Robert Schumann praised the work for its "heavenly length", which in certain accounts can simply feel hellishly long, particularly if you include all the repeats, as Zehetmair opted to do here.

But maybe Karajan is even now encouraging Feldman to compose a Brucknerian symphony, and maybe its performance will fill the celestial concert hall with sounds of truly heavenly length.

Where Schumann spoke of "heavenly length," Mr. Dohnanyi and his musicians were suggesting distance traveled, on journeys that were not going to heaven at all.

The only problem is that after the heavenly lengths of that marathon, this single sitting may seem perfunctory.

Like most conductors, he shortened the "heavenly length" of the opening movement by omitting the repeat.

If ever there was a time to linger over Schubert's heavenly lengths, this was it.

Schumann, an astute critic, famously referred to the "heavenly lengths" of Schubert's great chamber works and piano sonatas.

In time-honored fashion, Mr. Herbig trimmed Schubert's heavenly lengths to earthly proportions by omitting a number of repeats.

This symphony sustains its "heavenly length," to cite a nickname appended to it, through an aura of hypnotic, uninterrupted beauty.

Schubert's "heavenly lengths," in Schumann's famous phrase, can be a problem in this symphony.