Edward Greenfield writing of the LP versions of these recordings seems to share my own hesitancy both about the virtues of these performances and their presentation on record. Perhaps the Pastoral is the more suited to the VPO style for I did find it beguiling, even if the storm disappoints. The Eroica is a lengthy work made to seem more protracted here, lacking in both bite and urgency in this reading. The live recording and additional takes have involved less than ideal microphone placing in these two works and oddly misplaced reverberant echoes, particularly of the strings, often distract; for example in the Scherzo of the Eroica. However, audience noises, which one grows to anticipate, are mercifully few.
Two overtures provide useful fillers, Egmont—rather spoilt by occasional grunts (from Bernstein?) more appropriate to the Centre Court at Wimbledon—and the earlier (1978) Leonora No. 3 which to my ear is altogether the best sound on these two discs.'