Mahler Symphony No. 5 & Ades Aslya / Rattle, Berlin Philharmonic
You can hear and see this excellent performance of Mahler's militant, stormy and  sometimes ethereal Symphony No. 5 in standard DVD (on disc 1 of the  set) or hear it in a variety of digital audio formats. A bonus DVD-Audio disc (without  visuals) offers a choice of standard stereo or two varieties of surround sound.  The surround sound is even richer and more precise than the standard DVD, and  this matters with Mahler's colorful and finely detailed orchestration. But the video is  useful for conveying Simon Rattle's expressive gestures, his fine control of the Berlin  Philharmonic, and its precise playing in this his first performance as the orchestra's  music director.Ades'sAsyla(the plural of "Asylum," used in both its meanings, as a place  of refuge and a scene of madness) is available only in the video format, which  is sonically quite good and visually striking. It is energetic music, with a lot  of percussion, including one piece that looks like a tomato juice can, and one  movement that annotator Andrew Porter describes as "a sort ofRite of Springcum disco." A video interview of Rattle is a fine bonus.--Joe McLellan