John Smyth asks me:

>>I have four performances of the work: the old Fritz Reiner/Rosalind
>>Elias on RCA; the Thomas Schippers/Lili Chookasian on CBS/Sony; the Andre
>>Previn/Christine Cairns on Telarc; and this one.
>
>No Abbado??  Why?:) It's a performance I would call exciting yet
>voluptuous.

Well, after a period of infatuation with Abbado (at least he's still
better than Muti), I decided that he simply wasn't for me.  I've heard
several good recordings (including a stunning all-Mussorgsky-rarities
CD), but almost nothing that made me want to listen twice.  I don't know
what it is.  The only way I can describe it is that he gets the notes
but not necessarily the music.  To be fair, I haven't heard his Nevsky.

Steve Schwartz