This is an outstanding version of Bruckner's Ninth Symphony. Like Karajan's reading on DG, it's essentially a 'central' account of the score that attempts neither extreme breadth of utterance nor sharp-edged drama. Rather it's a reading that combines long lines, flowing but astutely nuanced, and sonorities that are fullbodied yet always finely balanced. The outer movements have great rhetorical and emotional power; the Scherzo is thunderous and glinting by turns. The Adagio begins very slowly but, for once, Barenboim gets away with it, the movement growing organically rather than remaining still-born near the start. This is a live performance and, as you would expect, it's superbly executed, the playing every bit as fine as it is on the Karajan recording. But even that doesn't compete with the natural splendours of this issue. This is superb Bruckner sound, spacious and clear, with strings, woodwind and brass at once unerringly 'placed' and finely matched. Given good engineering and the kind of astute playing we have from Barenboim and the Berliners, the Philharmonie is far from being the acoustic lemon it's sometimes said to be. This is a front-runner for this symphony.