New (Sort of) Mahler Set

[blind-blake]

This came out recently. Any opinions? Thanks in advance.

http://www.emiclassics.com/releaseabout.php?rid=49764

[MomsMobley]

mmmmm... some stuff you want, some you can live without. On EMI, I saw go for the Gary Bertini integrale instead, supplement that with whatever you want more of--

http://www.amazon.com/Mahler-Symphonies-1-10-Lied-Erde/dp/B000BQ7BX2

I can't justify the cost at this point but if you have the dough or underground know how, the original Michael Geilen series (with various 20th c. couplings) is another 'sleeper' cycle.

For mainstream boxes-- all with caveats-- I rank them

1) Chailly

2) Bernstein (Sony)

3) Sinopoli

Complement with some Walter, Klemperer, Horenstein, Kubelik (Audite label live is almost always better than DG), Benjamin Zander; depending on how well you know the music already, the last can be interesting because of the free lecture discs included.

I've not head enough of the Tilson Thomas series to say whether it's worth the bones; Boulez, Solti, Tennstedt, Bernstein (DG) and Rattle are not.

Hope this helps,

Mom

[mjzee]

The Forward just published an article on Mahler, in which they write "As if to prove the point, EMI Classics has just released an excellently chosen 16-CD set of Mahler’s complete works, including no fewer than nine comparative performances of his “I am Lost to the World” (“Ich bin der Welt Abhanden Gekommen”), a song of cosmic world-weariness." Full article here.

[Stefan Wood]

I second the Geilen box. Fantastic!!!!!!!

[Spontooneous]

I'll second the Bertini box. (A conductor with Israeli roots who's completely overlooked in that peculiar Forward article.)

Seems to me that the EMI "complete" Mahler box does a lot better by the songs than it does by the symphonies.

OTOH, the Deutsche Grammophone "complete" set doesn't do all that well by the symphonies either.

[blind-blake]

Thanks all