Donald Satz wrote:

>I want to thank everyone who offered their opinions on the myriad of
>recordings available of Shostakovich's 7th Symphony, and here's what I'm
>going to do.  I'll review the Gergiev and Bychkov, using for comparision
>(good or bad) the Ancerl/Supraphon, Barshai/Brilliant, Haitink/Decca,
>Temirkanov/RCA, Masur/Teldec, Berglund/EMI, and Bernstein/DG.  The only
>one I'm currently lacking is the Bychkov.  Once acquired, I'll be out
>of the gate.

Don, I'm a bit late on this one (we're moving house on Monday and
everything - well, unfortunately not *everything* yet - is in boxes.

But you really shouldn't miss the Polyansky on Chandos, which is the
finest version I've heard in a long while, although I haven't heard the
Gergiev (I have a Prom aircheck from a couple of years ago and, although
good, it wasn't premier cru IMHO) or the Bychkov I'd be surprised if
they were much better than this.  Temirkanov doesn't do it for me either
BTW.

You can read my review of the Polyanksy at

   http://www.soundstage.com/music/reviews/rev061.htm

(BTW the editor occasionally did things I didn't approve of - I cannot believe
I wrote "gotten"...)

Deryk Barker
dbarker @camosun.bc.ca