Actually, I was referring to Freddy van Maurik's comment that this was 'possibly the best M2 I have ever heard,' so you weren't denying me of anything. You're right about the opinions of individual orchestra members, but the opinion that Gatti just isn't a first rate conductor seems to be shared by many orchestra members, members of the choir, critics and quite a few people in the audience, as far as I can tell (of course, that doesn't necessarily make it true). Personally, I believe Chailly was the last great chief conductor of the RCO and I never liked the Mahler lite (let alone his Bruckner) of Jansons, who was always better in rehearsals. Having attended all of the Mahler 2's you've posted, I would certainly agree that Chailly is the best compromise.
By the way, I think you're being too kind when you refer to Gatti as an 'interpretive maverick,' there just doesn't seem to be an interpretation at all. Very loud, very slow, very soft and very fast becomes tiresome very quickly.. (his recent La Mer was a complete travesty, I've heard student orchestras play the Symfonie Fantastique better than the RCO under Gatti and his 'interpretation' of Berg's Three Orchestral Pieces showed a stunning lack of understanding of the music, again, it was just very, very loud and stupid). But, like you, I too am a believer that two people can hear the same exact thing and have opposite, subjective reactions to it.
