Although Haitink's digital Amsterdam account with Roberta Alexander has not been withdrawn, this new Berlin version will undoubtedly find an audience. Chief among its attractions is the radiant singing of Sylvia McNair in the finale. Even if her opportunities for tonal variety are limited by the conductor's marmoreal approach and the proximity of the microphone, she is always immaculately in tune, which counts for a good deal in my book. Unfortunately, there is little of that indefinable quality of radiance which has made Lorin Maazel's second recording such a firm favourite. Even more than Haitink, Maazel will have 'intellectualized' his interpretative options. The results are very different. Dawdling over phrase-ends and daringly slow, he is helped by Kathleen Battle's detailed characterization to project a lighter, more genuinely childlike vision, especially moving in the closing stages where the limpid playing of the VPO really comes into its own. The BPO are on their usual world-class form for Haitink, and it may be simply that, like many recordings made in the Philharmonie, this one tends to emphasize the heavy homogeneity of their sound to an unhelpful degree. The orchestra is certainly very present.
I have fewer reservations about the Poco adagio, which responds well to Haitink's solid, Beethovenian objectivity. The scherzo has just enough bounce, though it is not difficult to imagine a reading of greater bite and irony. It is the opening movement which sounds particularly stiff-jointed. RO was not alone in finding Claudio Abbado's Vienna recording overly preoccupied with fine points of scoring and minor fluctuations of tempo, but it is as well to be reminded of a different kind of Mahler interpretation, a younger man's view.
I hope I have not been unjust. The Fourth was always the Mahler symphony least likely to benefit from Haitink's latter-day way with this composer. The consistently darker tone, the slower tempos, the weightier sonorities, the reluctance to stoop to the articulation of picturesque detail for its own sake—all these factors make this, Haitink's third recording of the piece, less user-friendly, less immediately appealing than its predecessors. Like any unfamiliar dish, it might just improve with the tasting. I shall persevere.'