Deryk Barker: >The first digital New World I remember is the Kondrashin - also on >Decca, also c1979/80. Also VPO I think. VPO it was/is. It was recorded in 1979 and its sound suffered from that early digital "hardness" which some, including me, found tiring. Its CD incarnation may well have improved on that. My Testament wish list contains a late 50s version by the French National Radio under Constantin Silvestri. Until and if that happens, Talich and Ancerl head my list of available favourites. Richard Pennycuick [log in to unmask]