James Tobin wrote: >Peter Goldstein: > >>I'm starting to get into Shostakovich, and I wondered if anyone had any >>insights on the relative merits of the various recorded symphony cycles: >>Haitink, Kondrashin, Rostropovich, and anyone else you know of. > >I would mix and match, and I will just mention a few. So many wonderful ones to choose from. My guess is that the quality of the audio would figure into most choices...however from one who collects broadcast performances...(*=broadcast) 1-Koussevitkzy* 2-Gould 3-Gould 4-Slovak, Ormandy (yes, Ormandy), Ashkenazy...I still don't have one that really does it for me. 5-Koussevitzky* Rostropovich (with the BSO on the day the composer died)* Mitchell, 6-Koussevitzky* 7-Ancerl, Bernstein (there is also a live perf. with Bernstein and the BSO from 1948 that I would guess would be a knockout (I have never heard it)-but it is in Library of Congress and unless there is a miracle, it will not appear on disc) 8-Koussevitzky* Mravinsky 9-Koussevitzky* (I prefer his broadcast versus the commercial recording, even if the composer did not care for all of Koussevitzky's tempi) 10-Mitropoulos 11-Stokowski 12-Mravinsky (1955) 13-Kondrashin 14-Barshai 15-M. Shostakovich or Kondrashin Karl