Best recording labels for orchestral music

Thanks for all the input so far.

In response to Steveott. Best recorded version would be what I am saying. There seems to be an enormous amount of dynamic swings throughout that I haven't heard on some of my other orchestral cds. I do understand that different conductors and orchestras can play a major role in the interpretation of the composers work.

Just a side note as well.

Do any of you feel that the first performance of a piece of music, recorded or live, becomes the benchmark for other versions you may hear of the same piece. For example I heard Rhapsody In Blue for the first time about 15 years ago and loved it. I don't remember the conductor or orchestra used to perform it. Then a few years later I got a hold of another version and didn't like it very much. (The tempo was much faster for one and it didn't seem as grand as I had once remembered it to be.) Do any of you have any input on this.

Back to the subject.

Where do you all get your classical cd's from anyways. Where I live (Kansas City) there is Best Buy, Circuit City and for the most part thats about it. What are some other avenues I can pursue.

Thanks.

hi tobias:

i do not own any vocal music on that label. none of my instrumental recordings are bright. i like harmonia mundi very much.

it is difficult to generalize about the two labels.

i will now add other labels:

naive
opus
accent
astree
pierre verany

admittedly music is generally from the baroque period.
it is worth listening to anything on these labels.

however, it is worth listening to some of these labels

By the way, these are really wonderful recordings:
http://www.highdeftapetransfers.net/cgi-bin/shopper.cgi?listcategories

Mrtennis, I have to agree with you that Pierre Verany is a very good bet. Always really good recordings and IMHO the performances are often first-class as well. Nothing wrong with the other labels you also mention but I have been consistently pleased with PV.

Foehn, there is a recording on Bis of the Sibelius Violin Concerto, Leonidas Kavakos as soloist, that is worth searching out.

In response to your last question, I now shop exclusively on the web. Here are the ones I frequent:

Amazon.com Marketplace - sellers like Caiman and Moviemars often have very low prices for new discs, and I've been using them for years.

MDT.co.uk - great for Europe-only releases, but the dollar has taken a beating.

HMV.co.jp - great for Japan-only releases. They have many excellent remasterings of great American recordings. Unfortunately, they only ship by express mail, and it's expensive. Americans don't buy enough to keep them in the catalog here.

Also, someome mentioned classicstoday.com for reviews. It's an excellent resource.