Gustav Mahler - Complete Edition (18CD BoxSet) (2010)

For the occasion of Gustav Mahler's sesquicentennial, Deutsche Grammophon has pooled resources with Decca and drawn on an impressive backlist of superb recordings for this complete 2010 edition. The list of conductors reads like a Who's Who of celebrated maestros, and because Rafael Kubelik, Seiji Ozawa, Zubin Mehta, Bernard Haitink, Pierre Boulez, Leonard Bernstein, Claudio Abbado, Giuseppe Sinopoli, Georg Solti, Herbert von Karajan, Riccardo Chailly, and Carlo Maria Giulini were all eminent Mahlerians of the 20th century, the roster is quite impressive, even to seasoned connoisseurs. Normally, listeners have a choice between acquiring a box set of Mahler's symphonies and songs, recorded by one prominent conductor, or picking up albums singly and building a collection on the merits of the performances. In this instance, DG followed the latter course and chose the finest recordings based on their own strengths, granting in advance that the conductors were especially appropriate for the given works. Considering that there isn't a mediocre performance here, and that the ensembles are all world-class, this is an incredibly tempting offering. In addition to the 10 symphonies and Das Lied von der Erde, Mahler's song cycles are presented in their entirety, and the Piano Quartet movement and the Entr'acte from Mahler's arrangement of Weber's Die drei Pintos round out the set. While beginners might want to listen to several different recordings of the symphonies before committing to this compendium, those who are knowledgeable will recognize its value and find it well worth having.