Petr Ludin wrote:

>My first contact with the 13 was Previn on EMI (Now released on their
>Serephim sub label), a recording a thought was fine then, today unideomatic
>and stale, it was then followed by Haitink on CD, wich was followed by
>Jaarvi on DG, an improvement (mostly because I attended the pre-recording
>concerts and it was electrifying) then I read about Kondrashins recording
>of the premiere, searched it out, and was totaly convinced.

As I saw the Knondrashin 13 (Russian disc) yesterday in a shop and as this
might go out of print soon I had not much trouble to convince me to pick it
up.  Well, after one listen I have to admit it *is* a stunning performance
and definitely very different from the Haintik recording (most obvious the
timing:  Haitnik takes some 10 minutes more for the whole work).  This is
also historically quite an interesting disc as it is as I understand the
recording of the premiere.  It will need some more listenings to decide
if this one will become my favourite version but I still think the Haitnik
is not bad.  At least the sound is much better, I rarely heard a live
recording with so many coughs in it than this Russion disc recording!

Achim Breiling