Robert Stumpf asked:

>I mean, if you had to select one of his symphonies as "typical" as perhaps
>an introduction to his 'sound world' which one and why?

I may get drawn and quartered for this, but-none.  Although he spent his
life writing symphonies, including some very wonderful ones (the 3rd, 6th,
and 9th are my special favorites), he was by deepest instinct a composer
of orchestral songs.  Compare "Antonius von Padua Fischpredigt" with the
corresponding movement of the Second Symphony, or the Finale of the Fourth
with the first three movements.  The songs say much more in a much smaller
space.  The symphonies are required listening, but for me, the essential
Mahler is in Des Knaben Wunderhorn, the Kindertotenlieder, and Das Lied von
der Erde.  For someone new to Mahler, I'd start with Des Knaben Wunderhorn.

Peter Goldstein