This must be the first time Mats and I are in complete agreement, he writes: >Toscaninis Sjostakovitj Symphonies are worthless to me Not only to him, musically Mr T is blind to what this music is about (I have symphonies 1, 5 and 7 on RCA), to be honest I do not even like any of his Beethoven. Nor does his Prokofiev and Kalinikov recordings impress (Both first symphonies), the only good thing I can say is that his own orchestration of Pierre Degeyters "Internationale" swing nicely, but then this is a very catchy tune. 8^) As for Verdi's Requiem, I'm a period insrument geek saying, Gardiner does it for me! peter lundin, gothenburg.se - Counting the days: DSCH 100 (1906-2006)