So many recent recordings of Mahler’s masterpiece have not measured up to the work’s exigent demands, that it is a great pleasure to hear one that does. This performance can be welcomed as something quite out of the ordinary, indeed a reading to place among the best the piece has ever received. I don’t recall ever hearing the score sound so precisely articulated, so finely balanced or so translucent. For this, equal praise should go to Boulez, to the Vienna Philharmonic and to the recording team working in the Musikvereinsaal. To that, one should add Boulez’s customary command of structure and his perhaps more recently acquired ability to expound a work in hand with all his own clarity of thought while retaining its emotional content. Here, at speeds closer to those of Walter than of most modern conductors, he allows the music to speak for itself, at the same time quite avoiding the tendency to lingering and sentimentality inherent in slower performances.
The other overwhelming asset is Violeta Urmana’s marvellous realisation of the mezzo songs. Not since Ludwig for Klemperer have I experienced the feeling of being enveloped by a tone at once refulgent and warm, a style well-nigh ideal in line and breath control yet at the same time deeply expressive. Phrase after phrase pours from Urmana’s throat with effortless ease. She may not bring quite the emotional charge of Ferrier, even more Baker (for Leppard), to the songs but she runs them pretty close, and the great Farewell is simply heart-rending as delivered by her, Boulez and the VPO.
Schade compensates us for his slightly dry tone by his sensitive projection of the text. He is more in the vein of the incomparable Patzak for Walter and Richard Lewis for Reiner than the sappy-toned but slightly less characterful Wunderlich for Klemperer (though I still find his tempos sluggish by comparison with Walter and Reiner). Come the last song, though, Klemperer and Ludwig, and Baker with Leppard still hold sway. In any case if you want state-of-the-art sound, rather important in this work, there is no contest: Boulez wins hands down and, with the Vienna Philharmonic playing the work as to the manner born, this is a winner.'