The sound from this set leaps out at you: honest, direct, unapologetic and with natural impact. It’s all excitingly done despite a degree of ironing out of dynamic extremes...The hopeless, guilt-ridden and panicky Boris is portrayed with complete conviction by Nesterenko in the mechanical clock scene...There’s something fierce, abrasive, gaudy and primitive about the Soviet version which no amount of sophistication can recompense.