300 Mahler discs?! That is crazy!! I have round 1300-1400 discs and I'm still shy of even 100 discs by J.S. Bach... my favorite composer... and Bach composed about 100 times the amount of music as Mahler. I do quite like Mahler myself... especially the 1st, 2nd, and 9th symphonies and the Song of the Earth... but I do find that I lean far more toward Richard Strauss... and certainly Richard Wagner... when speaking of the great Romantics.

I'd like to make some observations. Mahler only wrote 17 works. So you can embrace his entire output easily in a way you can't Bach's, for example.

Secondly, they can be placed chronologically in groups:

I
Lieder und Gesaenge aus der Jugendzeit
Das klagende Lied
Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen
Symphony 1

II
Des Knaben Wunderhorn
Symphonies 2-4

III
Rueckertlieder
Kindertotenlieder
Symphonies 5-7

IV
Symphony 8

V
Das Lied von der Erde
Symphonies 9-10

The works in each group are more or less related to each other. Firstly, the songs drive the symphonies thematically, emotionally and contextually; secondly the symphonies in each group are related.

This interconnectedness between works makes me think of each group as one big meta-composition which reveals itself in the actual available works.

However, Mahler's compositional style is so consistent and unified (though, of course there is a huge development form the first movement of symphony 1 to the last movement of the tenth) that all 17 works seem to be the real world expressions of some vast meta-work.

This unity is perceived by people who know the music, even if the idea hadn't occurred to them. This subconscious appreciation is one thing that creates such strong fans.

Another aspect of the music which makes it popular is that Mahler switches between straightforwardness (eg 3/vi) and ironic self reference - very late C20 (eg the way the second theme of 5/iv is gently sent up in the following movement); between impressive externally referenced grandeur (eg the close of 2/v or all of 8/i) and highly personal angst - another C20 preference (eg 9 and 10). In other words, he presses all the right buttons for the late twentieth century aesthete and music lover.

However, I disagree that Mahler's music is set apart form that of his contemporaries. Of course, he is individual, but any Mahler-lover shouldn't really have a problem with most Alban Berg, or the many other subsequent composers he influenced. The third of Berg's Three orchestral pieces op 6 is rather like Mahler 6 collapsed in on itself under its own gravity, like a neutron star.

Is it great? Probably not. Richard Strauss famously said that he knew he wasn't a first class composer, but he was a first rate second class composer. Maybe that applies to Mahler. Certainly some of the songs are great (eg the Rueckertlieder, Ich bin der Welt... and Der Abschied) and undoubtedly the sixth, at least, is a great symphony.

Is it great? Probably not. Richard Strauss famously said that he knew he wasn't a first class composer, but he was a first rate second class composer.

If Mahler and Strauss were second-rate then there are but only a few who might qualify as first-rate composers.

That's the whole point. If everybody is defined as first rate, the description becomes meaningless.

I'll buy that. Basically, the idea that if everyone is special, then nobody is special.

To me, Mahler is one of my top tier composers, but to really be first rate, it would need to be a more universal acceptance. I would put Bach, Beethoven, and Mozart in that "first rate" category without blinking an eye. There may be others, but those three seem, at least to me, indisputable.

Dr Mike:

Just came onto the thread, and as a new member myself, welcome.
It took a long LONG time for me to come around to Mahler, and if I may say so, it was an older London recording by Sir Georg Solti of Mahler's First, with, I believe, the LSO. Kinda blew me out of the saddle, it did, so when he started his Mahler cycle with the Chicago Symphony (my favorite American German orchestra, LOL!) I started buying them up on CD without even thinking.

Before that, I was heavily into German Romantics as a Lieder accompanist, so Mahler wasn't exactly unknown territory, just untouched.

Of course I love Mahler now, thanks to Sir Georg, but that's my take, and not necessarily anyone else's. I've heard both pro and con on his interpretations, and since then I've had a chance to listen to several other conductors, but I keep going back to Solti. My choice, understand. Not perhaps necessarily the RIGHT one for Mahlerites, but the one that satisfies me.

As to his Lieder, which as an accompanist I have grown to really admire, it's simply some of the best and most expressive I've ever heard. Favorites:
Kindertotenleider (especially the recordings by either Fischer-Dieskau or Christa Ludwig)
Songs of a Wayfarer (hands down, Fishcher-Dieskau)
RuchertLeider (Christa Ludwig just flat-out blows me away. Her voice is like Technicolor, her interpretations are so spot-on that you'd swear that Mahler wrote them just for her!)

I notice that you mentioned Rachmaninov, a very favorite Late Romantic composer of mine. Oddly enough, Rachmaninov and Mahler DO have a connection, Mahler conducted the NY Phil when Rachmaniov premiered his 3rd Piano Concerto in America. Now THAT must have been a meeting of giants! I don't know if Mahler ever conducted any of Rachmaninov's orchestral works, but if he did, I'm sure that he might just have identified with them.

Anyway, if you've been introduced to Rachmaninov via his Second Piano Concerto, you might like the following works:
Symphony #2 in e minor (Large scale, incredibly melodic and expertly orchestrated. I'd recommend either Previn or Ashkenazy. The finale features the most beautiful theme he ever wrote, at least IMO.)
The Bells (a marvelous choral symphony with a devastating final movement.)
Vesper Mass (one of the really great works of religious unaccompanied choral literature.)
Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini (Rachmaninoff being witty and brittle and exciting.)
Piano Concerto #3 in d minor (not as rapturously melodic as #2, but beautifully laid out. It's one of the hardest in the repertoire, and it SOUNDS it.)
The Isle Of The Dead (an extraordinary Tone-Poem--powerful and austere, with moments of sublime beauty.)

Tom

I am a huge Bruckner and Mahler fan,too. Other great symphonies you should explore are those of Jean Sibelius, Carl Nielsen of Denmark ( a favorite of mine), Prokofiev, Shostakovich ,
Dvorak, Elgar, Vaughan Williams, Albert Roussel, Franz Schmidt, Mily Balakirev, Nikolai Myaskovsky, Borodin, Paul Dukas(he wrote only one), Franck, Franz Berwald of Sweden,
Arnold Bax, Sergei Taneyev, to name only some.