Expressivity without violence to the text, indeed, a fresh searching look at the text and a consequent abhorrence of unsanctioned ritards and rubatos; clarity of texture; and a kind of lean, kinetic intensity in getting all this across – these were features predictably in keeping with the Zander credo and modus operandi: but so was the sense of connectedness brought to structural events large and small, and how controlled a performance it was!…

…it was a big sounding Ninth, but not a particularly easy, demagogic one. At any given point it gave you something to hear freshly and think about…without being iconoclastic in tone, this Ninth was disturbing – in all the right ways – as well as satisfying, and quite an event.