Here is Solti in mellow mood, always preferable to his high-voltage barnstorming. That does not mean there is any lack of grandeur and architectural splendour in this performance of Bruckner's Ninth, but it does mean that Solti takes a rather elegiac view of the symphony as a whole in contrast to Haitink's emphasis on its progressive features (Philips), especially in the first movement, and Jochum's lofty but ultimately rather bland interpretation (HMV). Solti's approach to the first movement suggests its kinship with Siegfried's Funeral March, with all Valhalla in mourning.
The Chicago Symphony Orchestra play wonderfully well for their chief, sensing his mood and sounding more like a European orchestra. The pizzicato in the Scherzo is superbly articulated, and the playing by the solo flute and oboe is a joy. In the finale, the violas' rhythmical figure which punctuates the great brass chorale, a haunting and menacing effect, emerges with remarkable clarity but in ideal perspective. For this, many thanks to the Decca engineers, who have forsaken their Solti/Mahler technique of what often sounds like a microphone suspended above each player in favour of a more distanced and better balanced sound.
Solti's pacing of the Adagio is a bit slower than Haitink's and faster than Jochum's. The violent climax, not equalled in symphonic music until the final Adagio of Mahler's Tenth, is most powerfully and impressively played—the calm, tragic resignation of the coda is all the more moving in contrast. This is a very fine performance in all respects. As with Jochum's EMI recording, Decca have avoided breaking the Scherzo between sides as occurs on the Haitink.'