Boulez is the focal point of this new DG recording, unlike the comparative versions listed where the singers take centre stage. As expected, the conductor clarifies orchestral textures, often with magical results. ‘Ging heut morgen übers Feld’, the second of the Wayfarer Songs, gleams and glistens like the dewiest of spring mornings. And the exquisite gossamer fabric of ‘Blicke mir nicht in die Lieder’, in the Rückert-Lieder, is also breathtaking. In the Kindertotenlieder, Boulez underlines the spareness of the scoring; with playing of great gravity from the winds of the Vienna Philharmonic, the effect is especially disconsolate.

Equally absorbing, though not always as satisfying, is the different chemistry between Boulez and each of the singers. Thomas Quasthoff elicits the most highly charged reading. With plangent, aching tone and carefully weighted emphases, he indicates how deeply bitterness has seeped into this wayfarer’s veins. ‘Ich hab ein glühend Messer’ is as tightly clenched as a fist, and note, too, the sustained hush that envelops the final song like a funereal veil. With its attention to detail and faultless pacing, this is a performance to set alongside Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau’s.

Violeta Urmana’s reading of the Rückert-Lieder is cooler. Her graceful agility and pure tone are a delight in ‘Blicke mir nicht in die Lieder.’ Elsewhere, though, her singing is unaccountably plain – rigid and squarely phrased. The Apollonian poise she conveys in ‘Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen’ is convincing but not sufficiently moving. (And in the ravishing opening bars of this song, Boulez seems to peel back the petals for us rather than letting the flower blossom on its own.) Anne Sofie von Otter’s long-awaited recording of the Kindertotenlieder is deeply felt and notable for its nobility; if this is a bereaved parent, it’s surely an aristocratic one. Perhaps the effect results partly from von Otter’s relatively bright, svelte tone – both Janet Baker and Kathleen Ferrier are more earthy and maternal – though von Otter’s smoothing out of the written accents at the climax of the first song definitely mutes the music’s inherent volatility.

Clearly, there’s plenty here to gratify and provoke the devoted Mahlerian, and although it’s not entirely persuasive this is a disc that deserves to be heard.