Here are sets of Pictures to suit almost every personal art gallery. The newest issue (though not the most recently recorded—it has a 1979 analogue source) is the least memorable. The orchestral playing is excellent and certain portrayals are striking, the ''Ballet of Unhatched Chicks'', for instance and ''Samuel Goldenberg and Schmuyle'', while the closing sequence is strongly projected.
But the recording is suprisingly recessed for CBS. It has a natural balance but lacks vividness of detail. The obvious comparison is with Abbado where the DG digital focus is altogether sharper, while the performance is both more imaginative and more involving. In La valse, too, Abbado's shaping and rubato are more subtle than Mehta's, though both are essentially extrovert. If the sense of orchestral presence is telling with DG it is even more spectacular with Solti and Decca, and the Chicago orchestra play superbly, with the textures given (RL's words) ''quite startling clarity''. Yet the balance does not sound artificially contrived and this is sonically exciting. However, Sir Georg Solti's Ravel Coupling (Le tombeau de Couperin) is less likeable, essentially lacking poise.
The Telarc CD of Pictures with Maazel dates from 1979 but has a digital master and represents one of the first great triumphs of digital orchestral recording. Although it is less clearly defined internally than the DG version, the natural resonance of Severance Hall, Cleveland is superbly caught. As I said in my original review, the overall sound balance creates a vivid impression of realism, of the full panoply of orchestral tone spread out before the listener, the only quirk of balance being an occasionally over-insistent bass drum. The strings are warmly expansive and in the quite overwhelming finale the brass has the kind of sonority and amplitude to send a tingle down the spine. The performance is less strongly characterized than Abbado's, though more affectionate than Abbado's, though more affectionate than Solti's, but the thrill of the closing ''Great Gate of Kiev'' is unforgettable, while the more appropriate coupling of Night on the Bare Mountain sounds equally splendid. One drawback: the individual pictures are not given track cues: neither are they on the new CBS, although they are with both Solti and Abbado. This latter DG disc remains a strong contender on performance grounds.'