This recording raises a few troubling issues about the way the record industry does business. Zubin Mehta’s Los Angeles tenure produced some of his very best work on disc, including these performances. His Rite of Spring is savage, exciting, and brilliantly played (though it would have benefited from careful digital remastering). Petrushka is colorful and highly choreographic, as vivid a performance as any out there. Mehta rerecorded this music with the New York Philharmonic for Sony, and both performances are good but not really better than these. He even did another Rite for Teldec, the least interesting performance of all. Why? Why were these fine Los Angeles Philharmonic performances deleted? What new insights did he bring to his later versions? What justification can there possibly be for all of this pointless duplication of repertoire across several labels? The answer is: None. No wonder the classical record industry is in trouble! In any event, this coupling is quite competitive, and if you come across this recording in your discographic wanderings, you can purchase it with confidence.
