"That CAN'T be the way Mahler wrote it?!"

     The other day I went to play my placement audition for the school year's orchestra position and major ensemble(s). The audition requires you to prepare four excerpts (chosen by the performance faculty staff) that should give them a good idea of your ability to cope with tough rhythms, up-in-the-stratosphere-notes, and in the case of this Mahler excerpt, wacky accidentals:

Hold on, WHAT?
     Are you even allowed to do that?! It's clear this number was picked to test our reading ability when confronted with over the top notation, but couldn't they have picked something full of legal accidentals at least? My dad took one look at the page and said with horror, "Mahler could not have written it that way!" I agreed wholeheartedly. Mahler was a smart fellar' right? He knew theory, he knew the rules of accidentals, and he most certainly understood that it's cumbersome and unnecessary to put flat accidentals in a sharp key. But why would the university choose such a horrible messy arrangement? If this is to prepare us for the UofT orchestra, I want out! I certainly wouldn't expect them to pick such awful pieces to read to play as repertoire throughout the year right?
     Well, feeling pretty confident about my hypothesis that they picked this mess simply to screw with us and watch us squirm I decided not to worry too much if I butchered it - everyone must be butchering it! After I completed my audition, they asked if I had any questions, so I asked them where they got that arrangement with all those crazy flats and double-accidentals. They happily told me that was the way it was originally written. Pardon??!!
Eff this shit Mahler. We are not cool.