What is a good intro to "Mahler"?

I think you should not limit yourself to vinyl Mahler. I own almost all of the Mahler that was issued on LP since I bought my first Mahler LP in 1964. In my earlier years I made a point of listening to every Mahler symphony recording and I bought most of them.

By 1964 there had been about 30 commercial recordings of Mahler symphonies. By the early days of the CD (1986) the number had grown to 300. As of 1997, the date of the latest Smoley Mahler discography, the number was around 1000!

Probably around 100 are really "must listen" performances if you like Mahler. While for each of the symphonies there is a truly great recording available somewhere on vinyl, many are either truly or practically available only on CD.

Furthermore, without starting another vinyl vs. CD flame, many of the CD reissues clarify Mahler’s orchestral textures over the original vinyl issues. This is particularly true if you only have domestic pressings of European recordings. This conclusion is based on direct comparisons listening with a score.

By sticking to vinyl you cut yourself off from some truly marvelous performances.

Thanks for the advice. Since my recent introduction into analog, I've been reluctant to listen cds. On my system, the differences between the two formats were not subtle. Unfortunately, this doesn't resolve the issue of source material. I love the sound of records but I hate the sound of old noisy records. Perhaps the answer is as you stated, support multiple formats, LP, CD, SACD, etc. My concern is, will my consciousness be listening for the best of performance or the best of sound?

Perhaps you should rethink your position re the music. My CD and my vinyl rigs are both into the five figures and I have many analog-CD duplicates so I think I have a least a basis for my comments.

The difference in sound between CD and analog is non existant compared to sound at the 50+ live Mahler performances I've heard over the years with the world's best orchestras and conductors.

I don't stop listening to recordings just because of the sonic gulf such that no recording is even comparable to well done live Mahler. If I did I would have missed hundreds of musically satisfying recorded performances. By listening only to analog you will be missing many superbly musical performances.

FWIW, i have an excellent (by any standard) LP and CDP set up. As time goes on i find myself listening more to music in my CD collection than the LP's. Everytime i put on an LP i have to do that audiophile ritual of cleaning etc the result is that i then try to justify what i'm doing by critiqueing the "sound" which takes my attention away from the performance itself. with CD's i just select what i want to hear and put it on, sit back and enjoy. I'll admit it didn't happen over night but i'm glad it did. Now the only LP's i listen to are the ones i select for the performance itself. The trick is in finding a CDP that does it for you, sonically speaking. One of the driving forces for me it doing the is the lack of software available for me on LP's, the Mahler situation is just a small example. Hope you find some middle ground.

"Good day. May I please introduce you to Mr Mahler?"