This is a beautiful disc by a truly great conductor. Giulini was a marvellous conductor of the French repertoire ,especially Franck, as his other recordings show. There is a degree of restraint in these performances that is very individual. At first they may seem lacking in energy and surface excitement but repeated listenings reveal great poetic feeling and a masterly sense of form and line. The Philharmonia were at their peak at this time and the sound quality is exceptional for a recording of this vintage. The essay by Christopher Dingle in the CD booklet is v. interesting. I'm a great admirer of Haitink's Concertgebouw recordings of Ravel and Debussy and I would put this disc in that class. Highly recommended.