The Second Suite is a comparative rarity – although here I'll confess that when I played this recording at a 'blindfold' listening session, my colleagues were completely stumped both by the music and its interpreters. And although it is true that neither the work nor its performance is likely to set the world alight, many will respond, I'm sure, to the music's warmth, ebullience and romantic resonances (Richard Strauss was a certain influence, especially in the Allegro scherzando and final Commodo). Dorati's performance is full of life, though occasionally let down by some rather weedy string tutti. As to the recordings, suffice to say that the 'Mercury method' makes Carnegie Hall sound like the Northrop Auditorium (the company's regular location for this orchestra) and that both sessions yield the expected close balancing, clear definition and beefy timpani sound. There is some tape rumble (and hiss), but in other respects the tapes come over reasonably well. Mercury's annotation is extremely informative.

-- Gramophone [11/1995]