Here’s a welcome newcomer to CD. Solti’s remarkable collection of Russian favorites really benefits from this excellent remastering–and the performances are as exciting as it gets. Solti takes Glinka’s “Ruslan and Ludmila” Overture at an amazingly fast tempo, just a hair short of Mravinsky’s magnificently insane performance, and the really astounding fact is that the London Symphony, often a pretty slovenly bunch, actually rises to the challenge and plays the pants off the piece! The same holds true for the remainder of the program; it’s the kind of take-no-prisoners, gut-punching conducting that brought Solti to international attention, and which all too quickly seemed to degenerate into a sort of crude efficiency later in his career. Equally entertaining, though for a different reason, is a 1956 performance (in excellent early stereo sound) of Tchaikovsky’s “Little Russian” Symphony. Solti’s interpretation is admirably unfussy, but the main attraction is the distinctive timbre (crisp winds, agile brass, watery horns) of the French orchestra–in many ways the “authentic” sound in both Russian and French music, and one that has vanished forever. Genuine fun.
