If, like me, you’ve always regarded Mahler’s Tenth Symphony as more a suggestion of what might have been, prepare to be convinced as never before. Not only is Osmo Vänskä’s one of the best recorded versions of the work – heard as is generally the case in Deryck Cooke’s third performing version of 1976 – it has a uniquely cohesive quality that belies the fragmented state of Mahler’s unfinished thoughts. Put simply, Vänskä and his Minnesota Orchestra make you believe in the work as a fully-fledged musical and dramatic entity. Their compelling and involving account had me on the edge of my seat from start to finish.

Until Cooke’s work on the Tenth – which received the blessing of the composer’s widow in 1961 – the only music to have been regularly played was the opening Adagio, all that Mahler managed to complete and score himself. The fact that the first Scherzo is labelled “Scherzo Finale” suggests that the symphony may have been intended to go out with a bang. Instead, the composer placed it in the second of five folders, a change of mood that may have been dictated by...