But that is too many conductors for only nine complete symphonies. who are Inbal, Neumann and Bertini? Are they very old recordings? I tend to go on a mixture of top recommendations from BBC 3, Penguin, Rough Guide and Gramophone as well as Amazon reviews and having some clue of the conductors from other CDs I own. I have strangely never seen Sinopoli mentioned above any of the other conductors although I know he is supposed to be a top Mahlerian. Maybe there is some kind of bias. I would have gotten Rattle for number 2 or 10 but it is too late
Barenboim is surely not of the calibre of Bernstein or Barbirolli as regards Mahler? Boulez is brilliant yes but his kind of Mahler is a bit detached for my liking. I very nearly got him conducting the 3rd but again more positive things were said about Bernstein and Abbado - that these, from a large consensus of people, are definitive.
You have opened some doors here though. I like that

I know that Mahler is a tricky one cos the list of potential great performances is obviously huge, as much or more than even Beethoven or at least there are a lot of people with strong opinions on the issue.
J