A wonderful reading it is, as authoritative as its predecessors and every bit as well played but somehow more profound, more humane, more lovable if that is a permissible attribute of an interpretation of this Everest among symphonies. […] It is the sense of the music being in the hearts and minds and collective unconscious of Karajan and every one of the hundred and more players that gives this performance its particular charisma and appeal.Richard Osborne, Gramophone, October 1989There is an elemental power in this interpretation, with Karajan matching Bruckners visionary ecstasy in the sublime Adagio and crowning the whole edifice with a truly magnificent account of the finale.Michael Kennedy, Daily Telegraph, 2.9.1989