The most valuable of Audite's live Kubelik Mahler edition. I know of no studio Das Lied from this team, but so quiet is the audience and so vivid the sound this rendition might as well be a studio recording.
Kubelik, as might be expected, focuses on the lyrical, the songful aspect of this symphony of songs, very much a paean to nature and the green earth. His soloists could hardly be better chosen. Kmentt is very gallant in the tenor part and this is almost certainly Janet Baker's best version of Das Lied, better than with Haitink anyway. The Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra provide idiomatic support.
I wouldn't put it ahead of Wunderlich/Ludwig/Philharmonia/Klemperer, which I listened to again recently with renewed delight. Only a couple of minutes slower than Kubelik, but Klemperer's performance is rather more weighty and has the more refined orchestral response. Klemperer's soloists are more dramatic and more vocally blessed. Then again, Baker's plangent, veiled delivery and Kmentt's less overtly happy tenor may be better suited to songs where, for all the visual beauty, the shadow of death lies upon the land.
You certainly won't regret choosing Kubelik.
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