By all means get the Sawallisch;I think it has been remastered/recutand
is now mid-price.  Extraordinary brass and recording.  Also get your
hands on Karajan/Berlin PO for a different sound.

Excerpt from Gramophone review (May 2004) by Rob Cowan on Barenboim/Berlin
Staatskapelle and Zinman/Baltimore SO

In pitting these very different cycles against each other, I wouldn't
wish to side-step the best of the competition, which includes robust
Sawallisch in Dresden, imaginative Eschenbach with the North German Radio
Symphony Orchestra, loving Bernstein in Vienna, refined Karajan in Berlin,
and subtly observant Kubeli'k in Munich.  Kubeli'k is my personal favourite
- Schumann the poet is really given his due - but for the purposes of
this review it's Zinman who most stands to teach you things about the
music that you didn't already know.  (www.gramophone.co.uk - gramophile
#requires registration#)

P.S.At the risk of getting flamed, I consider Gramophone the most balanced
magazine;I have been reading it on and of for about 30 yrs.  If you have
problems getting the magazine try and find the Penguin Guides from amazon.

Theodore Theodoropoulos <[log in to unmask]>