When Simon Rattle first recorded Mahler’s Seventh Symphony with the City of Birmingham Orchestra in 1991, he was coming to the composer for the first time.

Following his stunning No. 2 and an excellent No. 10, EMI wanted him to record the rest of the complete set. So, he did. Those performances were competent, but in the intervening years in Berlin, London, and now Münich, he has matured into a great Mahler conductor who knows these works intimately and also knows how he wants to present them.

The Seventh (1904-05) is a tricky piece, and was once the most rarely performed of Mahler’s orchestral symphonies. Dubbed “The Song of the Night”, because of its second and fourth movements (“Nachtmusik I and II”), No. 7 lacks the emotional thrust of Nos. 5, 6 and 9. It is an impressionistic work, more concerned with atmosphere and colour, and quite experimental in its quirky orchestration. Rattle, with his new Bavarian orchestra (who played plenty of Mahler under Mariss Jansons) revel in the piece, bringing the music to life with well-placed accents, sharp attack,...