Ray Bayles wrote:

>One that got good reviews and remains high in the catalogs is the Solti
>version.  I like this a lot.  It is out in a reissue called "legends".
>I know this is not a popular choice with some members of the list.

There are certain conductors who seem to rub some people the wrong way.
I have never figured out why.  Barenboim, Mehta, some others.  Used to be
Stokowski was everyone's whipping boy.  No longer.

It's a kind of intellectual snobbishness or something.  But there are
conductors who generate an automatic negativity for no reason.  Stravinsky
gets the same sort of reaction against his performance of his own works.
Man, I wish I had been responsible for his recordings.  I'd be so proud!
That is a legacy beyond parallel.

Toscanini used to be an icon.  Now he's anathema for many.  Neither
response was correct.  But a reading of musical history is in order to
see how he was valued in his own time.  And he's still a helluva great
conductor.

Bill S