A comparison between these two Compact Discs is at least as striking and as thought-provoking as those 'guess which is which' confrontations with LP that any healthily sceptical newcomer to CD is bound to begin with. The new Maazel/Telarc is quite simply streets ahead, in terms of dynamic range, impact, clarity of detail and rich yet lively texture. It is a pleasure to notice the difference (and easily to recognize what that difference is) when the cello melody in the slow movement returns a page or two later doubled by a single bassoon, or to perceive that when the fateful fanfare of the opening movement appears in the horns, their tone is often mellowed by the addition of clarinets. The frequent onslaughts of heavy brass have weight as well as cutting edge to them and the tuttis are both brilliant and massive, without the feeling which sometimes cloys one's pleasure at 'sonic spectaculars' that the impact has been achieved at the outer ends of the frequency spectrum, leaving the middle weak and ill-focused.
The Previn/Philips account is at almost every point noticeably leaner and lighter, with rather less clarity and much less attack in the heavily-scored passages, and a much narrower dynamic range.
Some will not like the touch of glare on the very high string writing in the Maazel version, but in every other respect his recording is greatly to be preferred. There are many pages on which Previn allows himself more time than Maazel to inflect a phrase or melody with grace and subtlety, but he pays a price for this: affection and sobriety between them lead him to add two and a half minutes, no less, to Maazel's timing for the first movement, and when the also rather slow and soft-textured pizzicato opening of the Scherzo arrives one is rather irritated by his reluctance to get a move on (in the finale, quite abruptly, he does so, beating Maazel by nearly a minute, but rushing the music off its feet in the process). Much though I sympathize with Previn's lingering over beautiful details, there is an unexagger the music is always there and it is good to have these striking concertos available on their own once more. Good pressings, fair recorded sound and interesting notes.'