This Naxos disc is an extraordinary bargain. In the April issue I praised a Philips recording of these same three works by Marriner and the ASMF, where in Roman Festivals I suggested that "Marriner finds a nice balance between pictorial vividness and brashness". Yet the Batiz version has such excitement and verve that one can accept an extra degree of brazen extroversion, indeed revel in it. The Naxos recording was engineered by Brian Culverhouse in St Barnabas, Mitcham. After my first playthrough I checked out the organ sound which Respighi uses so effectively, and found that apparently the church organ couldn't be used because of pitch discrepancies, so an Allen computer organ was substituted. It gives a very clean effect (Marriner's is slightly more ample) and blends well with the orchestra, while its bass pedal underpins the orchestra splendidly. Never more effectively than in the great processional of "The Fountain of Trevi at Midday", when Neptune parades triumphantly across the heavens and the orchestra, blazing with jubilation, is given its weighty support by the addition of that pedal.

In Roman Festivals the opening "Circuses" is immensely spectacular, its character very much in the unfettered gladiatorial tradition of the Coliseum: the trumpets and drums are quite thrilling. The balance is slightly more forward than with Marriner and that increases the flamboyance. The gossamer opening of "The Jubilee" (just a fraction less refined, perhaps, than with Marriner, but more plangent and still very evocative) leads to the most dramatic climax, with organ and pealing brass; then melancholy tolling bells subdue the exuberance and when the horns enter vigorously they take us directly into the next movement. In the "October Festival" the strings play their Latin soliloquy very exotically for Batiz. Marriner offers a degree more finesse, but is less unbuttoned. The closing section brings a gentle mandolin serenade; with Marriner it is almost too distanced and hazy, as if in a dream, certainly effective enough, but I prefer the slightly clearer, more tangible effect of the Naxos balance. The great clamour of the Ephiphany celebrations which follow unleashes a riotous melee from the RPO, who sound as if they are enjoying themselves hugely, and the obvious affinity with the final fairground scene of Petrushka is the more striking when the strings have that bit more bite.

The Pines and Fountains bring similar differences and while the refinement of the playing under Marriner and the warmth and the slightly softer focus of the recording bring special pleasure, the RPO are also very fine and the extra thrust can be telling. As it happens, when the unison horns signal the turning on of the Triton Fountain, the ASMF horn playing has more edge, but when the cascade splashes through the orchestra, the RPO unleash a real flood, helped by the extra degree of presence. Yet the lovely, radiant gentle evocation of the central movements of The Pines, and the sensuous Italian light of the sunset at the Villa Medici, are just as sensitively realized by the RPO, and at the very beginning of the finale, "The Pines of the Appian Way", the slightly more present sound, with its growling bass clarinet, gives an even more sinister implication of the advancing Roman might.