After listening to the Baltimore Symphony perform Cesar Franck's Symphony
in D and Verdi's Requiem, Sami Klein concludes:

>All of which confirms my belief that there is no substitute for live
>performances.

I have to agree.  I have very little opportunity to hear life music and
what I do hear is usually a notch or two below the Baltimore Symphony.

Nonetheless, works that I had only heard in recording before, including
Hindemith's Mathis der Maler, Mahler's 2nd Symphony, Shostakovitch's 5th,
Stravinsky's Rite of Spring and even Beethoven's 5th, were so moving in
live performance (of the Tucson Symphony) that it was months before I could
listen to the recordings again.  Indeed, the Mahler 2nd I had (by Abbado)
seemed so inadequate after the live performance that I got rid of it and
'auditioned' a half dozen other versions before settling on Klemperer as
my main man.  Next month is Mahler's 5th, one of my favorites in the
recorded versions.  It will be interesting to see if the live Tucson
Symphony conducted by George Hanson can beat out the recorded versions by
the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, with Kubelik, and the Vienna State
Opera Orchestra, with Scherchen, in my affections.

John Parker
Tucson, Arizona