Superb sound. A legendary cast with the young Ludmilla Dvorakova and Rudolf Jedlicka, a student of Tino Pattiera, Pavel Ludikar and Fernando Carpi, is heard to great advantage. Highly recommended under the magnificent Konwitschy – first release on any format.

”Almost forgotten a generation after his death, Franz Konwitschny, director of both the Gewandhaus Orchestra in Leipzig and the Berlin State Opera from 1949 until his death in 1962, was much the finest and by far the most successful East German conductor of his time. Konwitschny didn't seek to match the glamour of Herbert von Karajan, his West German opposite; he was interested in something else entirely. Born in 1901 at the height of German romantic idealism, Konwitschny came of age in the milieu of post-War modernism, and in his maturity the one influence tempered the other so that the classic Konwitschny performances were clean and lucid but enormously concentrated and unbearably intense. For latter-day [listeners] who know best Karajan's more charismatic recordings, Konwitschny…will clear the mind, cleanse the palette and sooth the spirit.” James Leonard, allmusic.com