Runnicles Conducts Mahler 4 by Mozart, Mahler, Fra (2016/2016), Dirigent Donald Runnicles, City Halls, Glasgow, United Kingdom

A jangling of sleighbells, a little flurry of birdsong from the flutes – and is that a melody by Mozart? Not quite. Mahler’s Fourth Symphony might be his most classical in proportion, his most playful in style – outwardly, at any rate. But from deceptively innocent beginning to the “child’s vision of heaven” with which it ends, the Fourth has depths as poignant and profound as anything Mahler ever wrote. BBC SSO Conductor Emeritus Donald Runnicles is just the man to draw out its inner drama, and he’s joined by soprano Carolyn Sampson – who begins with two gloriously fresh vocal showpieces by the composer Mahler loved above all others: Mozart himself.