Impressive as this recording was in its original LP format, this CD version has even more impact, one of the very finest Compact Discs to date. PolyGram's classical demonstration Compact Disc (not commercially available) has Finlandia as its first and (to my ears) most spectacular item, and the transfer is virtually identical with only a fraction lower decibel level. The bite of the brass (with the tuba growling fearsomely with perfect clarity in the middle) and the terracing of dynamic contrasts are as spectacular as one could imagine, and the recording of the symphony has the same qualities of immediacy and realism combined with a tangible atmosphere. Few works gain so much from a totally silent background and the red-blooded reading is the more telling. There is some close balancing of certain instruments, but the London Kingsway Hall acoustic is more beautifully caught here than on my other CD issue of this conductor and orchestra in Beethoven's Fifth Symphony (see page 1003). Until I compared them side by side I wondered whether the LP had a shade more bloom on high violins, but then the comparison simply suggested an extra range of top on the CD reproduced without glare. The voice of Soderstrom in the beautiful performance of Luonnotar is given extra immediacy, the impression of face-to-face presence which is such a striking characteristic of the best Compact Discs.'