Allan Kohrman responds to Karl Miller:

>>For me the only performance, except perhaps for the Gardiner recording,
>>is the March 8,1942 Met performance, with Walter conducting, featuring
>>Pinza, Kipnis, and Sayao.
>
>That 1942 Walter is the only Don Giovanini I own. If you are suggesting
>that Levine could approach Bruno Walter, I must listen again to Levine.
>I remember listening to a broadcast of Levine with Cleveland, doing some
>American Music and thinking to myself, "Well there is no reason to ever
>listen to him again." I just checked...that broadcast was 30 years
>ago...well maybe he has changed since then...

There was one Levine recording I remember liking a lot.  The Brahms First
Symphony with Chicago.  As I understand it, it was kind of a tag on to
a recording session, played straight through to fill some leftover time.
I haven't heard it in years, but remember it as bracing, colorful, and
stirring.  You could hear the Szell in this one.  The recording got great
reviews and sold well enough for RCA to record the other three symphonies.
I bought them all.  Sold all but the First a little later.

I remember liking Levine's set of Schumann symphonies with Philadelphia,
but I'd have to check that set out again to be sure I still do.  I still
have it if that means anything.

With Levine, even if I liked something he recorded--and I occasionally
did in Mahler and some Verdi--I could always find another recording I
liked much better.  In time, I stopped trying.

Roger Hecht

             ***********************************************
The CLASSICAL mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R)
list management software together with L-Soft's HDMail High Deliverability
Mailer for reliable, lightning fast mail delivery.  For more information,
go to:  http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html