Not only is this perhaps the greatest available recording of this work, it is also one of very best ever made. In my experience, only Haitink's Amsterdam recording is better. Levine's is fun, what with that rich Philadelphia Orchestra at his disposal. However, his IV is too slow, even with the great strings (more on that later) and the trumpeter may not be to everyone's liking. Both the Haitink and the Levine are out of print. No matter - this one will do just fine.

I guess what makes it work is that special brand of rich romanticism that Barbirolli brought to everything he conducted. The man simply felt the music - passionately. There is drama here, there is passion. The results can often be Shakespearean, not meaning to emphasize the conductor's Englishness. Even if Barbirolli may gloss over a section or two, these can be forgotten in light of the magnificent splendor of everything else. A Barbirolli performance is special. The same monumental quality he brought to Elgar he brought to Mahler (indeed, both composers had much in common).

As with his outstanding Sixth, Barbirolli does not hurry through the Fifth, but the tension never lets up. Given this framework, the NPO play with a wonderful, burnished quality highlighted by an absolutely golden brass section. Next to these guys, Chicago's brasses sound ugly while Philly's section may be a little cheesy. Barbirolli also has the best horn soloist in III. Notice how faithful the unidentified player is in realizing Mahler's explicit directions regarding dynamics. The horn players for Haitink and Levine (Mason Jones!) do not always play forte in their dialogues with the muted, antiphonal sectionmate, ruining the "echo in the mountains" effect. No such problems here. Maybe the result sounds a tad Edwardian on occasion. But if it's okay for Bernstein's old recording to sound vaguely "Old New York," then it's okay for the Londoners to bring Elgar into the mix.

I begins with a properly tragic trumpet call and mournful orchestra entrance. This is a true funeral march, grief-stricken and at a proper tempo (Walter and others rather whip right through the movement). The intense middle section is played to the breaking-point as Barbirolli wrings every ounce of emotion from these bars.

In II, Barbirolli chooses a more rugged, less propulsive tempo, letting the fury rise from the music naturally instead of forcing it out. The vaguely Hebraic second theme (first heard towards the end of I - the hero of the work?) has just the right character, and the music's hectic and overpowering conflicts are played to the tilt. Avoiding excesses of speed (try Scherchen if you want to laugh - it's a wonder some of his musicians didn't lose fingers), details come to the fore clearly and robustly. The choral climax is given just the right weight, while the crash that follows is properly devastating.

III is lyrical, though with just the right lilt, along with an Elgarian melancholy, particularly after the first horn solo. The final bars really rock - in contrast, Haitink seems unenergetic while Levine rushes.

The Adagietto is a textbook example of how to conduct this movement. Aided by great strings (as well as the superb EMI engineers, whose work is spectacular throughout the recording), JB selects a perfect middle-of-the-road tempo that enables the short movement to really sing. Tempi of this movement vary; one of Scherchen's recordings takes over thirteen minutes, while Haitink's Berlin performance is interminable. Levine takes just over twelve minutes, but the Philly strings make the trip worthwhile. Recently Gilbert Kaplan did research in order to prove that Mahler did not really want this movement done to slowly. Based on his findings, he concluded that the proper length of the movement should be 7-10 minutes. I agree, not so much because of that dreaded word "authenticity," but because the music simply sounds better at under ten minutes. This Barbirolli is (but not by much!), and given his phrasing and general way with this sort of thing (check out his Delius and Vaughan Williams as well), it simply doesn't get better than this.

V is also unhurried, but this time, maybe a little more energy would have been in order. The music does not always sound as joyous as it should. But the orchestra and recorded sound are both breathtaking and the final choral climax (basically a repeat of the end of II, except this time happiness prevails) has just the right kind of spirit.

The Dohyanni/Cleveland is also available on a budget label. I believe it is a dollar or so cheaper. Great performance, but the Cleveland maestro does not bring the same passion to the work that JB did. I have yet to hear the Chailly. People say it's excellent and given both Chailly and the fact that he has the incomparable Concertgebouw Orchestra at his disposal, I would believe it. Still, this one will always be one of the all-time greats, certainly near or at the top of the heap among recordings made before the mid-1990's. Should you get it, you will not be sorry as repeated listenings will reveal its many gifts. In fact, if you have read this far, what are you waiting for?

Yes, there may be more flashy performances about, but at budget price this is certainly one worth having. The sound is good throughout, and all of the parts are audible and clear. The playing is not as frenzyed as can be the case on other recordings, such as Rattle's new recording, and pace in maintained throughout. Overall, this is good for the price.

Usually, listen tends to judge Mahler's symphony no.5 based on the 1st movement, which is a dark and emotional funeral march.

Unfortunately most of the reviewer didn't comment about the most beautiful string work amongst Mahler's symphonies.

I find the 4th movement, Adiagetto is the best string of entire Mahler's work. For this CD, this movement is the best reward for all the listener hence I rated it 5 stars.

Why?

Sir John Barbirolli has insight of the bitterness among the music note. He has made the emotion blend with bitter sorrow, passionate and noble. My feeling completely submerged into the strings when listening to the 4th movement.

The mood from the 4th movement is the echo of the 1st movement. Should Sir John Barbirolli made the sound on 1st movement too bright, I think it might destroy the coherence for the entire symphony.

Like Mahler's 6th, there is a rainbow of orchestral colour and emotion to capture in this, Mahler's valedictory 5th Symphony. It is gladdening to be able to say that, here, Barbirolli achieves everything that could be expected from a single unique interpretation of this mighty work. The New Philharmonia respond commendably to his warm leadership and the coupling of conductor and orchestra pays dividends in the music making. Add to this, surprisingly good sound for the 60s and there is barely anything to fault.

Performance: 4/5

Don't read this wrong, the orchestral response is absolutely fantastic, their playing superb. Unfortunately, this is not Legge's Philharmonia of the '50s and '60s. Many of the greatest musicians have gone - died or moved on when the original Philharmonia was disbanded. The feeling is that this is not a world great anymore, merely just another English orchestra (though a good one at that). Put simply, this is a different orchestra from the one the likes of Furtwangler, Klemperer and Karajan had led. Gone is the warm, soft and immersive string tone to be replaced by something altogether thinner and more brittle. The bighting woodwinds, which Klemperer had the greatest hand in developing, have also been replaced with something of lesser directness. The sections that have lost the least, however, are the brasses and the percussion - they still produce weighty and full sounds that would make any of the world's orchestras proud. Fortunately, these merely fall into the category of quibbles (if not minor ones) as the collaboration of conductor orchestra and engineers work in partnership to pull off a fantastic recording. Has orchestral commitment ever been in less doubt? Listen to the final bars of the Adagietto - the orchestra squeezes out every last loveable ounce of musical passion from the score while they succeed in continuing that atmosphere, briefly, through the opening of the finale. The finale's weight, moreover, builds and builds as the orchestra reveals that it still has the capacity to be virtuosic. If the funeral march first movement lacks some of the power or weight or plushness of texture, it can be forgiven as the performance remains engaging throughout while the orchestra captures the colour of the three inner movements quite adeptly.

Sound: 5/5

EMI have not only made themselves proud of the sound on this record, they have done justice to an affecting performance. The engineers captured a lifelike image with clear weight from the brass and the bass elements of the orchestra. Not only that, the re-mastering has brought greater clarity warmth and presence to the sound. In short, there really is nothing to fault here - as long as you are expecting '60s stereo sound.

Interpretation: 5/5

As has already been implied (and highlighted by other reviewers), the first movement lacks some weight and orchestral pyrotechnical brilliance. But what Barbirolli lacks in ear catching surface gloss, he makes up for in musical cogency. The atmosphere remains funereal with real darkness in the brass and percussion. Barbirolli latches on to the emotional intensity of this piece and he never lets showmanship interfere with the spell he weaves. He also moves very well into the second movement, subtly playing up the contrasts in mood and colour between the first two movements. With a clear change in musical mood in the subsequent two movements, Barbirolli becomes slightly more upbeat and positive as he works towards that elating finale. The emotional power of the piece becomes clear when movements 3 and 4 feel like something of a relief from the stark moods of the first two movements. Overall, there is a feeling of warmth and gentleness from a conductor who evidently appears to be allowing Mahler and his score centre stage - without over-interpretation or self-conscious affectations, the music speaks for itself. The only caveat being that a broadening of tempo into the final bars of the final coda robs the chords of some of their finality.

This truly is a great recording; it is worthy of its re-release in EMI's Great Recordings of the Century. Long may they keep it available.

This recording of the Fifth has long been a classic of the gramophone. And deservedly so. Despite being, these days, probably the most popular of all the Mahler symphonies, it is not at all easy to bring off well. Mahler' music was in a stage of transition from his Wunderhorn period to the bleaker world of Symphonies 6 & 7. Here in No.5 he was trying out his new-found confidence in counterpoint and fugal writing. Here, too, is a newly won ability to play amazing sleight-of-hand tricks with his harmonic modulations, especially in the infamous Adagietto.

Barbirolli has a matchless ability to combine passion and the full weight of Romantic angst with intellectual rigour. The centre of gravity in the two linked first movements in Sir John's hands is the intense Kindertotenlieder derived funeral march rather than the trumpet and brass flourishes of the opening. He reveals how close its kinship is with all those other Mahlerian funeral marches from the First Symphony's slow movement through to the profound development in the Ninth's opening movement. The Scherzo is just glorious in this recording - impertinent, quirky, idiosyncratic, rumbustious, stompingly pesante by turns. The Adagietto is perhaps a little self-indulgently broad by modern standards, but Sir John is a master of all its conjuring tricks of enharmonic modulation from key to unexpected key. The final rondo, like so many of Mahler's finales, is the toughest movement to bring off. Barbirolli manages its tricky combination of Wunderhorn sarcasm with contrapuntal dexterity and fugal rigour perfectly. When the main theme of the Adagietto reappears here in Till Eulenspiegel style dress, Sir John catches just the right note of perkiness. And, as the chorale - so rudely cut off in its prime in the second movement - bursts through to the electrifying coda, it seems no less than the fitting end to this glorious performance.

A recording to treasure.