For something a little different, here is a recommended budget/midprice
Mahler cycle:

M1 - Kubelik (DG).  Coupled with the Wayfarer songs with Fischer-Dieskau.
Kubelik's 1st is perhaps my favorite Mahler performance period.

M2 - Walter (Sony).  Mahler was Walter's mentor; coupled with a fine 1st.

M3 - Abravenal (Vanguard).  Available at Berkshire Record Outlet
(www.broinc.com) for next to nothing.  Not great by any means, but decent
and the finale is quite nice.  (There aren't many budget 3rds!)

M4 - Szell (Sony).  Wonderful, and Judith Raskin is heavenly.  Also Kletzki
if you can find it.

M5 - Shipway (Platinum).  I don't admire this as much as some others do,
but it is good and it is cheap.

M6 - TSanderling (RS).  Snarling first two movements, phenomenal sound.
Also Nanut, which is almost impossible to find in the USA.

M7 - Haenchen (LaserLight) - Slow pace which works very well, and its dirt
cheap.

M8 - Gielen (Sony).  Brisk tempos keep it on a single disk; I don't know
any other lower priced 8ths so this one wins by default, but it is
definitely worth hearing.

M9 - Pesek (Virgin).  Pesek isn't known as a Mahlerian but for me this is
a sleeper that never gets mentioned.  Coupled with a 1st by Litton.

M10 - Wigglesworth (BBC Mag).  The trouble with this one is that you have
to hunt it down used, as it was only released with a past issue of BBC
Music magazine.  Other than this one, AFAIK you'll need to pay at least
near full price for a Mahler 10th.

Das Lied von  der Erde - KSanderling (Berlin Classics).

Songs - Barbirolli / Baker (EMI).  This has more than one incarnation,
but the budget release is a coupling the Wayfarers, Kindertotenlieder,
and Rucker Lieder along with Kletzki's Das Lied von der Erde (with Murray
Dickey and Fischer-Dieskau) plus a handful of Wunderhorn songs (Tennstedt
/ Popp / Wielkl).  Janet Baker has few, if any, peers in performing
Mahler's vocal music.

The cheapest boxed set in captivity is the one from Brilliant Classics,
which can be had at Berkshire Record Outlet for about $22.  I understand
that it is spotty, but does contain Horenstein's wonderful 3rd, which I
bought around 15 years ago for more than the entire Brilliant box.

Tim Dickinson
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