Abbados approach to the music of Bruckner is soft and songlike, at times tense and urgent, but constantly filled with warmth of feeling not only the Neue Zrcher Zeitung is full of praise when Claudio Abbado and the Lucerne Festival Orchestra play Bruckner.

Their interpretation of his awe-inspiring Fifth Symphony reflects the composers burgeoning powers and exquisite compositional artistry. As The Guardian poetically states: The composer himself, one suspects, might have leapt to embrace Abbado as an ideal interpreter.