I'm in total agreement with the review by Mr. Schiefelbein, this is a great, great recording and a highly unique one. Other subsequent attempts at recreating the original scoring of the Music for the Royal Fireworks has been made, even by Mr. Mackerras himself - in more modern sound, but never with the same overwhelming exuberance and sheer volume of sound. It must have sounded truly fantastic live. For years I had a really terrible pressing of this on a British Pye LP, and longed for the day when somebody would do a proper job of remastering it on CD. Thank god for Testament. Though the age of these recordings are betrayed by a bit of tape hiss and an ever-so-slight graininess to the sound, the performances in and of themselves are enough to knock your socks off. A truly legendary and iconic Handel recording...none other could replace it.