Coveted Mahler manuscript, estimated to fetch HK$35m, on display in Hong Kong before going on auction in London
Composer’s Resurrection Symphony, in his own hand and complete with alterations and annotations, open for public viewing from August 17–19
A highly sought-after classical music manuscript will be on display in Hong Kong next week before it goes on auction in London, where it is expected to fetch around HK$35 million.
The complete manuscript of Gustav Mahler’s Second Symphony – known as the Resurrection Symphony – will be open for public viewing at Sotheby’s Hong Kong Gallery from August 17–19, allowing music lovers to get a closer look at the monumental 232-page work by the Austrian late-Romantic composer.
“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,” said Simon Maguire, Sotheby’s senior specialist on books and manuscripts, describing the work as one “of truly outstanding historical importance”.
Written in Mahler’s distinctive hand, it is the highest estimated musical manuscript ever to be offered at auction, with punters hoping it will make more than £3.5 million (HK$35.25 million) when it goes under the hammer in London on November 29.
The manuscript is being offered by the estate of American economist and businessman Gilbert Kaplan, who acquired it from the estate of conductor Willem Mengelberg, a friend of the Mahler family, in 1965.
It has never previously been offered or sold on the open market, remains completely unaltered, untrimmed and unbound, and includes deletions, alterations and annotations, many in vivid blue crayon.
The Resurrection Symphony premiered in Berlin in 1895, is performed with a 90-piece orchestra, and has been touted as one of the composer’s grandest but most accessible creations.
The manuscript’s current owner, Kaplan, became infatuated with the work after a “transformative experience” watching it performed at New York’s Carnegie Hall in 1965.
“Zeus threw the bolt of lightning. I walked out of that hall a different person,” he said of the experience.
