Mahler The Mahler Project Symphonies Nos. 1-9 180g 22LP & Bonus 45rpm LP Box Set (Autographed) #152

New 2025 collection! From a very meticulous collector, this comes from a collection great highly sought-after items! Long Out Of Print, won't last long! Only 1 Copy Available!

Vinyl Grade: Sealed
Jacket Grade: Mint

TAS Super LP List! Special Merit: Classical

The Deluxe 22-LP set is the capstone of the seven time Grammy® winning and five star Diâpason d'Or Mahler Cycle recorded live at Davies Symphony Hall from 2001-2009. The series, released in individual installments on Hybrid SACD, was a commercial success and was lauded with critical acclaim. This one-time only offer will be pressed only once and limited to 1000 individually numbered sets.

Bonus 45rpm Disc: An intimate performance of the Rückert Lieder sung by Susan Graham with Michael Tilson Thomas on piano. Exclusively available in the Ultimate Mahler Collection. Not sold individually.

...I would venture that the SFS/Thomas sequence is the most important complete cycle from any American orchestra since Bernstein and the Philharmonic's. It's also likely that no other complete cycle will satisfy the Mahler-loving audiophile like this one, especially, I will add, now that it's about to be released in a superb 180-gram vinyl edition pressed at RTI, and mastered by none other than Kevin Gray.

It's an ambitious, impressive, and pricey package, complete with a hardbound book filled with lengthy liner notes, archival photos, and texts in three languages. the series is selling briskly and may well be sold out by its release...

The discs, originally recorded in DSD and released on hybrid-stereo and (tasteful, even convincing) multichannel SACDs, were generally excellent sounding, with a rich tonality, wide and deep soundstaging, and terrific dynamic scaling and extended range. Not only have these qualities translated beautifully to vinyl, they actually, perhaps even surprisingly, sound better than ever.

[Kevin] Gray told me that "We were very aware going into this project that the LPs would be scrutinized against the SACDs, so we decided to keep the full dynamic range of the original recording." Gray's claim was fully evident as I made my way through a sample set of test LPs... Dynamic range was consistently very wide, and yet natural and cohesive, too. As we know, Mahler scores frequently swing from a barely audible hush to the kind of in-your-face rush of sound that can figuratively knock you off your feet. But even during the full-on climax of No. 8, with its huge orchestral and multi-chorus score, the dynamic wave of the music kept rolling until my Maggie 1.7's started to max-out.

...credit for the final product goes to the folks at the RTI pressing facility for delivering flat LPs with remarkably low surface noise. Needless to say quiet surfaces are desirable for all music, but given the near-silent awakening movement of, say, the Symphony No. 1, this project could have bee a disaster without the highest quality vinyl.

...beautiful micro-dynamic resolution and explosive macro-dynamics are triumphs of this set... dynamics just seemed to build and build, until the orchestra, organ, and array of choruses filled the room with a sound that was impressively reminiscent of this piece as I last heard it in this hall with these very forces.

...for those who obtain this set, the "bonus" 45rpm LP of the Ruckert-Lieder with Thomas and mezzo-soprano Susan Graham is a treasure. It's remarkably intimate, present, and like-like sounding.