Having heard impressive things of the forthcoming CBS Compact Discs, I had high hopes of the present issue. The transfer appears to have been made at a lower level than was the LP; so that the first impression of the two in an A/B test is misleading. When the level is, however, adjusted there seems to me relatively little improvement in the quality of the recorded sound, save, of course, for the silent surface and the absence of pre-echo of the very beginning. There is marginally greater refinement (albeit not in the orchestral accompaniment) but I can't say that the differences matter all that much. Gilels's playing is leonine and fiery, and his virtuosity is never less than imposing. There is much poetry, too, and my only regret is that the orchestral support is so second-rate. Apart from the less than flawless intonation in the slow movement, the playing is crude by comparison with that of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under Fritz Reiner, with whom gileles recorded the concerto in the mid-1950s. However, his admirers will want to have this for the sake of Gilels and even though the Siloti arrangement of the Bach prelude sounds cleaner (it was originally originally an analogue recording that has now been digitally reprocessed), I have to say that the advantages of the CD format are in this instance minimal.'