CD: Mahler: Symphony No 4, Claycomb/ San Francisco Symphony/ Tilson Thomas

This is the fourth release in the San Francisco Symphony's live Mahler cycle with its music director, and like the recordings of the First, Third and Sixth Symphonies that preceded it, there is much to admire, especially in the svelte orchestral playing and vividly rich sound.

Once again, though, the slightly anonymous character of the performance prevents its becoming truly recommendable, though at least here the relaxed, playful side of the Fourth does chime with Michael Tilson Thomas's approach more convincingly than in some of the starker dramatic works of the Mahler canon.

Even so, there is still a sense of a whole dimension missing, of a darker undertow to the music that is never tapped; everything is blamelessly serene - including Laura Claycomb's singing in the finale - and in the end not sufficiently involving.