Riccardo Chailly’s credentials as a Mahlerian cannot be faulted, not least on disc. Once more, where his own admirable orchestra is concerned, he gives a performance that is finely balanced, attentive to all-important detail and convincing as a whole. He has chosen his own, not always convincing, order for the songs, added the last movement of the Fourth Symphony, usually excluded, and employed extra soloists presumably to suit the emotion of two of the songs. Thus Sara Fulgoni tackles ‘Urlicht’ with an appropriately dark-toned contralto tone entirely right for a piece that was to be expanded into the penultimate movement of the Second Symphony, and the late, lamented Gösta Winbergh brings his heroic tenor to bear with considerable effect on ‘Revelge’.

Reservations begin to creep in with the two main soloists and Chailly’s assignment of the songs between them. Matthias Goerne brings all his well-known ability at giving songs real meaning through clear and purposeful diction, but his singing as such is often rough-hewn, unsupported in mezza voce, gritty in the many passages calling for full, forte singing. Thomas Quasthoff, for Abbado in the most recent rival version, may not be quite so vivid in his declamation but vocally he is stronger all-round. Still better is Andreas Schmidt in the classic Bernstein/DG version, dating from 1987 (6/89), unavailable at present. His clear, incisive singing is just what Mahler calls for.

Chailly gives Goerne ‘Rheinlegendchen’ and Barbara Bonney ‘Lob des hohen Verstandes’, an odd reversal of usual practice. Goerne hasn’t the lightness Bonney would have brought to the piece. Bonney is often a lively contributor in the lighter pieces but when it comes to ‘Wo die schönen Trompeten blasen’, she is nowhere in comparison with Bernstein’s Lucia Popp, who gives this song a heart-rending interpretation, marvellously supported by her conductor. I also like the way Bernstein divides the songs involving two characters between his singers.

Where the sound is concerned, there’s little to choose among the three contenders. The new one certainly makes the most of the Concertgebouw’s acoustics, but the Bernstein, recorded live at the same venue, is warmer as befits his reading all-round. While I admired this new account it didn’t give me that extra frisson I always receive on returning to Bernstein. I make no apologies making his my preferred version as I am certain DG will bring it back on one of its cheaper labels before long: it is definitely worth waiting for as one of the catalogue’s ‘must-haves’.