Dan Schmidt wants some feedback on the best place to start with the works
of Ernst Toch.  I'll just restrict myself mainly to his string quartets.
There are two recordings that I know of on the market.  One, on the Talent
Dom label, has early Toch; the music is thoroughly derivative and often
sounds like Mozart.  Since it's nowhere as good as Mozart, I'd pass on this
one.  The other disc is on CPO and has two quartets from Toch's maturity;
one is neo-classical, the other atonal.  Personally, I find the CPO much
better.  Also, the group which plays on the Talent Dom disc is much too
sweet for my tastes.  CPO also has a Toch Symphony series in progress;
these works are worth investigating.

Don Satz