Steinaecker is a walking Mahler encyclopaedia; he listens carefully during rehearsals, corrects friendly, gives the musicians room, listens to suggestions: This is what collegiality looks like. (…) 
But what is this special sound—so utterly different from that of a modern orchestra? The strings are gentle and soft, the woodwinds warmly individual, the brass gentlemanly in their elegance, the balance a source of pure delight. Even when all one hundred musicians are working at full force, an astonishing number of details remain audible. Mahler, it becomes clear for the first time in Toblach, is a chamber musician whose agile imagination continually produces surprising effects and new color combinations. (…) 
Steinaecker, a most captivating musician who is at ease even under mega-stress, offers the synthesis of Gardiner and Abbado. Never before has a conductor gotten so convincingly close to this music. (…)
The Mahleriatics around Philipp von Steinaecker achieve an unrivalled audience triumph with the Fifth Symphony.