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If it is a discussion on Mahler's First Symphony that you are looking for Steve, then I'm pretty sure that MusicWeb International is the best place on the whole internet for it. What you have is the late Tony Duggan's forensic insights to a select few of his favourites here: https://www.musicweb-international.com/Mahler/Mahler1.htm as my own more rambling efforts on over two hundred recordings here: https://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2022/Feb/Mahler-sy1-survey-LD.pdf , in addition to all the back catalogue reviews here: https://musicwebinternational.com/masterwork-idx/mahler-sy1/

Whilst I admire Nils-Göran's excellent idea of having a chauffeur-piloted helicopter to take him to the world's concerthalls as one of his essential items on the desert island, my own selection of favourite Mahler Firsts is contained in the final paragraphs of my survey, which is here reproduced if you are reluctant to click on the above link:


When the late Tony Duggan drew his own shortlist of recommendations, he concluded with: “To sum
up, Kubelik on Audite, Barbirolli on Dutton, Horenstein on Unicorn, Walter on Sony, and Bernstein on
DG, with Kegel as a "wild-card” and it’s quite surprising how much we are in agreement if, of course,
not on everything. My own list is below, indecently long I concede, but then there’s an absurdly large
amount of very fine Mahler Firsts in the discography nowadays. There is also a huge amount of very
good recordings too, with very few which are duds – it seems the final movement and coda is able to
bring out the best in everyone, something that made my life immeasurably harder and enjoyable at
the same time when trying to work out the ones I considered to be the best. Ultimately, the ones I
have chosen below are those which gave me the greatest pleasure when doing the survey and, I hope,
give the same to you.

Titan – Netherlands SO/Jan Willem de Vriend; Wyn Morris/New Philharmonia
Mono Live – Walter/NBC 1939; Keilberth/Dresden Staatskapelle
Mono Studio – Walter/NYPO 1954; Kubelik/Vienna PO
Stereo Studio – Walter/Columbia SO 1961; Barbirolli/Hallé; Solti/LSO; Kubelik/BRSO; Kegel/DresPO
Stereo Live – Tennstedt/NDR SO
Digital Studio – Joó/Amsterdam PO; Ivan Fischer/Budapest Festival Orch
Digital Live – Bernstein/Concertgebouw (DG); Kobayashi/Czech PO; Nézet-Séguin/BavRSO; Roth/SWR
Orch Baden-Baden
DVD – Bernstein/VPO; Abbado/Lucerne Festival Orchestra; Rattle/Berlin PO (BPO DVD)
Wildcards – Ernest Borsamsky/Berlin RSO 1949 (Mono); Giulini/Chicago SO; Adam Fischer/Mahler
Festival Orchestra Kassel; Salonen/Bavarian RSO; Lintu/Finnish RSO; Chitose Okashiro (piano
realisation)