New Zealand Symphony Orchestra
Conductor Litton, now the conductor of the superb Bergen Philharmonic in Norway, drew out the almost visual images in this emotionally direct work with the sort of theatricality the work can live with. There were ghostly pianissimos contrasted with savage fortes, and a more than usual exaggeration of caricature in the Mahlerian allegretto. New Zealand Symphony Orchestra; Shostakovich: Symphony No. 5
— John Button, Dominion Post