Kevin Sutton replies to me:

>>Furthermore, there aren't that many conductors today worth recording
>>in the standard rep.  ...  Does anybody look forward to Spano's
>>Brahms cycle, as good a conductor as he is, when you can get Furtwaengler,
>>Szell, Celibidache, Giulini, Horenstein, Markevitch, Kubelik, Stokowski,
>>Toscanini, and Walter?
>
>The world of recordings and their easy availability has made for somewhat
>of a museum mentality I think.  We needs must remember that all the old
>geezers in the above paragraph were once young, untried and inexperienced.
> ...
>
>I think it's a bit wrong to simply dismiss younger artists as invalid
>or incapable before they have had the advantage of the kind of maturity
>that we know in the conductors mentioned above.

I don't dismiss them.  But I do distinguish between recordings and
concerts.  I'm not saying, "Don't let Spano do Brahms." I'm asking whether
he has the seasoning to make a Spano Brahms cycle worth recording -- at
this point.

On the other hand, Spano's in his -- what?  -- fifties, or thereabouts.
The so-called Young Turks are gettin' long in the tooth, and they're
still not worth recording in classic repertoire, especially when -- like
it or not -- they *are* competing with the past.  That doesn't mean that
they're not worth recording in other repertoire.  I don't believe Ansermet
did particular well with Beethoven, but he was fine with the French.
Spano has made some wonderful recordings.  They just haven't been of
the central European standard rep.

Steve Schwartz