J Previte answers Ed Zubrow:

>>The background information in Steve's review was very helpful.  Now I'm
>>eager to know: what are other great Szell recordings?
>
>His blistering Tchaikovsky 4th on London.  Story goes that on playback, the
>producer (I seem to think it was Legge) played back the tape at a low level
>spurning Szell to a fury.  He then whipped the orchestra to a frenzy and
>hence this recording of the 4th.

I would also mention (of recordings not currently available) those on the
Strauss family, Rossini (excerpts in both cases), Prokofiev's 5th symphony,
Brahms violin concerto with Oistrakh, Bartok's 1st piano concerto (w/
Serkin), a "Russian showpieces" collection (including the best version
of Rimsky's Capriccio espagnol), Walton's Partita for Orchestra (briefly
here and gone), and modern arrangements of Handel's Water Music, Royal
Fireworks, and miscellaneous stuff by, among others, Harty, Beecham, and
Szell himself.

Of those recordings you might actually find, I'd recommend
...
anything, really.  Standouts include the Barber Piano Concerto, the
recording with Curzon of the Brahms 1st piano concerto, the Double Concerto
with Oistrakh and Rostropovich, the Tchaikovsky 5th and 1st piano concerto,
Mussorgsky-Ravel's Pictures at an Exhibition, Mahler's Fourth, the Schumann
symphonies and the Manfred overture, the Brahms 3rd Symphony, piano
concerti (Fleisher and Serkin).  I prefer the Gilels recordings of the
Beethoven concerti to the Fleisher.  Mozart piano concerti with Serkin
and Casadesus.  Grieg and Schumann piano concerti, Grieg's Peer Gynt
(excerpts), Bizet's L'Arlesienne Suite, Schubert's Unfinished and Great
C Major Symphonies, Rosamunde incidental music, Mendelssohn's Italian
symphony and Midsummer Night's Dream music (excerpts), any of his Strauss
recordings (4 Last Songs and other orchestral songs, Till Eulenspiegel,
Symphonia Domestica, Tod und Verklaerung, Don Juan, Don Quixote, Horn
Concerto No.  1 - special recordings also exist of the Burleske and the
Burger als Edelmann Suite), Rachmaninoff Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini,
Dvorak's 7th, 8th, and 9th, definitely the Carnival Overture and the
Slavonic Dances, the cello concerto with Fournier and the Berlin, Mahler's
4th (which has been mentioned before, with good reason) and Des Knaben
Wunderhorn, Janacek's Sinfonietta, Hindemith's Symphonic Metamorphosis
on Themes by Weber, and Walton's 2nd symphony.

In addition, the Cleveland Orchestra has made available boxed sets - an
all-Szell set and a set with all of its music directors, including Szell.
Highlights include a terrific Mahler 9th and Das Lied (with Janet Baker and
Richard Lewis), Beethoven Missa Solemnis, Mozart Requiem, Ravel Le Tombeau
de Couperin, Dutilleux 5 Metaboles, Schumann Introduction and Allegro (if
only they had also included Szell's performance of Ravel's as well!),
and Walton's Violin Concerto (w/ Francescatti).  Omissions include his
electrifying Verdi Requiem (to my ear, the best of the postwar era), fizzy
Walton's Johannesburg Festival Overture, and Stravinsky Le Sacre.  Boulez's
first recording with the Cleveland Orchestra comes close to the last one.
However, after a certain point, every Cleveland Orchestra concert was
recorded, so these things and other treasures probably exist.  Whether
anyone will release them is another question.

Steve Schwartz