Neville Cardus thought there was no more felicitous (the word is precisely right) symphony than Mahler's Fourth, ''everything contributing to the given and very personal poetic conception''. Down the years, conductors, orchestras, and soloists appear to have shared this view, for there are few recordings of the symphony which fail in some way or other to charm the ear or ravish the senses. Levine's 1975 RCA recording, one of the best in his Mahler cycle, is the work of a true Mahler conductor, brilliantly observed as to points of detail (the RCA recording, a shade chilly perhaps, conveys detail in a clear-sighted way) but spacious and idiomatic in movement. In the outer movements, Maazel on CBS is even more spacious than Levine. Maazel's may be a less spontaneous-sounding performance than Levine's but the Vienna Philharmonic playing mingles affection and authority in a way which more or less silences criticism, and the CBS recording must be accounted one of the finest CD issues of recent months.
Judging the two performances side by side becomes a game of swings and roundabouts until we reach the finale where Maazel's is clearly the superior version. The RCA, with Judith Blegen, is too loud, too brash, where Kathleen Battle's performance is beautifully registered. Accompanying Battle, Maazel and the VPO are wonderfully spacious and steady, the long-drawn coda a charmed withdrawal into a state of perpetual quiet. If there is a Mahler soprano currently fit to sing in St Cecilia's court it is undoubtedly Kathleen Battle.'