None of the rival versions listed, not even Dorati's own earlier issue now available on the Philips/Mercury Golden Imports label, brings out the folk-dance element so captivatingly as this beautifully-played and recorded new version of the Concerto for Orchestra. Where Solti between his LSO version and his later Chicago recording (both Decca) tended to reduce the element of fun and humour, Dorati in his seventies has gone in the opposite direction, with superb, pointed and often witty playing from the Concertgebouw wind and brass soloists in particular. In the best sense this is a fun performance, with its point not at all reduced, if anything enhanced by the slight distancing of the orchestral sound in the Concertgebouw acoustic. Particularly on CD (400 052-2DH, 3/82) the later Solti has wonderful, dramatic immediacy, but by comparison the orchestral perspective lacks depth, and I am looking forward to the CD version of this Philips recording. The only notable variation on that pattern of comparison between the Solti and the new and old Dorati versions is in the "Elegia". Where generally Dorati favours slightly slower speeds than before, in the slow movement he is this time faster and a degree less intense, whether in the hushed opening or the biting climaxes. In the finale his speed here is exactly the same as last, but the Concertgebouw players, make it sound more fun, less of an endurance test, and each episode brings extra individuality from the soloists.