Her choice of opening was "Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen". It might seem odd to begin with a piece about renunciation, but by starting with the most beautiful of the "Rückert-Lieder", she created the best atmosphere for her performance of the rest of the songs. She put "Liebst du um Schönheit" second, the sunnier "Blicke mir nicht in die Lieder" third and the Arcadian "Ich atmet' einen linden Duft" fourth. Leaving "Um Mitternacht" to the very end meant that she avoided the difficulty of deciding what could possibly succeed its "solemnity and broad, powerful climax". In addition to its intelligent sequencing, Ludwig's disc had the advantage of the excellent accompaniment provided by her Berlin Philharmonic. None of the rival album's orchestras were as good as the Berliners in conveying the "stillness and privacy" of the songs. Herbert von Karajan's "solo instruments interleave against a still background, oboe, horn, flute each raising its voice in turn with the utmost beauty of sound and feeling for the shape of the phrase". Horne had less meticulous support from the Los Angeles Philharmonic under Zubin Mehta. Andrew Davis's creative conducting elicited luscious playing from the London Philharmonic for von Stade, but Columbia's engineering denied him the same "sense of stillness and space" that Herbert von Karajan, the Berliners and Deutsche Grammophon provided for Ludwig. The greatest asset of Baker's disc was her own contribution to it. Von Stade, by contrast, got off to a bad start with her "Ich atmet' einen linden Duft", "not rising ... to the 'linden' very gracefully, and indulging too much in the habit of opening out individual notes in succession, 'squeezing' rather than 'binding'." There were points at which she sang well: "in 'Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen', the phrase 'ich sei gestorben' is most beautifully floated", and in "Liebst du um Schönheit", she brought more impulsiveness to "o ja, mich liebe!" than any of her rivals. But she did not have the vocal heft to cope with "Um Mitternacht" satisfactorily, and in quieter music, she was sometimes too laid back.