Moussorgsky: Night on Bald Mountain/Pictures at an Exhibition
This was one of the recordings that put Telarc on the musical map, and  first revealed the potential of digital recording technology to millions of  music lovers and stereo buffs. It's still one of the very finest recordings of  "Pictures" around, both as sound and performance. Lorin Maazel maintained the  high standards of execution that George Szell inculcated during his quarter  century in Cleveland, and for sheer hair-trigger precision, the playing is  simply unbeatable. In addition, Telarc captured the performance in what was then  and remains demonstration-quality sound, with the famous bass drum thwacks  putting a practically subsonic foundation on the whole enterprise. Still a  classic.--David Hurwitz