This live concert recording from the mid-1960s seems very curious at first blush. Here we have a Hungarian conductor directing a Danish orchestra and chorus, along with a popular British soprano (Janet Baker) and a leading Metropolitan Opera artist (Martina Arroyo). It seemed to me a "perfect storm" of elements producing a performance that might not hang together too well.As it turned out, while things might get a little off kilter here and there, on balance this is the most viscerally exciting rendition of the Gurre-Lieder I've heard. That may be because it's a live concert performance ... but that doesn't seem to redeem the more measured Kubelik performance on DGG that's also a live concert recording.All the soloists do a fine job, and mention should also be made of Julius Patzak in the speaking role -- surely his last recorded performance after many years at the Vienna State Opera and in numerous recordings. It's true that Patzak has some difficulty being heard above the massive orchestra, but it's not the first time that's happened in this piece. (In fact, I remember attending a Baltimore Symphony performance with Sergiu Commissiona in about 1980 where NONE OF ANY of the soloists -- not just the speaker -- could be heard above the orchestra. How frustrating was that!)There are certainly a number of very good recordings of Gurre-Lieder available today. But at EMI's special price, this one is definitely well worth investigating. When the piece is performed this well, it's easy to realize that Schoenberg had everything Mahler had as a composer ... and was soon ready to branch out to completely new musical horizons, figuring he just didn't have anything more to say in the "late-late-romantic" idiom. Sometimes I wish Mahler had come to that same conclusion after, say, his Fifth symphony ...