Strauss: Tod und Verklärung, etc
George Szell seemed to avoid Strauss's most splashy tone poems--ZarathustraandHeldenleben--perhaps out of his natural dislike of  kitsch, or possibly because Columbia (now Sony) had Eugene Ormandy and  Philadelphia covering that territory. It's our gain, because while there are lots of  great recordings of these latter two works, how many great performances of theSinfonia domesticacan you point to? Granted, it's a tough piece to bring  off--a day in the life of the composer's family, complete with bathing the baby and  a really graphic sex scene. But it's also one of the few works by Strauss that  actually ends at the end, and not 20 minutes before. In any case, this is the  performance to have, andDeathis just as good.--David Hurwitz