Scott Cantrell

Talk about confounding expectations ...

Sir Simon Rattle's live 1993 recording of the Mahler Ninth Symphony, with the Vienna Philharmonic (also on EMI), is one of the best anywhere. This new one, with the Berlin Philharmonic, only intermittently rises above studied routine.

Now recording a new Mahler cycle with his Swiss orchestra, David Zinman has sounded strangely unengaged in the first three symphonies. But this Fourth is quite personalized, and lovingly played.

The Rattle Ninth starts unpromisingly, dawdling in place, with little sense of impetus. The tempo picks up, but still the music's visceral energies and passions seem walled off behind glass.

The bumptious second movement sounds similarly distracted, and not nearly earthy enough. The Rondo-Burleske is entirely too well-behaved, and the finale too emotionally cool. Recorded sound is vivid, but without much atmosphere.

In a fair world, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra would edit and release Claus Peter Flor's electrifying Mahler Ninth from last fall's concerts. And the recorded sound captured by engineers Roy Cherryhomes and George Gilliam would match any anywhere.

The Super-Audio sonics on the Zinman disc are breathtaking: clear and true, even a little sweet, the instrumental choirs are almost holographic presences in the lush acoustics of the Zurich Tonhalle.

Mr. Zinman caringly forms and caresses phrase after phrase, bringing out often-buried inner voices without making too much of a fuss over them. Naturally balanced, Luba Orgonásová sets just the right tone, suavely ingenuous, in the soprano solo.

C- Symphony No. 9. Berlin Philharmonic, Rattle (EMI Classics, two CDs)

A- Symphony No. 4. Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra, Zinman (RCA Red Seal)

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