All just my personal opinion
The first part of this evening was devoted to Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No.3 in D minor, op.30 — a well-respected benchmark among pianists of the top league. Lise de la Salle played this concerto eloquently, with compassion — she visibly lived with the music, also in the orchestral parts: her playing is fluent, competent, aimed at a full, rounded sound…
Mahler: Symphony No.5 — comparing recordings with the following artists: Walter/NYPO (1947), Haitink/Concertgebouw (1970), Solti/Chicago SO (1970), Abravanel/Utah SO (1974), Sinopoli/Philharmonia (1985), Bernstein/VPO (1987), Abbado/BPO (1993), Zinman/TOZ (2007)
Beethoven: Symphony No.4 in B♭ major, op.60 — comparing recordings with the following artists: Bernstein/New York Philharmonic (1962), Bernstein/Vienna Philharmonic (1978), Böhm (1972), Dausgaard (2000), Furtwängler/Vienna Philharmonic (1953), Hogwood (1986), Klemperer (1957), Norrington/RSO Stuttgart (2002), Toscanini (1951), Walter/New York Philharmonic (1952), Walter/Columbia Symphony Orchestra (1961), Zinman (1998)
This was the third Philharmonic Concert of the season given by Philharmonia Zürich, the orchestra of the Zurich Opera House, conducted by the young Cornelius Meister (*1980), who studied and graduated in Hannover and Salzburg, and since has held positions in Erfurt, Hannover, Heidelberg, and finally with the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra. He is also pursuing a career as guest conductor, which in 2012 also took him to the Zurich Opera, where he conducted Richard Strauss’ Salome…
Mozart: Symphony in G minor, K.550 — comparing recordings with the following artists: Christopher Hogwood, The Academy of Ancient Music (1983) / Jaap ter Linden, Mozart Akademie Amsterdam (2002)
(…) The last position in the program (after the intermission) was Mozart’s Symphony No.40 in G minor, K.550, in its first version (without clarinets), preceded by some explanations (in English) by the conductor. Sir Roger Norrington first alluded to numeric relations between the two symphonies (No.4 vs. No.40 — second vs. second-to-last symphony), then referred to the fact that K.550 is overused, known too well even, and played in warehouses and escalators…