I own almost all of the performances and alternate pressings referred to above on vinyl and CD. I started in 1962 and purchased most of the Mahler recordings as they were released and usually was able to get European pressings.
For Solti, the Decca pressings almost always sounded better than the London, especially on the 8th. The 5th 6th and the 8th have very noticable spotlight miking. I actually prefer the Decca Legends CD for the 8th. The Horenstein Unicorns were excellent pressings. I would also highly recommend the Horenstein 8th CD from BBC Legends.
For Bruno Walter, the Odyssey pressings were poor and I prefer the remastered CDs. The original Columbia Bernstein pressings were highly variable and I would rate most of them as poor. Again I prefer the CD remasters.
I would agree that the Zander CD's have excellent sound and rank with the top performances.
I didn't really care for the Tennstedt because I thought the orchestra and the recorded sound wasn't really that good.
I would add Klemperer's 2 and 4, again on EMI and not Angel, although the EMI Great Recordings remasterings on CD are quite good.
There are a fair number of interesting historical Mahlerperformances once you really get hooked and don't care as much about the sound.
For Solti, the Decca pressings almost always sounded better than the London, especially on the 8th. The 5th 6th and the 8th have very noticable spotlight miking. I actually prefer the Decca Legends CD for the 8th. The Horenstein Unicorns were excellent pressings. I would also highly recommend the Horenstein 8th CD from BBC Legends.
For Bruno Walter, the Odyssey pressings were poor and I prefer the remastered CDs. The original Columbia Bernstein pressings were highly variable and I would rate most of them as poor. Again I prefer the CD remasters.
I would agree that the Zander CD's have excellent sound and rank with the top performances.
I didn't really care for the Tennstedt because I thought the orchestra and the recorded sound wasn't really that good.
I would add Klemperer's 2 and 4, again on EMI and not Angel, although the EMI Great Recordings remasterings on CD are quite good.
There are a fair number of interesting historical Mahlerperformances once you really get hooked and don't care as much about the sound.