Review: Dueling Mahler Editions from Major Labels

2010/11 was the 150th anniversary of Mahler's birth and the centenary of his death, leading Universal (DG) and EMI (not yet Warner) to release competing boxed sets. DG's purported to be "complete," but of course it didn't even come close. EMI's was just an "edition." So to conclude our survey of Mahler boxes, I offer a comparison of these two limited releases in case you happen to come across one somewhere. You don't need either of them--the performances are almost all still kicking around one way or another, but it's fun to see what was going on a decade ago, just for the sake of completeness.