This collection of popular orchestral showpieces is fully worthy of the High Performance label. The late Eduardo Mata conducts a wonderfully varied late-19th/early-20th century program in readings that are fresh and vivid, with the Dallas Symphony playing with a robustness that is a trademark of great American orchestras. Listen to the perfectly blended yet powerful brass choir in Night on Bald Mountain, or those nimble and naughty woodwinds in the Sorcerer's Apprentice, or the wildly galavanting strings in Enescu's Romanian Rhapsody No. 1. Even Bolero, which I hardly pay any attention to anymore, held my interest in Mata's handsome and colorful reading. Mata's Tchaikovsky Capriccio is fine too, but why open an orchestra spectacular disc with a work that begins so solemnly? RCA's 24/96 remastering makes these very early (1980-81) digital recordings sound nearly as warm and full as those of today. Lots of fun to be had here.

--Victor Carr