Roger Hecht <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>Mark Seeley wrote:
>
>>My Fritz Reiner remains on the top of my list for Bartok's Concerto for
>>Orchestra, but I just put George Szell's Prokofiev Fifth on the top.
>
>I haven't heard this in a long while, but another one you might like along
>these lines is Leinsdorf with Boston.  I think.  As I say it's been a long
>time.

Leinsdorf's BSO Prok.  5th (available on an inexpensive RCA
Navigator release, coupled with his Lt.  Kije with the same orchestra
and with Ormandy's RCA rec.  of the Classical Symphony) is, to my taste,
a preferable account than Szell's.  Leinsdorf is more expansive and
eloquent in general, especially in the Adagio, as compared to Szell's
pedestrian reading of this movement which is certainly the weak point of
a superlatively played and razor-sharp performance.  Don't get me wrong,
Szell's interpretation may be unmatched in terms of precision and sheer
orchestral execution, but this wears out very quickly upon repeated
listening and Leinsdorf seems, in my opinion, to find more in this music
than sheer mechanical brilliance.

Now, if RCA could make us all happy and reissue Leinsdorf's Prokofiev 6th
with the BSO (in the High Performance Series perhaps?), that would be reason
to celebrate.

Ramon Khalona
Carlsbad, California