In the trio from "Der Rosenkavalier", Abbado was "intent on ferocious power at the expense of radiance". The quality of Renée Fleming's tone promised that her Marschallin was on the verge of becoming exceptional, but Frederica von Stade had lost the freshness with which she had formerly endowed Octavian, and Kathleen Battle seemed to find Sophie's highest notes in both the trio and the subsequent duet uncomfortably stressful. The three American ladies sang without the "inner warmth and understanding" that some of their German and Austrian predecessors had brought to their roles, but did at least deliver the trio with "accuracy and flair". Sony's audio engineering emphasized the excesses of Abbado's interpretations. Although the CD was described as a live recording, it provided no evidence of the presence of the Philharmonie's audience until their applause at its very end. Indeed, the listening Berliners were so unobtrusive that one could not but help wondering whether any of the music had been re-recorded after they had gone home - it was difficult to imagine Argerich's pianism failing to elicit an ovation. The notes in Sony's insert booklet, written in humorous vein as though by Strauss himself, were "both facetious and faintly offensive". In sum, the CD was "not a happy issue". The gala was also reviewed in "Classic CD" and "Hi-Fi News", and was additionally discussed in "The New York Times", Tim Ashley's "Richard Strauss" (1999), Frithjof Hager's "Claudio Abbado: die Anderen in der Stille hören" (2000), Ulrich Eckhardt's "Claudio Abbado: Dirigent" (2003) and Matthew Rye's "1001 classical recordings you must hear before you die" (2017). In 1993, Sony Classical Records issued the gala on a 62-minute golden CD (catalogue number SK-52565) accompanied by a 20-page booklet including five production photographs by Vivianne Purdom and notes by Andreas Kluge in English, French, German and Italian. The disc was derived from a digital recording made with 20-bit technology. Sony also issued the gala on a CLV (constant linear velocity) Laserdisc (catalogue number SLV-53344) with 4:3 NTSC colour video and CD-quality stereo audio. In 2007, Kultur Video released the gala on a 76-minute DVD (catalogue number D4209).