By James Chute
November 16, 2012
Photo: Matthew Fernie

Whether it was Emerson, some Zen master or a self-help guru who said it, you've undoubtedly heard it before: what's important is the journey and not the destination.

But in conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Philharmonia's performance of Mahler's Symphony No. 9 Thursday at Copley Symphony Hall, it was the destination, rather than the journey, that made the most powerful impression.