Geoffrey Ponton ([log in to unmask]) wrote:

>It's good to see that Szell's great performance of Tchaikovsky's 4th
>Symphony with the London Symphony Orchestra has reappeared on Penguin
>Classics (460 655-2).  The coupling is Karajan and the Vienna Philharmonic
>playing the Romeo and Juliet fantasy Overture.

Which is hardly in the same league as Szell's blistering 4th, though.  This
was the famous occasion on which John Culshaw put one over on Szell, whose
first takes in the studio were rather tame; Culshaw deliberately played
them back at too low a level, so that they sounded quite lifeless, Szell
was furious, stormed back into the studio and unleashed the maelstrom we
can hear on this recording.  One of the handful of truly great Tchaik 4s.

Deryk Barker
[log in to unmask]