Haitink's account of the Ninth Symphony is one of the finest achievements in his Shostakovich cycle: what had sometimes seemed a loose assemblage of rather crudely coloured musical images is revealed as a true symphony, if an oddly constructed one, with veins of bitterness, poignancy and nostalgia threaded through even its most apparently brash pages. The much less 'difficult' First Symphony receives a good performance as well, but a less revelatory one: the playing is crisper and more attacking than that of Jarvi's SNO on Chandos (see above)—the spiccato strings in the second movement are especially brilliant—but the exceptionally reticent scoring of the piece, its often ghostly pallor and its frequent retreats into near-silence are all rather understated. More seriously, Haitink does not seem happy with the finale, which he takes at a rattling pace from which he finds it difficult both to decelerate convincingly at the meno mosso at fig. 20 and to whip up to the final presto. Jarvi goes for less violent contrasts and hints at unresolved tragedy rather than perfunctory raucousness as a result. But Haitink's Ninth is indispensable: it is very finely played and on CD even its densest climaxes are clean and transparent, despite the closeness of its recorded focus.'