Even more than the excellent LP the CD gives beautifully precise placing of instruments, capturing the bloom on the sound with plenty of body—partly a question of the high level of transfer. I warmly agree with MM's original comment that it is likely to become the definitive Peer Gynt selection in many collections, not just because of the sensitivity and sparkle of the performance but because of the selection itself which, following the theatre order, starts with the neglected ''Wedding Scene'' as overture and ends with ''solveig's cradle song'' enchantingly sung by Lucia Popp. The vocal contributions are most welcome, but CD brings out more clearly the oddity of balancing which in the fifth movement, ''In the hall of the mountain king'', has voices rather constricted, hardly separated at all. In the ''Arabian Dance'' where the women sing alone the focus is clearer, but Lucia Popp is balanced far closer, very much in front of the orchestra, and one hardly has the impression of voices within a specific acoustic, where the orchestra is nicely realistic in a believable setting. Despite the balancing Popp's voice has, on CD, a striking immediacy.'