Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Stravinsky Available Now
UPDATE 2026
This review was written in the 90s when we were still selling Heavy Vinyl records like this Decca reissue from Speakers Corner, which was one of the better releases.
Our current favorite recording of Petrushka for both performance and sound is the one Dorati recorded for Mercury in 1960.
Sonic Grade: B (I’m guessing)
We haven’t played a copy of this record in years, but back in the day we liked it, so let’s call it a “B” with the caveat that the older the review, the more likely we are to have changed our minds.
Not sure if we would still agree with what we wrote back in the 90s when this record came out, but here it is anyway.
One of the best of the Deccas. Superb sound. Ansermet’s performance here is definitive as well.
Further Reading
Here are some of our reviews and commentaries concerning the many Heavy Vinyl pressings we’ve played over the years, well over 300 at this stage of the game in 2025.
Even as recently as the early 2000s we were often impressed with the better Heavy Vinyl pressings. If we had never made the progress we’ve worked so hard to make over the course of the last twenty thirty or more years, perhaps we would find more merit in the Heavy Vinyl reissues so many audiophiles seem to be enamored with these days.
We’ll never know of course; that’s a bell that can be unrung. We did the work, we can’t undo it, and the system that resulted from it is merciless in revealing the truth — that these newer pressings are second-rate at best and much more often than not third-rate and even worse.
Some audiophile records have such bad sound that I was pissed off to the point of creating a special sh*t list for them. As of 2025, it contains close to 300 titles. That is a lot of bad sounding audiophile records! I should know, I played an awful lot of them.
Having now retired, I’m pleased to be able to leave that job in the more than capable hands of the listening crew at Better Records. They have been playing many of the newer releases and finding the sound is every bit as bad or worse these days.
Setting higher standards — no, being able to set higher standards — in our minds is a clear mark of progress. Judging by the hundreds of letters we’ve received, especially the ones comparing our records to their Heavy Vinyl and Half-Speed mastered counterparts, we know that our customers see things the same way.
Further Reading