Nearly a decade after his last Mahler album – his Gramophone Award-winning collection of orchestral songs (6/15) – Christian Gerhaher returns to Mahler with the composer’s piano version of Das Lied von der Erde.

It’s the second recording of the work in its more intimate guise to come my way this year, following that from Claudia Huckle, Nicky Spence and Justin Brown (Champs Hill, 3/23), but the first to be recorded by a baritone and tenor. In many ways, the involvement of Gerhaher makes the recording sui generis anyway: for the baritone songs, we are immediately transported to a unique interpretative world of special delicate colouring, of quiet, considered intensity and poetic power.

As we’ve come to expect, Gerhaher and the superb Gerold Huber are interpretatively at one throughout – listen to the way they let in the light at ‘Sonne der Liebe’ in ‘Der Einsame im Herbst’ (from 7'40"), or their interplay in the first minutes of ‘Am Ufer’ (as Mahler originally titled ‘Von der Schönheit’). ‘Der Abscheid’, meanwhile, though relatively swift by the clock, is almost hypnotic in its power, with singer and pianist taking full advantage of the intimacy of the piano version to draw the listener in.

For his part, Piotr Beczała sings fearlessly – heroically, even – in the high tessitura of ‘Das Trinklied vom Jammer der Erde’ and ‘Der Trinker im Frühling’, and he offers delicacy in ‘Der Pavillon aus Porzellan’ (aka ‘Von der Jugend’). Throughout, one can only marvel at the tenor’s vocal security, even if I miss the variety and colouring of the text that we get from Spence. Captured in the studio a couple of months before Gerhaher’s interpretations, it’s perhaps inevitable that Beczała’s feel like they inhabit a different world – an impression emphasised by the different way the baritone is spotlit by the engineers.

With beautiful recorded sound from Sony, though, there’s a huge amount to admire here, and Gerhaher’s songs, in particular, make a persuasive case for hearing the piano version of the work. Recommended.