Christopher Webber writes, giving us a wholly admirable choice of the
all-time greatest performances of 4'33", ever:

>It has been a taxing undertaking to narrow the field down to five major
>contenders, but here goes ...

No question but that for the serious collector all of these are _musts_
except Choice 3 which I think is off,off,off,way off, the track.  For a
truly great French performance of this oeuvre I would strongly recommend
substituting:

3. Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, c. Andre Previn (l'=99Oiseau
Lyrique-433soixante-neuf)

This is the very recording so unutterably moving that it caused the
hardened General Massu to have that celebrated orgasm at the Theatre de
Champs Elysees.  No wonder, for what mortal could withstand for more than
four minutes-- the time it takes an outstanding athlete to run the mile,--
the heavy breathing, even panting, accompanying the reciprocal thrust and
withdrawal of the rhythm, the oboeing grunts, the punctuating shrieks of
the piccolo, and the climactic ardor of the tuba, all these rendering in
a concerted _tour de force_ that degree of the _silence profonde_ which
is compellingly suggestive, at very least, of the _petit mort_?

Denis Fodor