Robert Gray wrote:

>The current issue of International Record Review (July?) reviews a new
>mid-price, 3-CD EMI box of Ingo Metzmacher's recordings of the symphonies
>(complete except for the 7th, I believe).  It gets a high commendation,
>over the earlier Kubelik set on Wergo, though the reviewer regrets that
>the symphonies-only approach leaves out a number of worthwhile "fillers".

The original releases of the Metzmacher/Hartmann series were 7 CDs (and you
can still buy them individually here in Europe):

1.  Gesangsszene fr Bariton & Orchester, Misereae fr Orchester +
Dallapiccola: Canti di liberazione.
2.  Symphony #1 + Martinu:Mahnmal fr Lidice, Nono:Canti de vita e d'amore,
Schnberg:Ein berlebender aus Warschau.
3. Symphony #3 + Ives: Robert Browning Overture.
4. Symphony #4 + Messiaen: Et exspecto resurrectionem mortuorum.
5.  Symphony #6 + Webern: 6 Stcke fr Orchester op.6, Berg:3 Orchesterstcke
op.6 (version 1929).
6. Sympgonies #2 and #5 + B.A.Zimmermann: Symphonie in einem Satz, Strawinsky:
Symphonie in 3 movements.
7. Symphonies #7 and #8.

The boxed-set has *all* the symphonies, same recordings as the above:
#1 "Versuch eines Requiems" fr Alt & Orchester (1937/48), #2 "Adagio"
(1946/50), #3 (1948/49), #4 for strings (1947), #5 "Sinfonia concertante",
#6 (1952/53), #7 (1957/58) and #8 (1960/62).  I think this set is quite
a bargain as most of the fillers can be obtained elsewhere (with the
exception of the splendid *Symphonie in einem Satz* by Bernd Alois
Zimmermann!).  The sound quality of these recordings is of course much
better than the one on the old Wergo set, though some of the Wergo
recordings, especially those with Kubelik conducting, are quite impressive!

Achim Breiling