This 1979 recording, one of Telarc’s first releases, made quite an impression on LP with its spacious, three-dimensional sound (thanks to the company’s minimalist miking techniques) and its stunning bass drum transients. It still sounds fine today, even if 23 years later the very prominent bass drum thuds in Les Toreadors, Hall of the Mountain King, and Arabian Dance seem a trifle ostentatious. Leonard Slatkin leads fresh, vibrant performances of both Carmen suites (only two items from No. 2 are included) and the six Peer Gynt selections, while the St. Louis Symphony responds with enthusiasm and highly polished playing. However, as I mentioned, this originally was an LP issue, and Telarc has added nothing to the original 43-minute program for this mid-price re-release. And since there are plenty of more complete, longer-playing alternatives for both works available (Salonen’s Grieg and Karajan’s Bizet, for example), this disc will appeal mostly to audiophiles who missed it the first time around.
