The Right Version of “Correct”

So what does “authentic” mean in music? When there are 14 manuscript versions of a Mahler score, what were the composer’s final final thoughts? “Two years of note-picking research in Vienna have exposed almost 400 errors and oversights in the published score” of Mahler’s Second Symphony. On the other hand, maybe all 14 versions are “correct” in their own way. “It’s not wrong. In all 14 of Mahler’s scores he wants it to sound that way.”