This DG version is the finest of the opera sets conducted by Mstislav Rostropovich...Vishnevskaya was still at her peak, here providing a strong and vibrant Lisa, not young-sounding but with plenty of temperament...As the Countess Regina Resnik gives an aptly over-the-top performance, biting and incisive

...Peter Gougaloff's performance on this Seventies recording viscerally traces [Herman's] demise from passionate suitor of Liza to deadly tormentor of the Countess and final descent into insanity...The dramatic weight is enhanced by Rostropovich's taut handling of the orchestral introduction, with its suggestions of Tchaikovsky's Fifth Symphony, and in such turbulent passages as the Act 1 storm scene. Galina Vishnevskaya, at the height of her powers, is both touching and trenchant as the hapless Liza, Hanna Schwarz's cosseting voice the perfect foil as her confidante, Polina. Bernd Weikl is deeply moving in Yeletsky's famous Act 2 aria. Regina Resnik's embittered Countess is rendered all the more sinister by the use of echo effects.