Just a note to Serkin buffs
Santa Fe Listener | Santa Fe, NM USA | 04/17/2008
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Rudolf Serkin was acclaimed for his magisterial reading of the Brahms Second Concerto, and he made no less than three LP versions in the space of a decade:
1956 with Ormandy/ Philadelphia Orch. (mono)
1960 with Ormandy/ Philadelphia Orch. (stereo)
1966 with Szell/ Cleveland Orch. (stereo)
All three have their admirers, but Sony kept the 1960 version out of print on CD, unless you looked for Italian or Japanese Sony issues, which sell for a high price at Amazon Marketplace (these are identifiable by the gold cover with Serkin's portrait in ink -- the artwork duplicates the original lP jacket).
Here, however, we have the 1960 recording, and it's a bargain on the used market. For the 1956 mono, you msut buy a box set of "Legendary Concerto Recordings" by Serkin, all of which are valuable examples of his prime years between age 47 and 53, all in mono.
The 1966 version with Szell is the most easily obtained since it has been re-released repeatedly on budget Sony lines as well as in their remastered series in tribute to Serkin."