I pretty much agree with Sam on this (even the part of never hearing Gliere's 3rd). The 9th is the perfect symphony in my eyes (ears). The only one of these that I truly cannot appreciate is Mahler's 8th. I still need to get Bernstein's version, but I doubt it will save Mahler 8 for me. Brian's
Gothic Symphony is really astounding. I like it - at least for the first hour. After that...