The Krips recording i in a different category, I think, because it was a live performance not intended at the time for commercial release. I've heard it and concur with your views about it,
In his excellent and informative review of the 1968 Horenstein Das Lied from Stockholm, John Quinn remarks in passing that the Bernstein/Vienna Philharmonic performance with James King and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau was "to the best of [his] knowledge . . . the first to use two male soloists."
I have two earlier recordings that also substitute a baritone for the alto part, and both involve Fischer-Dieskau. The first, from 1959, has Murray Dickie as tenor, with the Philharmonia conducted by Paul Kletzki. Although I prefer the greater intensity of the Bernstein recording, this earlier version has its own merits. Fischer-Dieskau was still in his youthful prime, whereas in the Bernstein the vocal deterioration and tendency to compensate by barking and over-emoting was just starting to appear. But James King is preferable to Dickie, and Bernstein's interpretation is magnificent though extreme--the bleakest and blackest that I've heard.
The other is a live recording from 1964 in which Fischer-Dieskau was joined by Fritz Wunderlich, with the Vienna Philharmonic conducted by Joseph Krips. The high hopes I had for that one were immediately dashed by the execrable recorded sound. There's hardly any bass response--the tam-tam sounds like a pie tin. And Krips, estimable conductor though he was, sounds out of his element in Mahler.
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