More Classical and Orchestral Music
More Orchestral Spectaculars
- Superb Living Stereo sound for this classic 1957 Decca-engineered album, with both sides earning Double Plus (A++) grades or BETTER
- It’s also fairly quiet at Mint Minus Minus, a grade that even our most well-cared-for vintage classical titles have trouble playing at
- This recording is overflowing with the kind of rich, spacious, Tubey Magical sound that can only be found on vintage vinyl
- Cyril Windebank was the engineer – you may remember him from SXL 2012, the legendary recording of Peer Gynt with Fjelstad
- The most energetic performances we heard, with sound like nothing else we played – Agoult’s overtures are in a league of their own
- Classic Records did this title back in the 90s and it was as mediocre and unsatisfying as most of their sorry releases
- “Suppé certainly has a knack for a good tune, well suited to even the most unpolished of brass band arrangements – the characterful orchestral playing, however, brings these neglected works to life with aplomb.”
- If you’re a fan of orchestral showpieces such as these, this Living Stereo from 1959 belongs in your collection.
- To see Living Stereo titles with Hot Stampers, click here.
When this 1957 recording was first released, you could only buy it in mono, under the title Overtures… In Spades!
It would be two years before the stereo pressing was available through RCA.
There are two covers and we played Shaded Dog pressings with both.
Everyone needs a good album of Overtures – the music is exciting and fun, not to mention Demonstration Quality on a pressing such as this. The combination of sound and performance on the best of the RCA Shaded Dog pressings could not be equaled.
What The Best Sides Of Agoult’s Definitive Readings Have To Offer Is Not Hard To Hear
- The biggest, most immediate staging in the largest acoustic space
- The most Tubey Magic, without which you have almost nothing. CDs give you clean and clear. Only the best vintage vinyl pressings offer the kind of Tubey Magic that was on the tapes in 1959
- Tight, note-like, rich, full-bodied bass, with the correct amount of weight down low
- Natural tonality in the midrange — with all the instruments having the correct timbre
- Transparency and resolution, critical to hearing into the three-dimensional studio space