I admit this recording surprised me a bit. I have heard this work now in countless different versions, all a little different. This will not be the last time I will listen to a recording of it for this blog. I did not expect it to be that good though. Both recording and performance are excellent, especially if you consider the age of this: it is from 1968.
Yevgeny Svetlanov was the principle conductor of the USSR State Symphony Orchestra from 1965 onwards. Under his baton the orchestra played most of the Russian composers, but it was also known for the whole Mahler repertoire. In his later years, he took the orchestra outside of Russia, something that was not looked upon favourably by the ministry of culture, leading to Svetlanov being fired from his position in 2000. By that time he had secured a reputation in many countries, one of them being my own: he was leading the Residentie Orkest in The Hague since 1992. Svetlanov died in 2002.