Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Piere Boulez - Mahler: Symphony No. 9 (1998)

Like a miner, Boulez finds the Inner symphony, the one hanging on inside lines, and leads Mahler to new light -and he lets the horns ride like sultans in the Andante! It's an amazing reading. Boulez' motive is so enlightened by care and love, his Mahler really comes like nothing else before it. I say no matter your experience with Mahler, listen to these recordings of the Symphonies by Boulez - even the CSO seems to extend itself. What a clement musician Boulez is! He sets those opening chords to splash and be plain until almost a kind of humming seems achieved, so indifferent is he to everything but the most transparent witnessing of the score. It's an extraordinary idea. This is musicianship to admire forever, courageous and operating in high country in these Mahler recordings. The last movement here is as harrowing as the first is emotional! And the DG sonics are part of the wonderful story! Get this recording! After the experience, you'll seek no other Mahler 9 for some long time.