CD: Mahler: Symphony No 5, Zurich Tonhalle Orch

It's hard to imagine two more sharply contrasted performances. Gustavo Dudamel's impulsive account, recorded in Caracas in February this year, is that of an immensely talented young conductor whose reading of the Fifth needs to settle and mature. The playing of the Simón Bolívar orchestra is wonderfully vivid, yet as a whole the reading never coheres, with the focus blurring in the first two movements, and the adagietto taken absurdly slowly and without the beauty of string tone needed to sustain it at such a speed.

Georg Solti's, on the other hand, is taken from the last concerts he conducted before his death 10 years ago. Compared with his earlier studio recording, and even with the one taken from his farewell concert with the Chicago Symphony in 1991, his approach with the Tonhalle Orchestra is mellower, yet everything fits together precisely: the first two movements make a complementary pair, the adagietto never loses its momentum, and the finale pulls the threads together with total conviction. What seems just bluster from Dudamel is assured and deliberate under Solti; that Dudamel will get the full measure of this symphony before too long, though, is never in doubt.