Thanks for the excellent recommendations. I'm making a list.
A lot of my little collection is the from the Cleveland Symphony orchestra either Szell or Dohnanyi conducting. These came from my late uncle who was an aficionado. Record companies sent him music to preview so we often got some of his extras. I do not know if he particularly liked the Cleveland Symphony or just had extra ones.
In my original post I mentioned Dvorak's 4th but I meant the 9th. One of my favorites and it seems certain to me that Williams borrowed heavily for his Star Wars themes.
Side story (I have two). The little former mill city that I live in has just founded a symphony orchestra. My sister in-law is on the founding committee and my wife has helped them with fund raising. They are an excellent group of musicians from around the region (Charlotte, Atlanta, etc). The conductor is from New York. They will be doing Dvorak's 9th for their opener next month. Can't wait. I think it is a wise choice as it will be very accessible even for us local hicks.
Second story (which relates to posts above): One of the other board members is the chair of the piano department at the University of Colorado. He is in a duo with a violinist named Bill Terwilliger who teaches violin at the University of South Carolina. They have a number of CDs under the name of Opus Two. They specialize in the American composers, especially Copland. They will be performing with our new symphony from time to time. They are friends of the family and I must admit have never been really into Copland. I think it is time for me to broaden my horizons as I suspect my wife and her sister are likely to stay involved in the symphony.
Anyway, you've all given me a good place to start building from. Thanks.
George
