top Mahler on vinyl

Abbado's cycle is probably the best set of performances, though many think the sound quality of the recordings is not good. Solti's is also good. It is also no coincidence that most of both of the above were recorded by the Chicago Symphony....

I really liked Abbado's cycle on vinyl. Especially the 1st and the 6th. Its been almost 30 years since I gave up my vinyl rig, but I still remember those records with fondness.

I'm partial to the Telarc releases...forewarned...these are DDD recordings I believe...but were issued on vinyl in the 80s...purists may scoff...but they sound amazing...

Phasecorrect is right about Telarc vinyl. They were produced using using the Soundstream digital recorder and NO compression. If you come across any for sale, this is a case where digital vinyl sounds amazing.

BTW, Almarg gave me the info on why Telarc LPs sound so good.

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.