When the LP appeared, I praised Dorati's reading as a fun performance which captivatingly brings out the folkdance element in Bartok's brilliant showpiece. I expected that CD would add a degree of brightness to the original, typically mellow Concertgebouw recording with the orchestra placed at a distance, but in my CD comparisons with Solti (Decca) the contrast between the forward brilliance of one and the distanced sound of the other has come out the more. Though I still enjoy the relaxed quality of Dorati's performance, I am sure that for most listeners the more biting and dramatic reading with its more brilliant Decca sound will be preferable.
Though there is a slight lack of depth and perspective in the Chicago sound, its impact as a hi-fi demonstration remains formidable, with the pianissimo bass drum beats before the coda in the finale (totally indistinguishable in the Dorati) wonderfully caught. Solti's fill-up (the Dance Suite) is the more generous and musically substantial, Dorati's the unusual, bringing from the Concertgebouw playing as delicately pointed as in the Concerto.'