Hot Stamper Pressings of Living Stereo Recordings Available Now
The size and power of a large orchestra in Living Stereo sound.
So open and spacious, with gorgeous, richly textured strings — this is the VIVID sound we love from the Golden Age!
The hall is huge, the brass solid and powerful, the top and bottom extends properly, the stage is wide and clear — what more can you ask for?
Classic Records and Their Abysmal String Tone
Of course this was always the downfall of the Classic Records RCA remasterings. Classic’s pressings had bass and dynamics, no one could deny it, but the strings were usually shrill and smeary, and the hall practically non-existent.
We found out some years ago that there was a new series of recuts coming from Acoustic Sounds. Based on their dismal track record, I will be very surprised if they are much better than mediocre.
UPDATE 2024
We finally got one in and put it in a shootout. The results: a passable-at-best side one and a just plain bad sounding side two.
Really not even worth the vinyl it’s pressed on. Almost any White Dog or Shaded Dog will beat it (although it should be noted that there are plenty of vintage pressings of the album that don’t sound much better than mediocre. Still, on side two it should be no contest.)
Monteux Is The Man
According to the biographical sketch in Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Monteux “was never an ostentatious conductor … [he prepared] his orchestra in often arduous rehearsals and then [used] small but decisive gestures to obtain playing of fine texture, careful detail and powerful rhythmic energy, retaining to the last his extraordinary grasp of musical structure and a faultless ear for sound quality.” – Wikipedia
Further Reading