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From: gayde@iwu1c.UUCP (Peter Gayde)
Newsgroups: net.records
Subject: Favorite Recordings
Message-ID: <158@iwu1c.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 18-Oct-83 12:17:10 EDT
Article-I.D.: iwu1c.158
Posted: Tue Oct 18 12:17:10 1983
Date-Received: Fri, 21-Oct-83 05:25:08 EDT
Organization: AT&T Bell Labs, Naperville, Il
Lines: 34

I'd like to continue the discussion of favorite classical recordings
which allegra!cbf brought up in net.audio.

I have no comment on most of his choices for favorite recent releases
except to say that I have heard the last movement of the Haitink
Shostakovich 5th and it is very good indeed.  Other favorite recordings
of this piece include Maazel/Cleveland on Telarc, Ormandy/Philadelphia
on RCA (probably the ONLY decent recording these forces have ever made)
and Bernstein/New York on CBS.

My nomination for record(s) of the decade are the recently released
cycle of Mozart symphonies by the Academy of Ancient Music on L'Oiseau
Lyre.  These performances are a revelation!  Original instruments are
used and the orchestra is tuned to A = 440 instead of the normal A = 444
(I think I have these numbers right).  Virtually all repeats are observed
but you never notice because the power of the interpretations is simply
awesome.  I own every volume except the last release (Vol. 6 out of 7),
which contains the later symphonies (38, 39, 40, 41 plus a couple of
others) and they are already getting quite a bit of use.

As for Solti's Mahler, I can only say that I enjoy his recording of the
2nd even though it is a bit frenzied at times.  I recently attended a
Chicago Symphony concert which included Mahler's 1st.  It was BY FAR
the most satisfying performance I have ever heard (live or on record).
It will be recorded and released in the next year, I can't wait.  I
have heard (and own) most of the great recordings of this piece
(Tennstedt, Horenstein, Kubelik, Walter) but I think Solti surpassed them.
(Perhaps I'm lavishing too much praise for an as yet unreleased product).

Any comments?

Peter Gayde
Western Electric
Naperville, IL