Your First Mahler record

[vibratoforever]

Like others who have commented, the cost of an lp was a big factor for me. Whilst still at school a cheap Kletzki Mahler 1 (Israel PO) was my first Mahler purchase followed by the same conductor's recording of the 4th., Abravanel's 7th, Walter's 5th (secondhand) and just one of the two discs in his set of the 2nd symphony. It seems strange looking back they sold 2 disc sets as 2 physically separate lps, not in a box or linked packaging The 2 discs of Barbirolli's Mahler 9 were unique in my experience in having a second disc with one side blank!

[Barbirollians]

Going beyond first ever record to first recordings of each work

1 Walter
2 CBSO/Rattle
3 Tennstedt
4 Maazel
5 Kubelik
6 Barbirolli
7Bernstein DG set
8 Solti
9 Barbirolli

Although records were cheaper in the 1980s and 1990s cost was important hence I owe a great debt to CfP and EMI Eminence where so many good older performances lurked in the Woolworths , Martins and WH Smiths of the day - we did not have a proper record shop where I lived .

[MrBear]

My first Mahler record was the cd of the first symphony with Inbal conducting Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra on Denon
I remember listening to it in the horse field next to the rec Sometimes it come back to me when I am there over twenty years later

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Taking up Barbi's baton:
1 Kubelik (c1976)
2 Solti (Chicago) (c1982)
3 Bernstein (CBS) (c1977)
4 & 5 Walter (double album) (c1978)
6 Bernstein (CBS) (c1977)
7 Tennstedt (c1981)
8 Solti (c1980)
9 Klemperer (1980)
10 Rattle (BSO) (1980)
Das Lied Patzak, Ferrier, Walter/VPO (borrowed from the local library regularly since 1975, I bought my own copy in 1979)
Wayfarer & Kindertotenlieder Flagstad, Boult/VPO (I forget when I bought this - a second-hand purchase, as was the 4&5 set from the same shop - very early, c1975-ish. Thinking about it, it may even have pre-dated the Kubelik First!)
Ruckertlieder - three of them in the Kathleen Ferrier boxed set in 1981, the remainder Baker, Barbirolli a couple of years later.

I didn't buy the Klagende Lied, Wunderhorn settings and the Piano Quartet movement until much later, and these are the works I still play least frequently by this composer.

[Petrushka]

...and taking over the baton from Ferney.

1 Haitink/Concertgebouw 1972 recording (purchased February 1973)
2 Haitink/Concertgebouw 1968 (April 1973)
3 Bernstein/NYPO 1961 (November 1974)
4 Walter/NYPO 1945 (August 1973)
5 Walter/NYPO 1947 (August 1973)
6 Horenstein/Stockholm PO (April 1977)
7 Haitink/Concertgebouw 1971 (May 1976)
8 Solti/CSO 1971 (May 1973)
9 Walter/NYPO 1961 (September 1973)
10 Morris/New Philharmonia 1974 (May 1975)
Das Lied Walter/VPO 1936 (April 1974)

[Radio64]

I've yet to buy a Mahler recording in any shape or form.

Don't all shout at once.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I've yet to buy a Mahler recording in any shape or form.

Don't all shout at once.

Clemmie loves his Music. Clemmie would want to know you did, too.

[CallMePaul]

To add further (can't remember all the dates, but except for No10 they were all in the 1970s): -
1 Kubelik/ Vienna Phil (Decca Eclipse)
2 Walter/ New York Phil
3 Horenstein/ LSO
4 Horenstein/ LPO
5 Barbirolli/ New Philharmonia
6 Szell/ Cleveland (given away in a moment of stupidity)
7 Haitink/ Concergebouw
8 Solti/ Chicago SO
9 Walter/ New York Phil
10 Chailly (can't find the casette to check out the orchestra - it may be Royal Concertgebouw?) Szell / Cleveland Movements 1 and 3 only (coupled with No6 - I think his recording predates the Cooke edition)
Das Lied... Walter/ Miller/ Haefliger/ Columbia SO
Lieder with piano Fischer-Dieskau/ Barenboim
Rueckert-Lieder - Baker/ Barbirolli/ New Phil (coupled with Symphony No5)
Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen/ Kindertotenlieder Fischer-Dieskau/ Furtwaengler/ Kempe
Das Klagende Lied Boulez/LSO (I think - I no longer have the LP and can't be 100% sure of the orchestra)

I'm off to catch CD Review and am off to Montenegro for a week tomorrow early morning.

[Radio64]

Clemmie loves his Music. Clemmie would want to know you did, too.

..so? what's first?

[Zucchini]

I've yet to buy a Mahler recording in any shape or form.

Same with me. And have never heard the stuff live in concert.

I'm sure brain cells exposed to high levels of Mrays shrivel and die quicker - even Clemmie's

[Nimrod]

I seem to recall that my first Mahler recording was Solti/LSO on Decca doing the 2nd symphony; at least I can well recall playing it on my father's Ferranti stereogram in our dining room whilst he and my mother were watching TV in the living room. But because the piece is so noisy I could not turn the volume up very much so I resorted to kneeling on the floor with my ear close to the inbuilt speaker (speakers??)! I got hold of a copy of the score from Birmingham library and that would be on the floor in front of me. I think I might have then bought Solti's Mahler 1 next and Horenstein,s 4th also figured. Bernsteins 8th came along and at some point in the mid-late 60's I stepped up the a Heathkit amplifier with a Wharfedale W3 speaker and proceeded to try to overload them with the Mahler 5th from Barbirolli!!

I bought records in those days from Vincent's Records, Needless Alley Birmingham. I can remember Mr Vincent and his manager of the shop a chap named Stephen, I've forgotten his surname.
Mahler 2 has been in my life all these years and I am now looking forward to a Barbirolli Society issue of a live performance with the Halle from 1959. I think it's due to be released this summer and I'm told it's quite a performance! Can't wait!

[Barbirollians]

I am now looking forward to a Barbirolli Society issue of a live performance with the Halle from 1959. I think it's due to be released this summer and I'm told it's quite a performance! Can't wait!

Me too ! Love the Stuttgart recording for all the cock ups from time to time in ensemble . This sounds exciting too especially considering what a dynamite live Ninth he gave the following year .

[johnb]

Mahler 2 has been in my life all these years and I am now looking forward to a Barbirolli Society issue of a live performance with the Halle from 1959. I think it's due to be released this summer and I'm told it's quite a performance! Can't wait!

One of the most memorable concerts I've ever been to was Barbirolli conducting the Halle in Mahler 2 at the old Free Trade Hall, probably around 1963/4. It was the first time I had ever heard Mahler performed live, though I knew the piece through the Bruno Walter recording. I was totally overwhelmed by the performance.

(I remember that Barbirolli conducted his own Elizabethan Suite in the first half and also, very unusually, gave a short speech to the audience.)

[vibratoforever]

The recording of the Mahler 2 from 1959 that has been circulating for a while is my preference over the Berlin and Stuttgart performances. The sound is decent enough mono and it is good to have more Mahler from Barbirolli and the Halle.

By 1969, Mahler 2 was enough by itself for a Halle performance in Sheffield, the first Mahler concert I attended.

[birkenshawboy]

Mahler 3 with the NYPO and Lennie Bernstein. Guy Norris Records, Neal Street, Covent Garden. August 1977. Think it cost £3.58 and it was piddling down.