Tony Duggan: >Someone whose opinion I normally value (no one on these Lists) once said >that Szell was "not a natural Mahlerian" which is think is too harsh. >His account(s) of the Ninth that I have heard are excellent. I'd have agreed with that statement, once upon a time when I hadn't heard his Ninth or his Lied. I have since, and I agree with Tony. However, I still think a Real Mahlerian has to do the entire cycle. I can't imagine Szell with the Seventh or the Eighth, for example - to me, the toughest tests of a Mahler conductor. Szell also made no secret of the fact that he thought several of the symphonies weak. On the other hand, Furtwaengler thought Beethoven's second symphony a failure, and he's certainly a great Beethoven conductor. Steve Schwartz