Stuart Sinclair writes: >... i seem rather lately to be smitten with Mahler. Could anyone >help me with recommended recordings of the symphonies. I already have >No 4 with Kiri Te kanawa and Sir George Solti and the Chicago Symphony >Orchestra. My god are you going to get some opinions...I'll give you a quick run down of some of my personal favorites that I know are available currently. Others may disagree with some of my choices, best to run out there and development your own opinions. I'll only reccomend recordings that should be readily available. Sym. #8 - Solti, you seem to like Solti so I thought I would start there. Sym. #9 - Bernard Haitink, Phillips Sym. #5 - Chailly, Decca Sym. #2 - Otto Klemperer, EMI Sym. #1, - Kubelik, Deustshe Grammophone Sym. #3, - Lopez-Cobos, Telarc Sym. #6 - Boulez, DG Sym. #7 - Abbado, DG Das Lied von Der Erde - Horenstein, BBC Don't be discouraged if the list members start bickering about which is the best recording. Figure out for yourself what you like. If you are new to Mahler I might say that the 1st, 2nd and 5th are a little more user friendly than #7, #6 and #9. That said I love all of Mahler's Symphonies but they are somewhat demanding. A friend of mine was forced to attend the 2nd symphony for a college class and found it "ponderous". I think he was baffled by the whole thing. Steve M.