Iam not used with Szell but he was consistent and do a nice job in the Cleveland Orch., he is from the conservative branch of conductors as Reiner, Klemperer, Toscanini, Karl Böhm, Bruno Walter etc, but Furtwängler and Solti were great, I usually wouid prefer Karajan, Maazel, Abbado, Kleiber, Haitink, Ozawa, Mravinsky, Neeme Järvi, and some others from the new crops of regents as Chailly, Manze etc.
If you like historical renditions see Harnoncourt 1929-2016.
RIP