Where some conductors cultivate neo-classical grace and order in this music, Gatti relishes just as much its pungent discontinuities. Like Rattle, he seems to take...

Where some conductors cultivate neo-classical grace and order in this music, Gatti relishes just as much its pungent discontinuities. Like Rattle, he seems to take his cue from the opening bars and the way the childlike, jingling sleigh bells are caught out, immediately undermined. . . . One could hardly mistake Gatti’s exceptional ear in the first movement: he unearths a wealth of uncomfortable detail, wind lines in particular jostling for attention like gawky adolescents. . . . After a Scherzo in the same provocative vein, the slow movement is projected with extreme sensitivity. Don’t expect the lofty, Beethovenian repose of Sir Colin Davis: Gatti is lighter and more flexible . . . . [T]he string lines are shaded with exquisite, heartfelt lyricism, radiant high above the stave. In the finale, the light, shining timbre of Ruth Ziesak is a distinct asset, well-placed to offer consoling balm as Mahler evokes the joys of heaven and its music through the eyes of a child. . . . [T]his is a reading of real originality. The four songs are a welcome bonus in sympathetic orchestrations by David and Colin Matthews. . . . The eloquent notes are by David Matthews for whom ‘Mahler is one of the first composers whose work relates to the whole history of music rather than simply to his immediate predecessors; in this respect he belongs very much to our time.’ Gatti’s Mahler has this ‘authentic’, all-embracing quality: he dons the X-ray specs of modern Mahler interpretation without sacrificing the emotional warmth of a previous generation. -- Gramophone