top Mahler on vinyl

For sets, I would recommend either Bernstein/New York Philharmonic on Columbia or Kubelik/Bavarian Radio Symphony on DG in terms of most fittingly portraying Mahler's odyssey. For some other, very fine individual performances, try Kletzki or Klemperer on EMI, both conducting the Philharmonia Orchestra or Solti/Amsterdam Concertgebouw Orchestra on London/Decca in the Fourth; Barbirolli/Berlin Philharmonic in the Sixth and Walter/Columbia Symphony in the Ninth.

Correction: The Barbirolli Sixth I refer to above is with the New Phiharmonia Orchestra, and not the Berlin Philharmonic. It can be found in EMI's earlier incarnations and that company's later reissue, Classics For Pleasure. Like many other British EMI recordings, it was also made available on the Angel label for mainly the U.S. market. However, I tend to avoid Angel lps, whose sound quality I often hear as a bit too bright.

I was being somewhat charitable in my criticism. I think the worst of the Angel lot are/were those earlier light blue label pressings. They are downright strident at times. Anyone looking for some typically very fine sounding classical lps should go for London CS and STS(Stereo Treasury Series)recordings, which were made by The Decca Record Company, Ltd. The CS pressings have red labels with silver print while the SDS labels sport the same red/silver format, but in some cases, an orange label with black lettering. AVOID both the later inferior American red,yellow,blue and light yellow with black lettered pressings.