I remember many years ago reading a Gramophone review of the culmination of Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt’s Decca Beethoven cycle, the Choral Symphony, where the closing remark described it as a “ Ninth to live with”. This description crossed my mind reviewing Vasily Petrenko in Mahler’s Third Symphony (although it’s unlikely even the most ardent Mahler afficionado would want to “live” with a work, the longest in the standard repertoire, which lasts around 95 minutes and has been described as the musical equivalent of an anaconda.)

Petrenko gets everything right here, in the  most encompassing of Mahler’s symphonic canon with its trajectory ranging from the pantheistic hierarchy and awakening of life to its divine transcendence. It perfectly illustrates Mahler’s credo that “a symphony must embrace the world”.

In the opening movement, Petrenko has its measure right from the opening fanfare and depictions of inanimate nature without getting bogged down in the primordial murk. The ‘chaos’ sections are well handled although, like just everyone else, they lack the sheer exhilaration of Bernstein (no one ever did chaos like Lennie).  At a few seconds short...