The Observer 13 July 2008   Harding returns to the Viennese for this impressive recording. The slow burn towards the devastating finale is as impressive as any rival reading. Anthony Holden Sunday Telegraph 29 June 2008 The two scherzos, Harding believes, contain the most difficult music and there is no doubt that this orchestra - and Harding himself - have an intuitive understanding of their dance-rhythms, played here with remarkable virtuosity. But so is the heart-wrenching finale, its cathartic flute solo performed with wondrous phrasing and sensitivity. Sunday Times 22 June 2008 This reading of the 1989 revision…is an impressive journey. By the finale, with its dramatic bass-drum death stroke and that exquisitely beautiful flute melody, we have been sucked into the vortex of the music’s swirling psychological complexities, able to see not only Mahler’s tragedies, fears and emotional vicissitudes, but also our own. Stephen Petitt The Metro 20 June 2008 (Harding) brings clarity and excitement to the unfinished symphony, (and) the orchestra brings a delicious Viennese sense of suavity and sophistication. Overall, the result is a musical journey of great luxuriousness, subtlety and dramatic power. Warwick Thompson The Times 6 June 2008 Harding made his Philharmonic debut with this symphony in 2004, and you feel the team’s mutual comfort the moment those questing viola phrases launch the epic adagio. He’s wise enough not to stop the Viennese musicians from sounding Viennese. Their natural lilt brings major dividends in the fourth movement, where the waltz rhythms spin us into a neurotic nightmare. After this turn round the haunted ballroom, another high point arrives with the finale’s flute solo, so tender and sad, underpinned in the orchestra by another exquisite Viennese touch - phrases hugged as though no one wants to let them go. Always we’re sitting on edge, a full participant in Mahler’s emotional voyage through sorrow, recrimination and reconciliation. Harding is especially good managing Mahler’s turns of the screw, raising or lowering the emotional heat without upsetting the music’s structure. All in all, an outstanding account. Geoff Brown The Sunday Telegraph 4 December 2005   Daniel Harding conducts an unrelentingly dramatic account of this miraculous score. The Strad July 2005   (Benedetti and Harding) combine to create moments of fantasy that have the feel of instantaneous improvisation... The London Symphony Orchestra contributes a multitude of subtle shades. David Denton Gramophone June 2005 Daniel Harding draws intense playing from the LSO. Edward Greenfield The Telegraph 11 June 2005 Daniel Harding conducts splendid accompaniments.   The Telegraph 12 February 2005   Under Daniel Harding, the Mahler Chamber Orchestra are lithe in the Mendelssohn, and minimise any potential stodginess in the Schumann. Richard Wigmore The Times 5 February 2005   The Mahler Chamber Orchestra's playing is superb. Ivan Hewett Dallas Morning News 10 May 2005 Here he delivers a performance that says something new about this popular piece without venturing into eccentricity. Most conductors these days slow down and pull around the opening melody of this symphony. Harding instead takes a brisk tempo while keeping the texture light and airy? perfect for Mahler's celebration of youth and innocence. For once, Mahler sounds wholesome rather than basking in late-Romantic decadence. This performance stresses lucidity without sacrificing the score's romantic impulses or apocalyptic climaxes. The Mahler Chamber Orchestra plays gorgeously. Lawson Taitte The Telegraph 28 February 2005 Mahler's Fourth Symphony might be his smallest in scale, but it is rare to encounter it played by a real chamber orchestra. This performance really points up the way that the often intricate counterpoint of the solo instruments is laid bare against sometimes frugal background harmonies. This freshness is mirrored in Daniel Harding's interpretation, where all the details are captured and given their rightful weight. He has caught a love of true pianissimos from his mentors, Rattle and Abbado, and the performance demands quiet conditions for listening to appreciate its full dynamic range – the recording is admirably spacious and clear. His musicians play like a dream, full of individual character and evident involvement. Matther Rye The Independent 14 February 2005 ...A fresh-faced account of Mahler's Fourth Symphony... (In "Des Knaben Wunderhorn") Harding's accompaniments (are) always delicate and persuasive. Rob Cowan The Telegraph 15 December 2002   Daniel Harding's conducting of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra brings out all the virtuosity of Britten's scoring and the gripping drama of the music. Michael Kennedy International Record Review September 2002 Harding's suspenseful quietness and his flexibility - you can tell even without reference to the score which passages (there are many of them) Britten has marked "freely" - help all the singers...Harding's control and precision are backed by superb instrumental playing...to my mind this newcomer gets closer than any other recording to equalling Britten's own. Michael Oliver The Times 13 August 2002 This is...a recording you need. The chamber players on the original set are quite outshone by Daniel Harding and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra as they tease out the crucial instrumental interludes. Geoff Brown The Independent 25 July 2002 Daniel Harding tends each tapered instrumental line as if he were polishing the inner workings of a Webern miniature... These testify to Harding's impeccable ear; but most impressive is his ability to maintain a theatrical tension, so vital in recorded opera. Rob Cowan Sunday Times 9 July 2002   Not many 23 year olds get a chance to conduct a prestigious recording of one of Mozart's great opera, but Daniel Harding seizes his chance with elan.   Scotsman 14 July 2002 This Don's defining characteristic is vigour, with both cast and players whipped along by the conductor's enthusiasm. Harding takes some real risks...but he proves himself a master of dramatic tension.   Classic FM July / August 2000 Daniel Harding keeps the whole thing skipping along in a way that takes you straight to the warm summer evenings of Provence. Jane Jones Independent on Sunday 9 July 2000 Any doubts about Daniel Harding's massive potential as a conductor should be quelled by this extraordinary live recording. Harding chooses gestures that are indebted to the baroque but conveyed through the slickness of smooth modern instruments. The result is a kind of super-reality, commanding and terrifying in its conclusion... An exciting ride through this vicious opera.