Frans Bouwman

Frans Bouwman (born Franciscus Alphonsus Maria Bouwman), born December 8, 1951 in The Hague – The Netherlands, is a Dutch pianist, musicologist and expert on Gustav Mahler’s unfinished 10th Symphony.^[1]

Early Life and education

Frans Bouwman grew up in a Catholic family of ten children. His introduction to classical music came through his father, who often played records of classical music at home. Jewish music, which he listened to on 78 rpm records, made a big impact on the young Frans. When he heard the Adagietto from Gustav Mahler’s Fifth Symphony in a recording by the Dutch conductor Willem Mengelberg and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, it led to a lifelong passion for the music of the Austrian Jewish composer.^[2]

At the age of 14 his parents allowed him to start piano lessons.^[3] Five years later he entered the class of Gerard Hengeveld at the The Hague Royal Conservatory. While working at the municipal library, Bouwman discovered a facsimile edition of Mahler’s 10th Symphony, published in 1924 by Paul Zsolnay.^[4] At that time, British musicologist Deryck Cooke was already on his way to complete what would become the first performing version of the symphony. The Cooke version, which to this day remains the standard performing version of the symphony, would only be published in 1976, but the young Bouwman already corresponded with Cooke by the end of the 1960s.^[5]

During his studies at the Royal Conservatory Frans Bouwman completed an arrangement of Mahler’s 10th for two pianos. The premiere was performed by himself and pianist Katy Satur, whom he had met at the conservatory and married in 1977. He completed his piano studies in 1975, the same year in which Deryck Cooke’s performing version received its Dutch premiere by the The Hague Residentie Orchestra under the baton of Jean Martinon.^[6] After completing his piano studies, Bouwman went on to study at the University of Utrecht, where he studied with Marius Flothuis and received his Bachelor degree in musicology.^[7]

Collaborations and critical edition

In 1986, a Mahler X Symposium was held in Utrecht in The Netherlands. During this symposium, the performing versions of Mahler’s 10th Symphony by Deryck Cooke and Clinton Carpenter were programmed as well as the premiere of a new version by Remo Mazzetti.^[3] Frans Bouwman was engaged to proof read both the full score and the individual orchestra parts of the Mazzetti version. By comparing the score with his copy of Mahler’s manuscript, Bouwman was able to find and rectify many errors. He managed to complete this work in the remaining weeks before the start of the symposium. It was this version that was performed by Bouwman and Katy Satur at the opening of the symposium, which was broadcast by the Netherlands Broadcast Production Company (NOB). The complete orchestral performing version by Remo Mazzetti was ultimately premiered in 1989.^[8]

In 1997, Bouwman received an invitation to collaborate on the Joseph Wheeler performing version at the MahlerFest in Boulder Colorado. After this collaboration, the acclaimed violist and conductor Rudolf Barshai invited Bouwman to work with him on his performing version. It would mark the beginning of a long collaboration that ultimately resulted in the Barshai version of Mahler’s 10th Symphony.^[9] More recently it was the young Israeli conductor Yoel Gamzou who also drew on the extensive and intimate knowledge that Bouwman possesses of Mahler’s unfinished symphony, leading to the publication of the Gamzou version in 2010.

Bouwman meanwhile had articles about his work published in The Musical Times, collaborated on the book “Perspectives on Mahler” and was published in the Viennese Mahler Society’s publication "Mahler News". He was also interviewed by Han Reiziger on the Dutch Radio 4.^[10] The focus of Frans Bouwman’s scholarly work has been the creation of a complete and annotated transcription of all the surviving sketches of the unfinished manuscript of Gustav Mahler’s 10th Symphony. In this critical edition, all the surviving manuscript pages in their various compositional stages will be presented for the first time in their entirety and in one comprehensive edition. The British composer Collin Matthews, who collaborated with Deryck Cooke on his performing version back in the 1960s, supports Bouwman in his efforts. The publication of the critical edition is planned for 2017.^[11]

Works

• Performing version of Gustav Mahler’s 10th symphony by Deryck Cooke, version for two pianos, 1985.^[12]
• Performing version of Gustav Mahler’s 10th symphony by Remo Mazzetti, version for two pianos, 1985.
• Bibliography of all publications related to Mahler’s 10th symphony, 1996.
• Annotated transcription of the surviving manuscript material of Mahler’s 10th symphony, 2017.

References