This must be the first time Mats and I are in complete agreement, he
writes:

>Toscaninis Sjostakovitj Symphonies are worthless to me

Not only to him, musically Mr T is blind to what this music is about (I
have symphonies 1, 5 and 7 on RCA), to be honest I do not even like any of
his Beethoven.  Nor does his Prokofiev and Kalinikov recordings impress
(Both first symphonies), the only good thing I can say is that his own
orchestration of Pierre Degeyters "Internationale" swing nicely, but then
this is a very catchy tune.  8^)

As for Verdi's Requiem, I'm a period insrument geek saying, Gardiner does
it for me!

peter lundin, gothenburg.se -  Counting the days: DSCH 100 (1906-2006)