Thomas Heilman wrote: >Go for the Andre Cluytens\Berlin Phil. set. 4,5,6,7, and 8 are among the >best I have ever heard. 4 and 5 are the best I have ever heard. I'll second this recommendation (I'm biased, though, since for most of the symphonies, these were the first recordings I heard). The recordings date from 1957-1960, so they're "traditional" rather than "HIP". The sound quality seems to me to be good enough - obviously, you can do better there with more recent recordings. In the UK, the entire set - nine symphonies and three overtures on 5 CDs - sells for about the price of one full-price CD, which IMO is an amazing bargain. Peter Varley [log in to unmask]