One of EMI's earliest digital recordings, made in the Kingsway Hall, now emerges the more vividly on CD. It was in the demonstration class in its original LP format and the physical thrill of the strings playing the principal Manfred theme in full-throated open tone on the G string makes a fine effect at the end of the first movement and is even more electrifying in the Bacchanalian finale (with its affinity with Gounod's Faust at the organ entry). Muti's is an epic reading, red-bloodedly powerful throughout, with the scherzo fast and exhilarating—the lyricism of the central episode distinctly extrovert—the Andante comparably volatile, full of expressive fervour. The climax of the finale is superbly telling. Manfred is a flawed masterpiece, but Muti makes a splendid case for it and the EMI engineering is very convincing. A classic Tchaikovsky transfer—a must for all this composer's afficionados.'