When the original LP appeared, MH praised the ''warmth, clarity and depth of the digital sound'' as well as the playing of Eugene List, a pianist too little heard both on record and in this country. The CD version focuses that recording quality even more sharply, bringing out the fantastic precision and clarity of List's articulation but making more evident the fact that the recording was made in a not-too-large studio rather than a full concert hall. Relatively the sound is more diffused on LP. For this brash music I find the sound apt enough, perhaps answering in part the objection made by MH that this is music better suited to a 20-piece band than to a full symphony orchestra.
I personally find that both works can stand the bigger, fuller-scale treatment. Max Harrison made his interpretative comparisons with the HMV issue of Previn and the LSO (ASD2754, 11/71), commending the precision of the Cincinatti orchestra but lamenting that urgency of expression had evaporated. On their own merits the performances are colourful and enjoyable as well as precise, but this very high-priced disc (like its equivalent LP) brings very poor value with under 35 minutes of music provided. The DG issue of Bernstein and the Los Angeles Philharmonic brings a far more characterful (if idiosyncratic and sometimes wilful) account of Rhapsody in Blue, though the CD version like the LP is less well balanced than this Telarc issue.'