There is some magnificent playing in the Double Concerto from Perlman and Rostropovich, as one would expect, but the recording is poorly managed. The soloists receive a close unresonant balance, which gives their contribution a rather spotlit, strenuous quality, while the orchestra have a cavernous acoustic and seem far in the background. I suspect that a better balance would have made the interpretation seem more integrated, with more contrasts of light and shade and more poetry, and would have given Haitink's contribution more stature. As it is the performance has little atmosphere and never quite comes together.
On the rival CBS issue there is a far more suitable balance, with the admirable Isaac Stern and Yo-Yo Ma set at a decent distance from their microphones so that their playing seems more refined and sweeter in tone than that of Perlman and Rostropovich. And though their solo playing can always be heard clearly they are matched more suitably with the orchestra, whose playing under Abbado emerges with a good deal of character.
Perlman's performance of the Mendelssohn Concerto is sheer delight. He plays with the most seductive quality of tone, and invests the first movement in particular with the most delicately expressed feeling. The slow movement is beautifully serene, the finale gossamer-light, and with Haitink in good support and an excellent recording this version is one of the best now available. On CBS the Double Concerto is harnessed with a vividly played version of Brahms's Piano Quartet No. 3, with Emanuel Ax and Jaime Laredo in partnership with Stern and Ma. But here, alas, the recording is close and harsh.'