G. Mahler Mahler: Symphony No. 5

With 50 or so recordings of this great work available, with superb Bernstein and Boulez fascinating at opposite ends of the heat spectrum and dozens of other valid ones in between, a reviewer approaches a new set with trepidation and the possibility of a stifled yawn. On goes this CD, and voila! One is dazzled. Recorded live in Koln in 1997, this finds the Chicago Symphony at its most virtuosic and Barenboim at his most engaged. The bitter is distinct from, rather than taken for, the gloomy; the martial does not seem out of place with the romantic. The third movement whips itself toward the ideal frenzy; the famous Adagietto is as lovely and lyrical as it gets. The performance holds together brilliantly in the way that Mahler wanted--all the disparate elements make their individual statements, but they are clearly part of the same worldview. This is superb, really--and even with an embarrassment of Mahler Symphony No. 5 riches out there, this one shines. --Robert Levine