The Fifth benefits from fleet tempos, tight ensemble, and punchy attacks, with the woodwinds nicely cutting through the string-centered sonority. Munch tends to set a course and push through without offering any of the telling details of phrasing and pacing provided by, say, Carlos Kleiber and the Vienna Philharmonic, to say nothing of the splendid recent Vänskä/Minnesota surround version on BIS (coupled with the Fourth). Still, it’s a fine performance comparable to the early 1960s Karajan, but with greater textural variety... A very good Fifth.

-- James Reel, FANFARE [reviewing the Beethoven Fifth, reissued as part of RCA 67892]

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The “Unfinished” Symphony gets a fine performance here too: weighty but not stodgy, with a graceful singing line and especially lovely woodwind work.

-- James Reel, FANFARE [reviewing the Schubert Eighth, reissued as part of RCA 704603]