Mahler...OK I'm hooked

Bruno Walter's recording of the 9th with the Columbia Symphony is very good. It is a 2 LP set Y2-30308.

For the 4th, look for Szell conducting Cleveland with Judith Raskin on CBS MY-37225.

If you can handle CD, then the new recordings by Ben Zander and the Philharmonia of London are also a pleasure. They come with a bonus CD by Zander with a lecture analysing the music.

So many interpretations, so little vinyl.

Regarding the 4th, I got to know Mahler with the Bernstein recording on (then) Columbia. It's important to me for the concluding soprano solo to sound unmannered and innocent which is why I prefer Reri Grist. Later, Bernstein went over the top (who, Lenny?) and used a boy soprano on DGG but it proved to be a case (for me, at least) of more being less.

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.

Speaking of 'hooked', have you ever been to the Mahlerfest in Colorado in January?