Chicago Symphony Orchestra

“With Haitink in charge of the Shostakovich, there can be no threat of exaggeration or distortion, no need to whip up a greater frenzy than the composer plotted. No conductor can make this long symphony short but this conductor keeps the lines taut and the climaxes proportional. This conductor makes the macabre spasms sharp, the sombre indulgences poetic… the final unearthly cadence was greeted with a small eternity of stunned silence. It meant more than any push-button ovation.” Financial Times

“account of the Fourth is masterly, underlining the work's claims to be Shostakovich's finest, the one in which his debt to Mahler is most vividly declared. It helps to have an orchestra as secure and rich-toned as the Chicago Symphony in music whose vivid colours and almost expressionist intensity are so important; Haitink ensures that the symphonic skeleton is boldly defined too.” The Guardian, 22nd August 2008 ****

“This recording demonstrates the orchestra's keen response to the music's darker moments of rumination, its rhythmic and harmonic pungency and, through razor-sharp incisiveness of attack, its modernist leanings.” The Telegraph, 23rd August 2008

“In a DVD accompanying Bernard Haitink's musically satisfying account of Shostakovich's Fourth Symphony, creative director and narrator Gerard McBurney and actor Nicholas Rudall compellingly spin out its greater Soviet and Stalinist context. Haitink's ken for large-scale tension leads to commanding, crunchy climaxes... With haunting passages by the woodwinds, especially clarinets, the angst and dread at the core of this... symphony come through.” Gramophone Magazine, November 2008

“If the performance didn't quite move me in the way that Gergiev did, or before him Jansons (LSO Live), Abbado (DG) and Tilson Thomas (San Francisco Symphony), it may be the fault of the recording, which is perhaps better at capturing detail (the harps and celesta sound particularly well focused) than impressing with its sonic impact.” The Telegraph, 31st May 2008

“Mahler's massive Symphony No. 6 is played by Haitink and the CSO with a transparency, even a delicacy, that seems to stop time.” Chicago Sun-Times Concert Review

“A powerful sense of drama pervades Haitink's draining account of Mahler's Tragic Symphony, the Sixth, a stunning testament to the Dutchman's reign as principal conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. His Chicago musicians take on new character with each increasingly vivid episode, from the hungry chomp-chomp of the opening to the golden serenity of the Andante. The Scherzo grunts, cackles and laughs through the blasé horn, although the cod-baroque strings could have more comic lightness. The massive finale is dominated by the mental image of the solemn, executioner-like percussionist with his huge mallet moving slowly towards the wooden box of fate.” The Times, 10th May 2008 ****

“After Gergiev, this might seem staid - but is builds into a remarkable reading… Haitink's finale belies the slowness of its pacing, its accumulation of inner tensions the fruit of a lifetime's experience with this score. There are more splenetic, precise accounts available, few which convey its burden of care in quite such magisterial fashion.” Gramophone Magazine, August 2008

“This is a very beautiful Mahler Sixth - with all the strengths and weaknesses that implies. Rarely have the refinement and richness of Mahler's orchestral palette been so lovingly demonstrated.” BBC Music Magazine, June 2008 ***

“Bloch suggested the cello in Schelomo could represent the voice of Solomon. Ma invests the solo part with regal and sagacious qualities, but shot through with frailty. Khongorzul Ganbaatar contributes a nape-prickling vocal to Sharav's Legend of Herlen. Harrison's Pipa Concerto is predominantly bright in texture and lively in demeanour. Prokofiev's suite is very exciting and allows the Chicago SO to show off its power.” BBC Music Magazine, July 2008 ****

"One of Barenboim's most striking traits is the close musical bonds he has forged with some of the world's top soloists. Artists such as Radu Lupu and Itzhak Perlman have popped up again and again on the CSO schedule… They are welcome visitors, since they all but guarantee a remarkable depth of communication between soloists and orchestra.“ Gramophone

"To characterize the reading [of the Elgar] I can only say that if Heifetz in his prime had been able to play it not just with his usual power and technical perfection but also with the sweetness and nonchalant flair of Kreisler, then you may get an idea of the assurance of Perlman here, backed by the ever-understanding Barenboim drawing playing from the Chicago orchestra of characteristic refinement. [...] For many it will be a first choice in a long and varied list." Edward Greenfield, Gramophone, June 1982

“An exuberant partnership between two of the most distinguished Italian musicians of the day.” - Penguin Guide