A 27-minute bonus feature finds Riccardo Chailly discussing his interpretation of Mahler’s Fifth Symphony, a useful guide to both the symphony and his personal view of the work. You must watch it but make sure to experience the performance first, which differs from Chailly’s 1997 Concertgebouw recording (Decca, 4/98) in a number of key respects, in particular the second movement’s added drive, the way the Scherzo takes on extra degrees of colour (always a key attribute on Chailly’s best recordings) and, in particular, the way the Adagietto unfolds in seamless paragraphs, swiftly, unselfconsciously and with subtly voiced expression. At one point in the DVD feature Chailly listens to Willem Mengelberg’s 1926 Concertgebouw recording of the same movement – still the swiftest ever made – and you can tell by his reaction that the experience fits more or less exactly with his view of how the movement should sound. Granted, Mengelberg’s vintage strings sport portamentos that are a good deal more prominent than anything we’re likely to hear nowadays (although Chailly isn’t averse to using them, albeit more sparingly), but fluency is the thing, which is why the producers were able to effect a telling demonstration of musical continuity by seamlessly segueing from Mengelberg to Chailly almost as if the passage of time doesn’t exist. Needless to say, Chailly’s Concertgebouw Adagietto is a good deal slower than this Leipzig remake.

Maher’s Fifth comes packaged in three parts, the first two movements pitting the sardonic tread of a funeral march that erupts midway against a vehement second movement. You’ll need to take my word for it that the similarity to Webern at the fragmented close of the second movement struck my imagination before Chailly pointed it out but one might have expected that this master of Mahler’s musical ‘children’, the Second Viennese School and the like, would pick up on the connection. What’s also for sure is the handsome state of the Gewandhaus Orchestra under Chailly’s leadership, their responsiveness to his direction and the overall warmth of their sound. Chailly takes us on a journey from darkness to light, even comparing the symphony’s closing bars with Offenbach (Mahler was a great fan, apparently).

The sound quality is first-rate, always transparent but with a rich bass-line (ie the harp and basses in the Adagietto), the camerawork largely unobtrusive and more often than not focusing on Chailly himself. He’s a pleasure to watch, being neither over-demonstrative nor affectedly matter-of-fact. He looks like what he’s conducting and one senses that the orchestra agrees. If the rest of this projected second Chailly Mahler cycle is as good as this, then I suspect we have treats aplenty in store.