Mahler: The People's Edition is a 13-CD set of Decca and Deutsche Grammophon recordings of the 10 symphonies, chosen in an Internet poll and promoted to be the best performances available. Usually, the problem many listeners encounter when choosing
Mahler box sets is the limitation of having only one conductor's cycle, for better or worse: some of the sets on the market are uneven in their interpretations, inconsistent in the playing, or variable in the reproduction, and even the best ones are not uniformly satisfying. The alternative of picking individual symphonies with different conductors is appealing, for getting to the heart of
Mahler's music requires hearing multiple readings and appreciating various perspectives. But trying out a lot of recordings can be time-consuming and expensive. This set offers exceptional recordings by some of the 20th century's greatest
Mahler conductors, and gives newcomers the chance to explore first-rate performances while sparing them the trouble of digging through numerous recordings of inferior quality. While these may not be everyone's ultimate versions, nor should they be the only ones they ever hear,
Mahler: The People's Edition is a superb survey that aficionados and beginners should know. The 2010-2011 release of this set marks the sesquicentennial of
Mahler's birth as well as the centennial of his death, though the dates of the recordings range from 1967 to 2002.