ASD 3093. EMI Postage Stamp Label LP with DEMO QUALITY SOUND and a performance to match! I can’t remember when I’ve enjoyed these pieces more.
[This was written long ago, and in the meantime we have heard many amazing recordings of excellent performances of these works. Please visit the site to see them.]
The energy of the playing complements the dynamic, powerful and rich sound. A great EMI.
Recorded by the Two Christophers, this record features selections from Tchaikovsky and Rimsky-Korsakov.
More of the music of Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908)
This London Whiteback (CS 6006) TAS List Super Disc really IS a Super Disc, with SUPERB SUPER Hot Stamper sound on both sides. It easily bested the Blueback we put up against it, and most of the pressings of Ansermet’s performance on London/Decca that we like (CS 6438).
What this album has going for it over the London/Decca with Ansermet is an out of this world Capriccio Espagnol, with the kind of orchestral color and excitement that rivals the composer’s Scheherazade and arguably exceeds it, compressing as it does its bright orchestration into fewer than 15 minutes of unalloyed brilliance.
I would argue that the sound here easily bests nine out of ten copies of LSC 2446, quite a feat when you consider what that record is selling for these days.
(Most audiophiles learn too late just how bad the average pressing of Reiner’s performance is. Take our advice, if you’re going to buy one without hearing it first, make sure you can return it. Chances are, if you’re a critical listener, you will want to. If you’re not a critical listener, feel free to buy the Classic Heavy Vinyl pressing. Although it sounds godawful to us, most audiophiles seem to like it just fine, a fact we regret to say does not reflect well on our fellow hobbyists. Or the venerable HP himself for that matter, as it made his TAS List.)
Who can resist these sublime orchestral works? To quote an infamous label, they are an audiophile’s dream come true. Click on the tabs above to read more about them.
We’ve long been of the opinion that only a small percentage of the copies of CS 6006 actually live up to the hype associated with its status on the Tas List. Our recent shootout provided more supporting evidence, as this copy was dramatically better than the other, more original, one we played.
The Most Exciting, Colorful Performances of all time — Black gets everything out of these famous works on this Decca Phase 4 recording. Full, rich and clear like no other, with more space and a more three-dimensional stage than we even knew was possible. (Ongoing improvements in the stereo have helped a lot in those areas of course.)
Huge Wall to Wall Demo Disc sound, with the kind of IMMEDIACY that would make the folks at Mercury jealous. You will find very few Living Stereos and Mercuries with this kind of sound, that I can assure you.
Who can resist these sublime orchestral works? To quote an infamous label — infamous around these parts anyway — they are an “audiophile’s dream come true.”
More of the music of Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908)
Our favorite Scheherazade for about the last 10 years or so has been the one Ansermet conducted for Decca in 1961.
This review was written long before we discovered how good the Ansermet could be, when you find one with the right stampers. We started to get a clue in 2015. By 2019 we were sure of our findings.
In 2015 we still had a lot to learn, even though we had been playing this wonderful piece of music on vintage vinyl since the early-90s. (I’m quoted about my preference for certain pressings of LSC 2446 in The RCA Bible, which was published in 1993. Don’t believe anything you read in it though, at least from me. I was as lost as everybody else in audio back in those days.)
Clearly we needed to do more research and development,
Our Review from Then
White Hot on Side One! Big brass, so full-bodied and dynamic. The solo violin is present and so real you will not believe it. The highest resolution we have ever heard for this performance. Hard To Fault (HTF).
This copy is huge in every dimension, just as all the best ones always are, with maximum amounts of height, width, and depth. The transparency is also superb — you really hear into this one in the way that only the best Living Stereos (and other golden age recordings) will allow. (more…)