Jeffrey Hall:

>Dear CM fans, I have been listening to George Szell and his Clevelanders
>recording of R.  Strauss's Don Juan.  The passage from around 2:15 to 3:45
>is just about the most absolutely breathtakingly beautiful thing that I
>have ever heard.  Just had to say that.

Any of Szell's Strauss is stunning.  His Symphonia Domestica, Til
Eulenspiegel, Don Quixote, Horn Concerto No. 1, Tod und Verklaerung,
and Don Juan have no betters.  Szell began as a composer in the idiom of
Richard Strauss.  He had, therefore, a unique perspective on the music -
having tried to actually write some.  His own compositions suffer from an
excess of good taste, in my opinion.  At any rate, he early on realized
that he wasn't Richard Strauss and concentrated on conducting.

Steve Schwartz