As the years float by the corpus of recordings of Das Lied becomes ever more daunting: there are several others, besides those listed above, notably the ones conducted by Kletzki, Karajan and Bernstein, not to mention two others under Walter's direction, that have much to commend them. So any newcomer has to be very special if it is to find favour, let alone supplant old favourites, and who could bear to be without the classic Walter/Decca, due for early refurbishment in digital LP and CD form I understand, or the Klemperer on HMV?
Well, Giulini's interpretation, as RO suggests on page 453, demands attention on many counts, most compellingly as a recording. Not even the digital Davis (Philips) matches it for clarity or spaciousness in the sound of the orchestra, and when that orchestra is the BPO at its technically assured and involving best, the experience is overwhelming. And just hearing the proper prominence given to the glockenspiel in the first movement or the warmth and plangency of the cellos two bars before fig. 5 in the second, one realizes the infinite care taken in both respects.
The impact of the most resplendent moments, most of the first song, and the entrance of the youths in the fifth, is matched by the stark truthfulness of the more exposed and searing sections, chief of them the orchestral interlude in ''Der Abschied''. These, and many other felicities, tell us that the BPO have responded willingly to its first encounter on record with Giulini. Whatever incidental criticisms of his interpretation I may have, I found an innate truthfulness in his response to the anguish and intimations of mortality in the work. These surface most tellingly in ''Der Abschied''. Where both Haitink (Philips) and Davis seem a little overawed by this music and slow down unconscionably before its searing utterances, Giulini never allows the tension to abate. Finding the music's weight without recourse to exaggerations, he matches Klemperer in honesty and strength. And here, too, Brigitte Fassbaender achieves her greatest eloquence. Alec Robertson commented long ago in these pages that ''Mir war auf dieser Welt das Gluck nicht hold!'' was perhaps the most important line in the whole work, and Fassbaender, as much as Ludwig (Klemperer), and Ferrier (Walter), perhaps more than Baker (Haitink), certainly more than Norman (Davis), sings it with the marking ''ausdrucksvoll'' most present in her mind. But everything she does in this song is memorable—the sense of longing at ''Alle Sehnsucht will nun traumen'', the firm resolution of the questions after the orchestral break, the resignation (not too slow as with Davis) of ''Ich suche Ruhe''.
Matching this performance is that of the fifth song, ''Der Trunkene im Fruhling'', to which both Araiza and Giulini bring the right fevered exultation. Earlier the tenor is a mite disappointing, too anonymous with his words, too monochrome in tone for the opening song (so difficult!), where Wunderlich (Klemperer) has set an almost unapproachable standard, not delicate enough for the Chinese pavilion and porcelain of the third song, where Patzak's tangy lightness (Walter) has yet to be matched. Giulini finds the right flow to ''Der Einsame im Herbst'', with Lothar Koch's oboe providing a flowing, well-characterized beginning, and Fassbaender the emotional tug of the key phrase ''gib mir Ruh'', but hereabouts an incipient wobble around the break, conquered by the finale, is worrying, as it is in ''Von der Schonheit'', but she and Giulini make the entry of the youths as vivid as anyone, Fassbaender's almost hoydenish touch here quite appropriate, while the potentially dangerous return to Tempo I is nicely judged.
The record has been cut at a somewhat low level, needing a high volume setting for its astonishing fidelity to make its mark. On the other hand, the CD version, cut at a higher level, does full justice to the excellence of the original recording. In this case I would give it a marked preference over its LP counterpart. There is banding for each song, but not for sections in the finale, which might have been helpful. As I have implied, there is room for so many readings of this masterpiece. I am certain this is one I shall return to for its integrity and immediacy on as many occasions as I have enjoyed Klemperer and Walter in the past: it is on that level of understanding, especially in ''Der Abschied'', quite unforgettable.'