Sonically, I think the SFO recording is a little more focused in its image specificity and clearer sounding, particularly the chorus--more a matter of the recording engineer's mike placement and Delos' mixing in of the ambient channels, possibly? I feel, in the two-channel mix, the offstage brass and percussion sounds better, more like it's offstage, in the Delos recording. Dynamics are about equal, though in the "cries of anguish" in the third and final movements the Delos sounds a little compressed compared to the SFO recording. I don't have a surround processor, so can't comment on multi-channel. Interpretively, I guess it's a toss-up. I do like a good deal of the Litton quite a bit, particularly the third and last movements (and the organ pedals at the end of the piece are more noticeable in the Litton); other movements maybe the Tilson-Thomas is more to my liking. Soloists are about equal, I think the SFO chorus is a little better, particularly in the high womens' voices. I think that the clearer sound on the SFO recording makes the smaller, less loud wind and string passages that are under the main melody a bit more noticeable, which I think is important to get the full context of Mahler's music. Tempos are similar, though Tilson-Thomas does the first movement faster at the start. I'm glad I have both to listen to, ultimately, as well as the old Bernstein.
