Nice survey by John Proffitt.  I am glad to see Kurt Sanderling
mentioned, as his Shostakovich partial cycle with the Berlin Symphony is
extraordinary.  I do not expect to hear a better 15th (much better than
his own remake of it with the Cleveland Orchestra on Erato).  Sanderling
interprets this work with a great deal of irony and darkness, which is
not immediately evident in most interpretations.  His comments on this
symphony are very enlightening.  I also feel that he has a great 'Babi
Yar' in him and hope he gets to record it some day.  Someone in the
'rec.music.classical.recordings' newsgroup commented on attending a
performance of the 8th with Sanderling and the BPO and called it a
shattering experience.  How I envy him.

Regarding Rozhdestvensky's cycle, I have some Japanese JVC issues which
sound much better than the issues that have turned up in the U.S.  There is
also a new reissue box of this cycle coming up, but I don't know if they
have remastered it or if they're just "boxing" it.

Ramon Khalona