"Bernard Haitink has apparently only recorded the Ninth Symphony once before, as part of his complete cycle with the Concertgebouw Orchestra for Philips, released in...

"Bernard Haitink has apparently only recorded the Ninth Symphony once before, as part of his complete cycle with the Concertgebouw Orchestra for Philips, released in 1970....there's a feeling of urgency about this new performance that I don't remember in Haitink's Mahler before, as if he is now almost impatient with the Ninth's resigned acceptance of mortality. There's an angularity about the woodwind lines and a rawness to the textures from what is one of Europe's finest orchestras that seems to expose the music's nerve ends; it's not always comfortable listening, but it is sometimes startling." - Andrew Clements, The Guardian, London