10 MAY 1986, Page 43

Stanley Sadie

To anyone who once found a thrill in cautiously lowering an arm onto a fragile, revolving black surface, and marvelling at the attenuated evoca- tions of musical experience that ensued, the compact disc is the ultimate debunker of mys- tery; but it has a mystery of its own with its gleaming rainbow sheen and its mechanism too subtle to be observed, let alone understood. It seems — until the next development — to break down the last barrier between home and concert hall, an inevitable step, but perhaps, with its super realism, also a slightly dangerous one.