Two people rated this disc and both of them gave it a thumbs-down. Is there something wrong with this release that we should know about?

I regret that I am neither of those people; however I did own this disc for a short while on release. It was, as you would imagine given the progenitors, perfectly worthy. Beyond this, neither performance excited me in the slightest and I simply saw no reason not to share my good fortune with others via e-Bay and Amazon. I am sorry at this distance I cannot be more detailed. I imagine that as a one-off concert it may all have been highly satisfying but for repeated listening offered no real incentive for retention in the face of more inspired accounts. I retain a liking for de Waart's way with Rachmaninov generally via his Exton set, and of course going back in time we now have Tower's superb remastering of Previn's EMI Rachmaninov set with "his" LSO at the height of their powers. Bychkov is the direct SACD competitor - I clearly felt it was a better record as I still have it - but it seems to be one of the ever increasing number of cases where barcode and catalogue number live on but contain just a RBCD nowadays.

There are much better versions around on SACD. This version lacks drama and failed to sustain listener attention while the SQ was not the best. IMHO Rattle often overthinks and over interprets works at the expense of spontaneity which is the case here.

Bychkov seems to have called it correctly with excellent SQ.

Rachmaninoff: The Bells, Symphonic Dances - Bychkov

Thank you Breydon Music and Hiredfox! So I guess it's not a bad recording but just not among the best for these pieces. I guess I'll sample it somewhere and "see" how it sounds. I can then decide if it's my cup of tea. I was asking because I was concerned Warner might have botched the SACD version.