Favorite Telarc releases.....

Mahler 3rd. Jesus Lopez-Cobos. Wonderful in every respect.

Jarvi and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra put out a couple of CD's a year on Telarc, as did Cobos and as does Kunzel with the Pops - I have nearly all of Jarvi's and a good deal of Cobos's and Kunzel's. They are all superb - particularly look at Ravel's works from all three. While Telarc is sonically impressive and I have a good number of Telarc recordings, IMO Telarc recordings do not reflect the sound one hears when present at a live performance - which I find is better reflected, in general, on DG and EMI CD's. BTW, the CSO records in Music Hall - which is sonically wonderful - when I lived in that city I attended somewhere in the order of 100 performances in that hall.

Lorin Maazel and Cleveland Orchestra Shostakovich 5th is way way fun on Telarc.
Rachmaninov with Horacio Guitierez also with Lorin is also another favorite of mine. Lorin makes classical fun and a bit funky. He seems to understand rhythm and pace better than most. I don't like Eric Kunzel at all - brash and plain loud but without any good rhythms - seems to lack feeling to me - sounds like they use a metronome...

Mahler is heavy stuff but if you want some good CD's get the set by Benjamin Zander with Boston Philharmonic - I got my set straight from him and it has an extra CD with explanations or walk through about the interpretation - great if you want to dig deeper. Zander has good feeling - time will tell but I think it is a great interpretation.

If you are looking at Telarc you should also look at "Living Stereo" from the old mercury stuff - similar recording techniques.

My personal CD favorites are:
Copland: Appalachian Spring, Rodeo, Fanfare for the Common Man. Louis Lane & Atlanta Sym. Orch.

Mahler: Sym. 1 "Titan", Leonard Slatkin, St.Louis Sym. Orch.

Respighi: Pines Of Rome, The Birds & Fountains of Rome. Louis Lane & Atlanta Sym. Orch.

Telarc also has a great sampler titled: Winter, Spring, Summer and Autumn which is worth the price.