Robert Stumpf, Stokowski headbanger:

>The Cleveland was awesome so far as precision is concerned, but Szell's
>precision came at the price of emotion.  I heard a live concert with
>Stokowski conducting the orchestra and realized they were much better
>than the recordings I'd heard.

The story I've heard, and it's been oft-repeated, is that Szell owned
a pair of Bose bookshelf speakers that he put on the floor, thereby
exaggerating their bass. Supposedly, he then leaned on Columbia to reduce
the bass! The result was the rather thin sound that plagues many of these
recordings. Only at the very end of his career was this discovered.

I managed to hear Szell and Cleveland only once, when they were on tour.
They sounded nothing like they do on those recordings. They were fabulous.

Roger Hecht