This is one of those CDs which demonstrates only too well that if the microphone placing, within a chosen acoustic, is ill-judged the results will be aurally unattractive. Throughout 1812 and in the very loud climax of Bolero, the upper range is shrill and the strings sound glassy. I found myself wincing. The brilliance is entirely aritificial, and the recording also demonstrates how unflattering is the hall which the engineers had chosen. Les preludes is much better, but the climax still sounds brash. The piece suits Muti well and is the best thing here. Bolero is taken slowly and the expressive sentience in the opening section seems overdone; 1812 is fiercely exciting, but everything is on the surface, there is no communicated warmth or sense of geniality and although the closing impact is very considerable, cannon and all, one is not really involved in the music itself.'