Mengelberg in 1920 and acquired directly by Gilbert Kaplan from that conductor’s
estate in 1984. It has never been offered or sold on the open market, and is the most significant
music manuscript ever to be offered at auction*.
GILBERT KAPLAN: THE “SELF-MADE” CONDUCTOR
Witnessing a performance of Mahler’s Second Symphony at New
York’s Carnegie Hall in 1965 had transformative effect on the
American entrepreneur and publisher Gilbert Kaplan. “Zeus threw
the bolt of lightning. I walked out of that hall a different person”,
said Kaplan. He was later quoted as saying that “Mahler’s Second
wrapped its arms around me” and told the Boston Globe that,
“there’s been nothing that put me in orbit the way this did.”
Enlisting the help of the world’s leading conductors, he worked
tirelessly to learn, from scratch, how to conduct the piece – a feat
that has been compared to scaling Mount Everest. Over the
course of three decades, this improbable transformation would
see Kaplan perform the piece - and only ever this piece - more
than 100 times across the globe. Kaplan’s concerts intensified his
identification with the work: his acquisition of the manuscript was the culmination of his obsession
with the symphony.
-------------*The only comparable autograph music manuscripts of major symphonic works to have been sold at
auction are the celebrated manuscript of nine Mozart symphonies (which achieved £2.5 million in
1987) and the manuscript of Robert Schumann’s Second Symphony (which sold for £1.5 million in
1994).
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Estimates do not include buyer’s premium and prices achieved include the hammer price plus buyer’s premium.