In this new format, Solti’s celebrated recording threatens to sweep the board. Its strengths are well known. Twenty five years have seen many improvements in audio technology, but few recordings that so successfully capture the impression of a ‘Symphony of a Thousand’ – not even Abbado’s which, for all its textural lucidity, is disappointing in this respect. Of the so-called classic accounts, it is Solti’s which most conscientiously sets out to convey an impression of large forces in a big performance space, this despite the obvious resort to compression and other forms of gerrymandering. Whatever the inconsistencies of Decca’s multi-miking and overdubbing (plainly apparent through headphones) the overall effect remains powerful even today. The remastering has not eradicated all trace of distortion at the very end, despite some cautious clipping of levels and, given the impressive flood of choral tone at the start of the “Veni creator spiritus”, it still seems a shame that the soloists and the Chicago brass are quite so prominent in its closing stages: the chorus tend to recede into the background.
As for the performance itself, Solti’s extrovert way with Part 1 works tremendously without quite erasing memories of Bernstein’s ecstatic fervour. In Part 2, it may be the patient Wagnerian mysticism of Klaus Tennstedt that sticks in the mind. Less inclined to delay, Solti makes the material sound more conventionally operatic. And yet for its combination of gut-wrenching theatricality and great solo singing, this version makes a plausible first choice – now more than ever. I should add that the single disc is well-indexed and comes with full texts and supporting documentation but is at full rather than mid price. On this occasion the classic sound commands a premium.'