Some great sounding classical "warhorses" ??

For Espana--get the Mercury Living Presence re-issue (Paray, I believe), it's an excellent transfer

Candide--Reference Recordings, it has both the overture and a new, I believe, suite in spectacular sound

Carmina Burana--the Telarc recordings from Atlanta, both Shaw (a little plain but still a good reading) and Runnicles are very good

Young Person's Guide--try to find the London low-priced re-issue of Britten's own recording, it's coupled with his Simple Symphony and is a very good transfer.

I'm still looking for the others that I'd recommend on the silver disc, though I'm happy with the vinyl for now (Reference Recordings has a Capriccio Espagnol on one of its Minnesota Orchestra series that was pretty good, but I've heard better interpretations). For the Elgar I believe that there was a BBC Music CD that was very good, I'll have to check my collection.

Chabrier - Ansermet on London (Also on a Merc Living Presence by Paray if you like Merc's).

Carmen Suite #1 Beecham on EMI. And for something different and something I greatly prefer is the Shchedrin rescoring of the work for strings and 47 precussion instruments. I like Schwarz and the LA Chamber Orchestra.

Elgar - Enigma Variations - Andrew Davis & the BBC SO on Teldec

Britten - YPGTTO - Andrew Davis - Teldec

Rimsky-Korsakov - Cappriccio Espagna - Jarvi - Chandos Get the entire set of suites they are outstanding.

Bernstein - Candide - Eiji Oue and the Minnesota Orchestra on Reference Recording, or for something with more common Bernstein pieces added on Slatkin and the Saint Louis Orchestra on EMI.

Orff - Caarmina Burana - Ozawa and the Boston SO or Shaw on Telarc.

Hope that helps a bit.

Telarc is a good label for excellent sound.

For Elgar and Britten, check out this review of a new release by Paavo Jarvi and Cincinnati:

http://www.highfidelityreview.com/reviews/review.asp?reviewnumber=11818933

The review of the performance is favorable, and talks about the recorded sound a lot. But read the caveats about the two-channel sound.

I saw these forces do Mahler's 9th in Cincy Sat. night. 'twas very nice.

Steve O.

You also try the 'Naxos' label for cheap but good recordings.