It was George Szell who made the Cleveland Orchestra into a highly responsive virtuoso body, and when he died in 1970 he was in due course succeeded by Lorin Maazel, himself a renowned orchestral trainer. Here is Maazel's first Cleveland recording, notable for a quite outstanding quality of orchestral playing. The strings in particular have a remarkable depth of tone, though they play with great delicacy when it is needed; but then the orchestra as a whole plays with extraordinary virtuosity, tonal weight and exactness of ensemble. If the woodwind have a somewhat piquant blend this suits the music, which throughout is admirably served by Maazel's highly rhythmic, dramatic conducting.
The whole ballet, which gains in stature through being heard in its entirety rather than in the extracted suites, has now been accommodated on two CDs instead of three records. There is a useful synopsis contained in the notes for the set where the story of the ballet is explained cue by cue.
If the orchestral playing is a notable feature, then so is the high-quality recording, which is well balanced and wide in range. It suffers little in comparison with the best of today and is indeed a tribute to the excellent standards which Decca engineers achieved in the early 1970s. A highly recommended reissue.'