Mahler: A Complete Update on the Occasion of his 150th Birthday.

We (that would be you and me, Sarah) are blessed with an amazing selection of amazing recordings of Mahler's symphonies.

The first one that comes to mind is the insanely wild Bernstein / Columbia complete recording.  Completests will note that Berstein's second recording of the complete Mahler Symphones for Deutsch Gramophone is better only on the merit of its sonic fidelity.

The next one that comes to my mind is by Bernstein's protege, Michael Tilson Thomas and I don't think I'm including that here just because Maestro Thomas is the home town team.  This version is more thoughtful than passionate and perhaps that's because Maestro Bernstein had a monopoly on passion.

A recent issue of the Forward includes a story about Mahler on the occasion of a his 150th birthday and EMI's release of a sixteen-disk collection of Mahler's complete works with no less than nine, count them, nine comparative performances of "I Am Lost to the World."  The EMI edition, Mahler: The Complete Works, 150th Anniversary Box, is price only at $48.18 at Amazon and strikes me as a bargain, especially in light of the fact the conductors for the set include Simon Rattle, John Barbirolli, Otto Klemperer, Klaus Tennstedt and George Szell.  That's a line up that would do the Yankees proud.

I haven't read many reviews yet of this edition, but am confident it's a good investment and as soon as I'm able to scratch together the investment, I'll let you know what I think.