Your response is both interesting and informative. While I haven't heard Previn's performance of "The Planets," I have that of Yoel Levi, on Telarc, that's a stunner. Still, there are a number of real duds, aside from the horrible recording of Beethoven's 9th that I mentioned. I own over 150 Telarc CD's, and have to admit that the vast majority of them range from very good to excellent, with the duds far and few between, which makes them stand out all the more.

Naxos is a terrific "bargain" label whose quality varies all over the place. At year's end, Arkivmusic had all Naxos discs on sale for $6.99, and I snapped up four. Three are decent, and a pleasure to listen to, but the recording of "Gayaneh" (that's but one of many spellings of the piece!) is simply awful. The musicianship is lousy, and the sound is typical of the "digital glare" that vinyl advocates despise. Still, as I was in a performance of Vaughan Williams' "Hodie" this past November, I purchased a Naxos recording of the piece which is outstanding. And, it only cost me $11.99.