Help me spend my money:

[reidmt]

I don't have a whole lot of money, but I've been thinking of treating myself. We have a slew of Mahler symphonies on our CD shelf, but I've been seriously considering getting a boxed set. I have the Bernstein recordings I want. My wife likes the old Cleveland horn sound but I don't think there's a box. I'm also not really into the Walter

Comments

[kulturkamf]

I have a few. The Solti chicago is terrible. The brass over power the orchestra and are out of tune and play with poor rhythm; the same can be said for the strings. And when you can actually hear the woodwinds the parts aren't recognizable.
I also have the Bernstein DG box set which is quite excellent. The orchestras all sound great and i also has complete orchestral songs with wonderful vocalists.
Cleveland doesn't have a Mahler box set, they do however sell a box set from their orchestra store that is Mahler 1,4,5,6 and Bruckner 3-5, 7 &8. It is with Christoph von Dohnanyi. It's my personal favorite. Really excellent interpretations and highly refined playing. Everyone is in tune, in perfect rhythm and the brass has a great and powerful sound without laying waste to the orchestra. They also have available, separately, Mahler 9 with Dohnanyi, which is my personal favorite.
Cleveland also recorded 4 and 7 with Boulez. I personally like his interpretations of Mahler (although I think the Mahler 5 recording sounds terrible - bu its the orchestra). But 7 is an amazing display of Orchestral virtuosity by Cleveland that I recommend even you don't like Boulez.