Okay, there are no cannons in the 1812 Overture, but when the playing is this amazing you’re hardly going to care. These performances are fabulous. You also get Tchaikovsky’s Marche slave and the Marche miniature from his Suite No. 1; Mendelssohn’s Fingal’s Cave Overture; Kabalevsky’s Colas Breugnon Overture; Glinka’s Ruslan and Lyudmilla Overture; Borodin’s Polovtsian March; Liszt’s Mephisto Waltz No. 1; and Mussorgsky’s A Night on Bald Mountain. In this latter work, particularly, you’re not going to believe the precision and transparency that Reiner commands, as well as a climax that will blow you away. The couplings may be something of a grab-bag, but when everything you grab out of the bag is sensational, there’s no point in complaining. Vintage Living Stereo sound too, excellently restored. Wow!

— David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com