Mahler: Symphony No. 9

Disc 1
1	Symphony No. 9 in D major
2	Symphony No. 9 in D major
Disc 2
1	Symphony No. 9 in D major
2	Symphony No. 9 in D major
Mahler: Symphony No. 9
1.	Symphony No. 9 in D major 1:23:33
	Composed by Gustav Mahler
	Performed by Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
	Conducted by Simon Rattle

All Music Guide

Before Simon Rattle, only two other conductors had recorded Mahler's "Ninth Symphony" with both the Wiener Philharmoniker and the Berliner Philharmoniker: Claudio Abbado and Leonard Bernstein (although it should be added that Bernstein also recorded the work with the New York Philharmonic and the Concertgebouw Orchestra and that his Vienna performance is available only as a video.) Placed in that company, Rattle emerges about mid-pack, making a stronger impression than Bernstein by eliciting supremely taught playing from the Berlin group, but falling short of Abbado's unrelenting intensity and attention to detail. Where Rattle is content to allow the Vienna Orchestra to cruise on sensual autopilot, Abbado demands complete attention, forcing the ensemble to play even better than it usually does. So, while the sound of the world's most virtuosic orchestra tearing loose in the Rondo-Burleske under Rattle is undeniably breathtaking, one may miss the warmth, passion, and dedication of the performance with Abbado. However, the English conductor manifestly knows the work backwards and forwards, and his leadership is highly illuminating in the works knottiest pages. EMI's digital sound for Rattle is lush and full, but, again, not nearly as vividly present as DG's digital sound for Abbado. James Leonard

Gramophone

An awesome achievement. James Inverne

Newark Star-Ledger

1/2 Rattle aims to extract maximum nuance from the score, which he achieves with amazingly detailed phrasing (and in the richest sound EMI has produced in Berlin lately). Bradley Bambarger

Daily Telegraph

It works its magic on a deep emotional level: with the unsurpassed Berlin strings surging through the rich, plangent harmonies of the final Adagio, it is the kind of music-making that leaves you feeling drained, even distraught by the end - as it should. Matthew Rye

Raleigh-Durham News & Observer

There is plenty of lovely string tone and stylish playing -- Mahlerian style. An electric charge runs like balled lightning through the first movement as one idea, one mood, succeeds another.... The Rattle-Berlin marriage, with its ups and downs, has produced nothing as fine as this. The engineers have done a marvel, too. David Perkins