It would be tempting but absurd to dismiss this finely played, deeply considered performance as unidiomatic. It is, however, on the slow side, a factor that did not deter RO from giving it an enthusiastic reception in 1977. Giulini was bom in Barletta in southern Italy, but he grew up in the North, familiar with the lakes and mountains of the south Tyrol which inspired so much of Mahler's later music. The Ninth is in some respects ideally suited to his particular talents. A selective but devoted Mahlerian, he has long made a speciality of valedictory utterances. Both his 1959 Philharmonia recording of Tchaikovsky's Pathetique (EMI 4/89) and his 1988 Vienna Bruckner Ninth (DG, 8/89) enjoy quasi-legendary status. Bernstein's eruptive manner is not the only way to present Mahler's extraordinary score. Giulini positions the argument in the mainstream of German romanticism and imbues it with an elevated spiritual quality. For the most part, the results are deeply affecting.
The first movement at once sets forth this distinctive view—large-scale, marmoreal yet often beatific, tracing long lyrical lines with exemplary clarity. A few details obtrude more cussedly than you feel Giulini intends (something that might not have happened in Vienna or Berlin) but the Chicago players cope admirably with some unusually spacious tempos. No doubt Angst turns to Italianate elegance too readily for some tastes and there are passages where the argument seems artificially becalmed in abstract contemplation. The second movement is chiefly remarkable for Giulini's weighty interpretation of the waltz element (Tempo II), these are somewhat doleful Austrian peasants with outsize boots. The Rondo-Burleske is the problem I think—altogether less convincing, bald but tame at Giulini's lumbering gait. While contrapuntal details are unearthed with great skill, the effect is oddly neutral, almost inconsequential The finale is the principal glory of this performance, notably unhysterical and never too literal. The last pages have a simple dignity which contrasts sharply with the heart-rending emotionalism of a Barbirolli or a Bernstein. At the price, admirers of the conductor should not hesitate. The sound itself is excellent for its period; there are copious cues.'