Why is there no such thing as history anymore? No one mentioned Reiner or Szell? Cleveland is cleveland but whenever the orchestra went to New York, the critics raved like Bernstein played for the Mets. And Reiner, no one handled soloists as well except perhaps Toscanini and he was a martinet. Columbia made horrible recordings of the Cleveland but the best RCA's produced by the legendary Lewis Layton were done with Reiner. And then you have Solti, and Haitink with the Concertgebouw. Sir Charles Beecham was no slouch, either (actually, you're a great slouch, judge).
