I've been reading through this thread and it is fascinating. I'm not sure how to ultimately start with the five choices, so I'll just comment on a few items that caught my eye for now.
On the Mahler posts, I agree that Mahler is not the easiest composer to digest for a beginner, it has taken me years to acquire a taste for him. I very much like the overall SFO SACD cycle with Tilson-Thomas, good interpretations and top-notch sound, though there are indeed a lot of great performances out there that can top some of these interpretively. Newbee's suggestion of Zander on the Telarc label is very good, particularly in that, at least for a number of the recordings, Zander included a separate disc discussing the piece and his interpretation of it in the package. That's a great way to start to understand these very complex works. I find that I like his recording of the Mahler 9th (not the one to start with in the Mahler symphonies--I'd start 1, 2, 5, 4, and 6, before 9) the best of all the versions I've heard on record, it just connected with something in me and left me holding my breath at the end. And his Mahler 6 recording on Telarc has the unique feature of having both versions of the final movement in it, so you can hear the original version with its slightly different instrumentation as well as the third hammer of fate hitting the hero at the end, which was dropped from the version that is usually played and found on record.
I also noticed some mention of Chopin's piano music. There was a series of Chopin solo piano work recordings on the Connoisseur Society label by Ivan Moravec (which were released on CD by VAI) that are excellent recordings and some of my favorite interpretations. Plenty of other great recordings of Chopin's works and interpreters, but I think these recordings are worth getting if you can find them.
On the Mahler posts, I agree that Mahler is not the easiest composer to digest for a beginner, it has taken me years to acquire a taste for him. I very much like the overall SFO SACD cycle with Tilson-Thomas, good interpretations and top-notch sound, though there are indeed a lot of great performances out there that can top some of these interpretively. Newbee's suggestion of Zander on the Telarc label is very good, particularly in that, at least for a number of the recordings, Zander included a separate disc discussing the piece and his interpretation of it in the package. That's a great way to start to understand these very complex works. I find that I like his recording of the Mahler 9th (not the one to start with in the Mahler symphonies--I'd start 1, 2, 5, 4, and 6, before 9) the best of all the versions I've heard on record, it just connected with something in me and left me holding my breath at the end. And his Mahler 6 recording on Telarc has the unique feature of having both versions of the final movement in it, so you can hear the original version with its slightly different instrumentation as well as the third hammer of fate hitting the hero at the end, which was dropped from the version that is usually played and found on record.
I also noticed some mention of Chopin's piano music. There was a series of Chopin solo piano work recordings on the Connoisseur Society label by Ivan Moravec (which were released on CD by VAI) that are excellent recordings and some of my favorite interpretations. Plenty of other great recordings of Chopin's works and interpreters, but I think these recordings are worth getting if you can find them.
