Mahler: Symphony No. 1 in D major 'Titan'

“Gergiev’s Mahler cycle at the Barbican has been accused of excess – as if in Mahler’s, of all music, that were necessarily a crime. Certainly, everything here tends to be taken to extremes: the lovely vernal freshness of the first movement’s main theme, the oppressive heat at the start of its development section, the scherzo’s hint of menace, the trio’s of eeriness, the slow movement’s macabre humour, the finale’s nightmarish violence and the passionate tenderness of its dream of remembered happiness. The result, with the LSO playing with marvellous expressiveness and energy, is irresistible, at once disciplined and joyfully spontaneous.” Sunday Times, 18th May 2008 ****

“"a riveting performance … vital, reckless and thrilling …one of the most exciting things I've heard from the LSO"” Independent on Sunday

“David Zinman has achieved what is rarely achieved by a conductor: his own sound, soft strings, warm and reduced winds that suddenly burst with exaltation, wonderful percussion – all is one cosmos, follows one idea, the intense search for emotions.” – Welt am Sonntag

'The reading and the playing remain as persuasive as ever ... [Solti] has dropped back the pace of the scherzo a notch or two with beguiling effect; the reading is now all one could ask for... the strings are first-rate in the "Wayfarer" music ... the new version has a clear edge in both playing and recording in the symphony's peroration ... the Chicago players give Solti everything he asks for in sonority, power, and rhythmic attack" ... as an interpreter of this symphony Solti has lost little of his old flair and insight'. Gramophone October 1984

'Thomas Hampson impressively sustained his long lines both here and elsewhere, finding an enviable range of colour between and within songs.' (Barry Millington, The Times 1991)