What fascinated Schönberg, Berg, and the avant-gardists after Mahler in this symphony—so strikingly lacking a tonal designation—has never been made so obvious as in this recording. Especially since the revolutionary quality does not remain confined to the sound of this Ninth, but is shaped by conductor Philipp von Steinaecker, formerly assistant to Claudio Abbado, into a worldview-like, musicianly inevitability so compelling that after just a quarter of an hour one is already fairly convinced that, should one be stranded in the foreseeable future on some island with anything other than this recording, it might well be worth attempting to swim.