Caught by accident on the radio two years ago from the Proms, Iván Fischer's Mahler 1 was immediately gripping and very special, and this CD captures its qualities of absolute directness and clarity. The playing is lean and clean, not quite stylish but brilliantly transparent, as if the conductor is shining a strong torchlight on every corner of the score. Sometimes the performance lacks rhythmic lift, but the galvanising climaxes of the first and last movements are thrilling. The skilled Budapest players do everything to make up for the unhappy first performance of the symphony in 1889 – which, as it happens, was in Budapest.