Review by: David Hurwitz Artistic Quality: 9 These are fine performances, but why, oh why does BBC Music persist in releasing yet more examples of music that the same artists recorded commercially in superior sound? Igor Markevitch’s performances of Francesca and the songs (with Vishnevskaya) can be found on Philips and DG Panorama, respectively. His Rite(s) of Spring, with the Philharmonia rather than the LSO, both mono and stereo versions in fact, are on Testament. Actually, there’s another studio Francesca as well, but we don’t need to go into that here. What are the differences, if any, between this live recital and the commercial recordings? Well, Francesca is about a minute and a half faster live, the Rite is much better played by the Philharmonia (at least until the very end), and the songs are done equally well in both versions. That’s it. The sound isn’t bad, and it’s certainly less expensive to buy this disc than hunting down the individual commercial recordings of each work (and any concert featuring Vishnevskaya is an event in itself). Still, if you already own those recordings, this disc offers nothing more than pointless redundancy, and even if you don’t, you really should get those versions first for their technical superiority anyway, assuming you care about such things. Igor Markevitch / Galina Vishnevskaya Tchaikovsky: Francesca da Rimini Op. 32 Mussorgsky: Songs Lullaby, The Magpie, Night, Where art Thou, Little Star?, The Ragamuffin, On the Dnieper Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring London Symphony Orchestra Usher Hall, Edinburgh, 26 August 1962