Of the concert performances in London that preceded the making of this recording in March 1968, the Guardian's Ted Greenfield wrote that "the two greatest Lieder singers in the world" were supported by "Britain's finest orchestra under the conductor who has trained America's finest orchestra"--and this is still true. No surprise, then, that this rendition of the Wunderhorn songs has been a classic from the day it was made, and fittingly belongs in EMI's Great Recordings of the Century reissue series. It finds Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau in stupendous form, hurling the words of "Revelge" out with an almost sadistic edge, and bringing an extraordinary range of emotion and nuance to half-a-dozen other songs, too. Elisabeth Schwarzkopf was beginning to sound a bit matronly at this stage in her career--the bloom is off the voice, to be sure--but in her singing, too, the expressive pointing is as keen as ever. George Szell proves himself once again a master of Mahler's moods, eliciting a performance of amazing detail and clarity from the London players, and achieving just the right pace and emphasis in each piece. The recording, made in Kingsway Hall, is magnificent: glorious, well-balanced sound with tremendous immediacy, across a beautiful, wide sound stage. I have cherished the LP ever since it was released in 1969, but this remastering reveals a host of new and wonderful things that will make for pleasurable listening for another 30 years. --Ted Libbey
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