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UPDATE 2025
The review you see below was written more than ten years ago.
Having just done another shootout for SR 90209, Dorati’s recording of the two works, The Gayne Ballet and Romeo and Juliet, I can now confirm that there are some stampers that are indeed way too bright.
Side one of a recent copy had a sour midrange. Side two of the same copy was brash and metallic.
As for side two not sounding as good as side one in the older review before, seems we clearly got that wrong, the result, to some degree, of having an inadequate sample size.
Also, we didn’t have as good a stereo as we do now, and we weren’t as good at doing shootouts back then either.
Our Old Review
This side one is truly DEMONSTRATION QUALITY, thanks to its superb low-distortion mastering. It’s yet another exciting Mercury recording. The quiet passages have unusually sweet sound.
This kind of sound is not easy to cut. This copy gets rid of the cutter head distortion and coloration and allows you to hear what the Mercury engineers accomplished.
Side One
The balanced tonality is key, especially when you have such lively brass and strings. The top is correct, even sweet, and you can’t say that about very many Mercs. Exceptionally tight bass too.
I don’t know of a better performance or a better recording of the work.
Side Two
Dorati breathes fire into the famous Tchaikovsky Romeo and Juliet on side 2. Unfortunately, the sound is never as good in our experience as it is on side one.
Clear horns, a big hall — if it were a bit less bright it would probably have earned another plus.
We live for records like these. It’s the reason we all get up in the morning and come to work, to find and play good records. It’s what this site is all about — offering the audiophile music lover recordings that provide real musical satisfaction.
It’s hard work — apparently it’s so hard nobody else seems to want to do it — but the payoff makes it all worthwhile, to us anyway. Hope you feel the same.
These is difficult to find with anything but harsh sound. Such powerful and exciting orchestration must surely be problematic to capture on tape.
But Mercury managed to do it, a feat not many other labels can claim.