Mahler: Symphony No 2 in C minor 'Resurrection'

"Throughout [the opening], Rattle marshals his players enough to let the schizophrenic terror of the movement have its effect...Exultantly we are drawn onward, though, toward the inevitable choral closing section, which is positively heaven-sent when it finally arrives... in Rattle's hands it is supremely thrilling." (BBC)

"Of course there's much to admire. The BPO are on fantastic form, the recorded sound is sumptuous but clear and Rattle brings some new thoughts to the piece. The first movement is striking for its deliberate, almost stealthy beginning, and there's a slow, almost dreamlike delicacy about the music." (Daily Telegraph)

"the sound is almost miraculously analytical, and the combination of Rattle's attention to detail and the superlative playing of his great orchestra ensures that every morsel of Mahler's scoring makes its point."
(Guardian)

"the post-holocaust enchantments are magically coloured. For anyone who cares about this symphony Rattle's new recording is essential listening, if not necessarily a first port of call...[he] sets new standards with the light, shade and shock of his Berlin funeral rites which open the symphony." (BBC Music)

"Rattle places considerable weight on this audacious conflation of tone-poem...and sonata-form...his is undoubtedly a reading of as well as for the present."
(International Record Review)

"Magdalena Kožená's first four notes at the start of 'Urlicht' are firmly focused as the sound emerges from the dying tam-tam stroke. Now Rattle brings off something of a coup. The slow, quiet brass chorale that follows is played offstage, in the distance. This is an effect I've never heard before from any conductor."
(Recording of the Month MusicWeb Feb 2011)

"Kožená brings her customary depth of feeling to the still maternal voice of "Urlicht"...Rattle's famous piano-pianissimos are deployed to breathtaking effect, the choral passages (radiantly illuminated at the top by Kate Royal) sound pure, mysterious and very Bachian, and the returning resurrection hymn is tremendous"
(Gramophone Magazine Editor's Choice March 2011)