Mike writes: >So why not mix & match? One of these days, when I have a lot of time >to listen to a whole Mahler Symphony, I'm going to start with the first >movement of the Seventh, followed by the second and third movements of >the Third, and ending with the last movement of the Seventh. (Hopefully >the keys, by a very lucky coincidence, will be compatible.) Why not just put a few Mahler CDs on Shuffle Play? Be sure to include a songs disc. I feel I'm uniquely qualified to respond to this. After all, most of my posts to this list have to do with Mahler, and look at my e-mail address. As an experienced listener like Mike knows, there are countless links between the various parts of any Mahler symphony -- in fact, of any symphony -- and if you put disparate parts together....well, that way madness lies. There's a context that's lost. You mention the likely possibility of different keys. I wouldn't worry about this. After all, Mahler switched keys frequently throughout the course of a symphony. But key relationships do matter. One of the main arguments in performing the 6th's inner movements in Scherzo/Andante order consists in the fact that the Andante begins in the relative minor of the ending of the Scherzo; to reverse them would lose that tonal relationship. >Now, how crazy is that? Well.... Mitch Friedfeld, an inveterate completist when it comes to Mahler [log in to unmask]