http://www.bbc.co.uk/proms/2009/whatson/2007.shtml#prom5
A few nights ago we got so many bits and pieces we don’t know where to look - how to listen rather.
For Prom 5 we got a single piece, a single author, a single conductor and a single group of players.
Bernard Hatink’s intepretation of Mahler’s titanic 9th symphony was as singular as the conditions with which it was performed.
His vehicle - the exceptional London Symphony Orchestra – elevated each player to the role of soloist, so refined, individual and specific each single part was; gasp-inducing in the intimacy that can be relayed within such a sizeable and sprawling piece.
Haitink, now 80 years old, is the last line we have left to the great Bohemia-born composer who once described the symphony as ‘the greatest expression of human life’.
In Haitink’s hands these expressions assume an almost religious experience; the hour and twenty minute work leaving the audience changed for life.