This is the first Compact Disc I have had with a playing time of over an hour, admittedly topping that figure by a mere ten seconds, but showing that long sides in the new medium are feasible with no reduction of quality whatever or even calling for a lower level of transfer. To achieve longer playing time I understand that there are production problems rather than intrinsic technical problems, but in the meantime there is a premium on artists who favour fast tempos. In the Mendelssohn that is certainly true of Chung, whose performance is almost five minutes shorter than Mutter's on DG (25'36'' against 30'28''), an amazing difference. Though inevitably Mutter cannot always avoid squareness at her chosen tempos, it is a fine, relaxed reading, often very delicate, where Chung is volatile and full of fantasy, her relaxation for the second subject in the first movement all the more tender by contrast. I would certainly choose Chung in that work, and the recording more clearly establishes the performers in a recognizable acoustic, rather fuller and warner. I also prefer her in the Tchaikovsky to Gidon Kremer (also DG). Though the latter is balanced a little more realistically, less closely, his is a far less involving performance, and the playing here of the Montreal orchestra—again set against the warm ambience of St Eustache Church, Montreal—has more bite and intensity than that of the BPO.'