Will James wrote:

>I am slowly trying to build up my collection of classical CD's and I
>really taken an interest in Mahler.  I have his first Symphony (The Chicago
>Symphony with Solti conducting) and I love the recording.  If anyone has
>any advice on his other works that I may like I would appreciate the input.
>Thanks a lot

I'm compiling a survey of Mahler recordings at the following:

   http://www.musicweb.force9.co.uk/music/Mahler/index.html

So far just the First and Second Symphonies are covered, but Das Lied Von
der Erde is finished and will be up very soon.  If you would care to watch
that space I hope it will be of help in the future.

I also think Dave would agree that a sojourn in the List Archives would
give you some ideas.

Meantime, ahead of the developing survey already mentioned, here are some
ideas for the other symphonies.

No.1:  My own favourites are Kubelik (DG), Horenstein (Unicorn) and
Horenstein (Vox, coupled with a fine Bruckner 9th) and Walter (Sony).
There is also a Dutton reissue of the classic Halle/Barbirolli.  There is
also a live Kubelik recording from 1972 on Originals (not to be confused
with DG Originals) that is superb but very hard to find.  More details in
the survey.

No.2:  Klemperer (both the EMI 1962 studio version and the live Amsterdam
recording from 1951), Scherchen (Millennium), Kubelik (DG), Walter (Sony),
Boulez (Originals) and Barbirolli (Arkadia).  and Rattle (EMI).  More
details in the survey.

No.3:  Horenstein (Unicorn), Adler (Harmonia Mundi), Kubelik (DG),
Bernstein (Sony).  I remain with Horenstein at the moment.  Now we have
the Barbirolli on BBC Legends which I love more each time I hear it.
Such poetry and humanity in every bar.

No.4:  The Szell is superb.  Great playing by the Cleveland.  There is
really only one I would place ahead of Szell and that is the one by Kletzki
that you can find sometimes in EMI or on the very cheap Royal Classics to
whom EMI licenced it.  An even better orchestra than Szell, IMO, and an
even nore HUMAN approach.  There is a Horenstein you might look out for.
Hard to find, though.  Try the Britten and Barbirolli's new out on BBC
Legends too.

No.5:  Barbirolli (EMI), Boulez (DG), Scherchen (Millennium), Shipway
(Tring), Mackerras (EMI), Walter (Sony), Inoue (RPO).  Barbirolli is a
classic.  He has moments when he tries the pateince with some slow speeds
but there is so much humanity there.  He was quicker live in this work (and
in all Mahler).  I also like Inoue and Shipway.  Not names that come up too
often but superbly ripe readings, very Mahlerian.  The Walter is quick but
he pulls it off.

No.6:  Boulez (DG), Nanut (Zyx and others), Horenstein (Unicorn, Music
and Arts), Barbirolli (EMI) - yes, I DO value this recording and listen
to it as part of the picture, and Thomas Sanderling (RS).  Preferences
are sharper for this symphony than in any other and so much will depend on
how you decide the work ought to go.  For me, the interpreter who takes a
circumspect, one step back, approach is the one that convinces me most and,
though I value all the above (especially Horenstein's black nihilism and
Nanut's sharpness) the more I hear Thomas Sanderling's version the more it
convinces me he has the balance between inner detail and outer structure
dead right.  The sound of his St.  Petersburg Orchestra is off the beaten
track, though.  The Barbiroll is a remarkable performance with a very slow
first movement.  I find it too declamatory and hammy, others say it is the
greatest of them all.  I _admire_ it but don't agree with it.  You ought to
hear it for yourself.

No.7:  Horenstein (Descant, Music and Arts), Scherchen (Millennium), Rattle
(EMI), Bernstein (Sony).  Horenstein actually manages, for me, to make the
last movement seem a perfectly natural conclusion to the previous four,
stressing the positive side of this work rather than the negative, which
I think is worth doing, so his is the one.  The recording is live from the
Royal Albert Hall (bootlegged from the BBC) and so has its shortcomings.
You ought to bear that in mind if sound is a real consideration.  Scherchen
in Millenium is excellent.  He played in an early performance and I like
his eccentricity.  But there is another Scherchen on M&A with the Toronto
SO and that is truly wild.  Rattle is good for modern sound.

No.8:  Morris (IMP), Segerstam (Chandos), Horenstein (BBC Legends).  For
me the Horenstein dominates completely and utterly.

No.9:  Horenstein LSO 1966 (Music and Arts), Klemperer (EMI), Walter
(both the Sony 1961 and the Vienna 1938 live recording on Dutton) and
Barbirolli (EMI).  The Horenstein is very special and deeply moving but
I wouldn't nominate it as my "one and only" because it stands rather like
Furtwangler's 1942 recording of Beethoven's Ninth as being almost too
moving and draining an experience to be repeated too often - which is to
pay it the highest of compliments, of course.  Barbirolli remains though
the Walter on Sony has got to be one of the great Mahler recordings.
Klemperer is superb also.

No.10:  For a Deryck Cooke 10th I would choose Wiggkesworth on a BBC cover
disc, Ormandy even though this is of Cooke first version and Rattle though
that will be superceded soon by a new version rrom him and the BPO.  If the
Morris recording of the second version ever appears on CD I would choose
that too.

Das Lied Von Der Erde:  This must be considered as a symphony and my
profile of recordings are Walter (both the Decca 1952 and the live 1936 on
Dutton and other labels), Horenstein (Descant, Music and Arts), Schuricht
(Gramofono 2000 and others), Leppard (BBC Radio Classics) and Klemperer
(EMI).  Hard to choose one but, at the moment, it would be Horenstein with
a sigh of regret for the Walter 1952 whose recording quality is harsh.  For
the singers, Klemperer's has Wunderlich and Ludwig, the best orchestra and
recording.  The Sanderling on Berlin Classics is also superb however with
Peter Scherier.

Tony Duggan,  England.
My (developing) Mahler recordings survey is at:
http://www.musicweb.force9.co.uk/music/Mahler/index.html