This fascinating, if perverse, mid-price compilation is a typical product of EMI's Rouge et Noir series. That is to say it offers excellent value to those untroubled by peculiar couplings, poorly translated notes and non-existent song texts.

It is surprising to find Dame Janet Baker's mid-1960s Mahler in this context. Older readers will recall that these 'classic' performances received some less than enthusiastic notices in the early days, with commentators querying the prevailing intimacy of mood. Twenty years ago, this was assumed to be primarily male (i.e. Fischer-Dieskau) territory. Could it be that Dame Janet's surpassingly beautiful renderings are not that highly prized in France even now? Thanks in no small part to Barbirolli's ultra-sensitive accompaniments, they seem to me as treasurable as any Mahler on disc and make a tremendous and unexpected bargain here, providing you warm to the idea of Das Lied with Fischer-Dieskau in the female (i.e. Dame Janet?) role!

That great baritone is in rather fresher voice for Paul Kletzki than in his subsequent recording with Leonard Bernstein (Decca). Even so, his generally mellifluous projection is already disfigured by the odd patch of histrionic barking. No doubt Fischer-Dieskau's many admirers will not want to be without this transfer and I can't say I missed the compassionate warmth of the female touch until the very closing moments, not quite evocative enough in this account. The Scottish tenor, Murray Dickie, sings well too; the voice is not large and there are inevitable moments of strain, as there were for Bernstein's James King. The conductor, Paul Kletzki, largely forgotten these days, enjoyed a close rapport with the Philharmonia Orchestra in this period and he secures some distinguished playing; the odd mishap reminds us that Das Lied was not over-familiar in 1959. While his view is refreshingly brisk rather than unacceptably brusque, I would personally opt for Bernstein's more subjective approach every time. His Decca mid-price version, which generally gives the music more time, finds the Vienna Philharmonic at its most passionately committed, and the recording survives well. EMI's sound also is good, as with so many of their productions from the late 1950s. The voices are placed well forward and yet the orchestra has great presence with the venue imparting a pleasant bloom.