Living Stereo Orchestral Titles Available Now
Many years ago we wrote the following review for LSC 2472:
Superb sound. The violin is wonderful on both sides. The Mozart is absolutely gorgeous; the best I’ve ever heard it.
The orchestra on the Bruch side gets a little congested in the louder passages, which is typical for records of this era.
Laredo plays these pieces beautifully. The Bruch is an especially romantic work and his violin sings sweetly and with deep emotion throughout. The Mozart is more spritely and he plays it with the light touch it requires. You will have a hard time finding a better violin concerto record. This ranks with the best of them.
UPDATE 2024
More recently we got in a nice 1S/1S pressing that sounded thick and dark, even after a good cleaning.
Were we wrong years ago? Hard to say. That copy from many years ago is gone.
Three things to always keep in mind when a pressing doesn’t sound like we remember it did, or think it should:
- Our standards are quite a bit higher now, having spent decades critically listening to vintage classical pressings by the hundreds.
- Our stereo is dramatically more revealing and more accurate than it used to be.
- Since no two records sound the same, maybe the one from long ago actually did sound as good as we thought at the time.
All things considered, the consensus now would be that LSC 2472 is very unlikely to be as good a record as we used to think it was. At the price that these go for nowadays, we can probably find other recordings with better sound.
The Bruch & Mozart Violin concertos with Heifetz on RCA Shaded Dog are our current favorites.
A classic case of live and learn and also a case of progress in audio, probably.
Who can really say for sure?
Further Reading