Daniel is fierce, energetic, fast, and driven, particularly in I.

Daniel demonstrates clearly here his natural affinity with Walton's music. In the sustained paragraphs of the First Symphony he knows unerringly how to build up tension to breaking point, before resolving it, and then building again – a quality vital above all in the first and third movements. He's freer than many in his use of rubato too, again often a question of building and resolving tension, as well as in the degree of elbow-room he allows for jazzy syncopations, always idiomatic. This symphony, with its heavy orchestration, would certainly have benefited from rather drier sound, but welljudged microphone balance allows ample detail through. Only occasionally do you feel a slight lack of body in high violin tone, a tiny reservation.
Daniel's reading of the Partita brings out above all the work's joyfulness. It may not be quite as crisp in its ensemble as that of the dedicatees (Szell and the Cleveland Orchestra), but the degree of wildness, with dissonances underlined, proves a positive advantage in conveying enjoyment. In the slow movement Daniel at a relatively slow speed is markedly more expressive than those brilliant models, again a point which makes the performance more endearing.
Irrespective of price, this is a version of the much-recorded symphony that competes with the finest ever, and outshines most.