At 42 minutes these live performances would have to be something pretty special to justify their full-price issue. Well, there is certainly a sense of abandon to the Borodin's Shostakovich which they would probably not allow themselves in studio conditions. But the result does not make for satisfying repeated listening. The savage second movement wobbles quite alarmingly in the later stages and the following scherzo is too heart-on-sleeve. Both outer movements are crudely heart-on-sleeve and lachrymose, as though the players are compensating by over-statement for their over-familiarity with the music. Admittedly the Elegy, an arrangement of Katerina's Act 1 aria from Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District is beautifully done, and the Grosse Fuge has a fine blend of intellectual fibre and technical mastery. The balance is slightly more distant than is now the norm—which is no bad thing. But all in all this strikes me as a pointless and absurdly poor-value disc.'