Mahler 150th Anniversary Commemorative Box Set - Limited Edition Collector's Gift for Classical Music Lovers | Perfect for Holidays, Birthdays & Special Occasions

I purchased this for my own collection because it is such an exceptional value and because the quality of the performances is very high.I accept that those who are very experienced and knowledgeable of Mahler's music may find some fault with certain selections in this box set, but really, how can you go wrong when 16 CDs, with high quality artists and performances, are offered for just a couple dollars per disc?? Surely this is something, whether you are a Mahler fan or simply want to explore his music, that you can't hardly pass up - I could not, and I have enough other Mahler recordings that I am certainly in no dire need of more.Other reviewers have very kindly detailed the artists who are represented on these discs, and most of those reviews have also been very complimentary. Going beyond Amazon, my survey of other reviews accessible on-line also found very positive comments - MusicWeb/Simon Thompson rate this collection above the DG set (see link below), and comments on classical music forums are positive. In this collection, to take one illustration, you will find all of Mahler's symphonies, with a selection of world-class conductors: Giulini (1), Klemperer (2), Rattle (3, 7, 10), Horenstein (4), Tennstedt (5, 8), Barbirolli (6, 9), and the price for this complete set is comparable to other box's for the ten symphonies on their own!This box includes the 1968 performance of Mahler's 12 songs Leider aus 'Des Knaben Wunderhorn' ('The Young Lad's Magic Horn'), with Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf and George Szell conducting the London Symphony Orchestra, generally considered to be one of the finest available.Most of the performances are from EMI's archives and go back as far as 1949 (Kindertotenlieder, Kathleen Ferrier, contralto, Vienna Philharmonic, conducted by Bruno Walter). Also included are three songs that have been newly recorded for this release by Ian Bostridge and Antonio Pappano (Im Lenz, Winterlied, and Maitanz im Grunen, at the beginning of CD 4), in order to achieve "completeness".My conclusion - that if judged only based upon the quality of the performances, this set would still merit at least 4 stars out of 5. It is the value that this set represents, that pushes it to 5 full stars easily.The packaging is similar to what is normally done for a compilation set such as this one. The box is a heavy cardboard container which opens up to provide full access to the CD's. Each CD is in an individual cardboard sleeve. Each disc sleeve is labeled with the track contents and timing. The 35 page booklet included with the set does provide details for the tracks on each CD, with performers as well as recording details (date recorded, venue, etc). The booklet also includes a modest essay "A century of Mahler" written by David Gutman. The packaging and booklet are completely satisfactory for my needs, and the whole thing takes up a minimum amount of room compared to the original "jewel box" plastic holders that CD's were originally packaged in. Frankly I prefer such packaging as it is much more efficient and still provides very adequate protection to the CD's.Also included as a .pdf file on CD #16, is the complete text of all sung works, a 43 page document, in English, German and French. (This is provided on a separate partition on the CD, so Mac users may not immediately find this when displaying the disc contents in the Finder window. And thanks to one of the other reviewers who pointed this out - I had not noticed it when initially going through the discs, and it is only very obscurely mentioned in the booklet and on the back of the box, and could be very easily missed).That the large record companies are now offering these large and high-quality collections of music, for a small fraction of what they would have cost to purchase (as separate CD's of course) just a few years ago - this is a good thing! I don't see this going on forever!For me, this is a lifetime purchase as well as one to pass down to future generations. In the coming years I will enjoy comparing these performances with others in my collection (symphonies by Kubelik and Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, for one: Mahler: 10 Symphonies). I am sure that some of these performances will be, for me, great ones. And others, less great. Isn't that part of the enjoyment of exploring this music?I am not an advocate of purchasing large CD sets just because they are inexpensive. Some seem to me to be compilations of second-rate recordings and/or performances (or worse), and I would not want those in my collection regardless of the price. That is absolutely not the case here.I give this 5 stars because of the combination of value and performance, with value playing an equal part in the decision here. The Deutsche Grammophon box set (Gustav Mahler: Complete Edition) is also tempting, but it is also over twice the price (at the time of writing this review).I think that this collection is an absolute winner, hands down.