An undiscovered gem from 1967 on the 360 Columbia label.
Side two of this record blew our minds with its White Hot Stamper sound.
Musically and sonically this record is nothing short of wonderful.
Who knew? You could play fifty vintage piano recordings and not find one as good as this.
Tchaikovsky, Liszt, Beethoven, Debussy, Mozart — these shorter pieces and excerpts were composed by those with the greatest gift for melody, men who’ve produced works that have stood the test of time, enchanting audiences over the centuries with works of such beauty and charm.
Here at Better Records we have never been fans of Columbia classical LPs. To be clear, the fault more often than not has to be in the mastering, not the recording. We’ve raved about so many great copies of titles in the past, only to find that the next three or four LPs we pick up of the very same titles sound godawful.
There are some amazing Bernstein recordings out there, but the amount of work it takes to find the one that sounds good is overwhelming — how can such great recordings be mastered so poorly so often?
Side One
A++, with a huge, rich, sweet, natural sounding piano. The more you listen, the more apparent it becomes that, as natural as it may seem at first blush, there are still some old school tubey colorations that make the sound not quite as lifelike as one might wish.
And the confirmation of that finding comes as soon as you flip the record over.
Side Two
A+++, with a piano that really DOES sound real. Tubey colorations are gone. It’s clear and clean and solid the way a piano really sounds in recital. The transparency is simply amazing — you are there. There aren’t many solo piano recordings that sound this right. When you hear one, it’s shocking how good it can be.
A case of good tube mastering? On the best sides of the best pressings, absolutely.
More on the subject of tubes in audio here.
Testing with the Piano
Lately we have been writing quite a bit about how pianos are good for testing your system, room, tweaks, electricity and all the rest, not to mention turntable setup and adjustment.
- We like our pianos to sound natural (however one chooses to define the term).
- We like them to be solidly weighted.
- We like them to be free of smear, a quality that is rarely mentioned in the audiophile record reviews we read.
Other records that we have found to be good for testing in order to improve your playback, as well as your critical listening skills, can be found here.
Want to find your own top quality copy?
Consider taking our moderately helpful advice concerning the pressings that tend to win our shootouts.