The Tennstedt and Levine performances of Mahler's First Symphony are transfers to CD of recordings made for LP. Inbal's on Denon was recorded for CD and has easily the best balanced and most pleasing sound. The EMI/Tennstedt tends to favour the bass instruments and is generally rather boomy. Its dynamic contrasts are violent and I had to have continual recourse to the volume control. RCA's recording for Levine and the LSO is a little less volatile but is also a bit 'boxy' and lacks the poetry that comes from distancing the music from the close-up microphone.
As an interpretation, too, I think I would award the palm to Inbal, though not without several backward glances at some of Levine's inspired touches, such as his supremely lyrical trio in the second movement and his spacious treatment of the finale's big romantic tune. But Inbal is lyrical too and also encompasses this remarkable symphony's importance as the first of a mighty range. According to what Tennstedt told Edward Seckerson (March, page 1237), he would like to re-record this symphony as this 1978 performance is ''not my style today'' and was not digital. He implies he had underestimated the music's significance, but his account of the slow introduction stresses its avant-garde features more than anyone else's and although the Scherzo is rather heavy-footed there is to my ears no suggestion that he viewed the symphony as a work separated from its successors.'