The CD version of this strikes me as a very great improvement, its sound at once closer, clearer and brighter in tone colour. So the playing itself, spirited as it always was, now seems to gain an extra dimension. Though in the Rachmaninov I would still recommend the more searchingly intense Ashkenazy/Decca (though I don't like his spread chords at the outset) rather than Ortiz, the three lollipops with which the disc begins are bound to lure a lot of collectors not normally drawn to concertos.
So let me repair sins of omission in my original May review by mentioning that the skilful orchestrator of Gottschalk's Variations on the Brazilian National Anthem, originally written for solo piano, is in fact this record's producer, Chris Hazell, who like the Brazilian-born Ortiz herself, did not feel that Samuel Adler's earlier version did full justice to the work's style and spirit. It's certainly tremendous fun now—and very well played.'