Composers

Boy, Was We Ever Wrong About Solti’s Rite of Spring

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Igor Stravinsky Available Now

UPDATE 2026

This is an old and somewhat embarrassing commentary providing the evidence for just how wrong we were about the sound of Solti’s 1974 recording for Decca.

Here is what we had to say about the album in 2008:

This is an amazing recording, DEMO QUALITY SOUND, far better than the Decca heavy vinyl reissue that came out in the 2000s. [That part is no doubt true.]

This record is extremely dynamic; full of ambience; tonally correct; with tons of deep bass. Because it’s a more modern recording, it doesn’t have the Tubey Magic of some Golden Age originals, but it compensates for that shortcoming by being less distorted and “clean.” Some people may consider that more accurate. To be honest with you, I don’t know if that is in fact the case.

However, this record should not disappoint sonically and the performance is every bit as exciting and powerful as any you will find. The Chicago Symphony has the orchestral chops to make a work of this complexity sound effortless.

Skip forward to the present, roughly ten years later. We had three or four copies on hand to audition when we surveyed the work a couple of years ago in preparation for a big shootout.

The Solti did not make the cut. It was not even in the ballpark.

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Varese et al. / Percussion Music / New Jersey Percussion Ensemble

TAS List Records Available Now

  • This crazy fun 20th Century Percussion Music album featuring classical works which rely almost exclusively on percussion (piano and voice also make appearances) boasts INSANELY GOOD Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) grades throughout
  • A tough shootout, as no other copy earned a 3+ grade on either side, which simply means that when you find a top copy, it sets such a high standard that everything else ends up getting marked down
  • Both of these TAS-approved sides are clear and spacious with sound that is positively jumping out of the speakers
  • This copy is transparent, speedy, and tonally correct from top to bottom like nothing else we played
  • Problems in the vinyl are sometimes the nature of the beast with these vintage LPs, but once you hear how amazing sounding this copy is, you might be inclined, as we were, to stop counting stitches and just be swept away by the music

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Bizet / Carmen Fantasie on Speakers Corner Vinyl

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Georges Bizet Available Now

Speakers Corner remastered this title back in the 90s and did a decent enough job. I would guess my grade would be about a “C.” We carried it and recommended it at the time. I doubt if I would have very many kind things to say about it now. We’ve played an enormous number of superb classical records in the last ten years or so, raising the bar quite a bit higher than it used to be.

To illustrate what we don’t like about these Heavy Vinyl pressings, even when they’re good, or at keast decent as in the case of this title, we have reproduced our review for the Speakers Corner pressing of The Tale of the Tsar Saltan, a record we had played in a long ago shootout against the vintage Londons we had on hand.

We cracked open the Speakers Corner pressing in order to see how it would fare up against our wonderful sounding Londons. Here’s what we heard in our head to head comparison.

The soundstage, never much of a concern to us at here at Better Records but nevertheless instructive in this case, shrinks roughly 25% with the new pressing; depth and ambience are reduced about the same amount. Similar and even more problematical losses can be heard in the area of top end extension. But what really bothered me was this: The sound was just so VAGUE.

There was a cloud of musical instruments, some here, some there, but they were very hard to SEE. On the Londons we played they were clear. You could point to each and every one. On this pressing it was impossible.

Case in point: the snare drum, which on this recording is located toward the back of the stage, roughly halfway between dead center and the far left of the hall. As soon as I heard it on the reissue I recognized how blurry and smeary it was relative to the clarity and immediacy it had on the earlier London pressings. I’m not sure how else to describe it – diffuse, washed out, veiled. It’s just vague.

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Rachmaninoff / Concerto No. 3 – Wrong Again?

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Rachmaninoff Available Now

UPDATE 2026

In 2007 we raved about this title, writing:

Outstanding! Sounds just like the already very good shaded dog, in many ways better. (I don’t have that one around to compare anymore but this LP has that same natural, smooth sound, while being cut a bit cleaner.) 

We have two copies of this Victrola, both with the same stamper numbers, and this is definitely the better of the two sonically. It has more presence, more transparency and better dynamics.

In preparation for our latest big shootout, we decided to give the Victrola another listen, and the one copy we had on hand was not impressive to say the least. It was dark, thin and flat.

Three strikes and it was out. Seems as though we were wrong.

Did we have better copies in 2007? Perhaps, but not likely. We just didn’t know what we were doing when it came to this piece of music. Our advice in 2026: skip it. If you do buy one, buy it for cheap.

Our favorite for sound and performance is the Janis conducted by Dorati on Mercury.

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Bach – Musical Offering / Münchinger

More of the Music of Bach

  • This incredible London pressing, with lovely richness and warmth, real space and wonderful immediacy throughout, boasts a Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) side two mated to a solid Double Plus (A++) side one
  • 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
  • Engineered by the brilliant Roy Wallace at one of our favorite recording venues, Victoria Hall, this is the glorious sound that has not been heard on vinyl (or any other medium) for more than fifty years
  • A spectacular Demo Disc recording that is big, clear, rich, dynamic, transparent and energetic

We used to sell the Speakers Corner Decca pressing back in the late 90s. It was one of the better offerings from that reissue label, and today would probably earn a sonic grade of B or so.

There is a world of difference between a reissue — even a good one such as the Speakers Corner — and the real thing, on either Decca or London press.

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Balalaika Favorites

More Mercury Label Recordings

  • This delightful collection – a longstanding member of the TAS list of Super Discs – returns to the site for only the second time in nearly four years, here with solid Double Plus (A++) sound or BETTER from start to finish
  • 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
  • Both sides here are wonderful – clean, clear and present with an abundance of energy and lots of space around all of the players
  • Marks in the vinyl are sometimes the nature of the beast with these early pressings – there simply is no way around them if the superior sound of vintage analog is important to you
  • “For what it is, it doesn’t get any better than this. What it is, of course, is a collection of Russian folk music played with astonishing artistry by the Ossipov State Russian Folk Orchestra…”

What do you hear on this pressing that you don’t hear on others? It’s very simple: the Balalaikas are delicate and sweet. There’s air all around them.

They have the kind of midrange magic that you hear on the best pop guitar records, the Tea For The Tillerman’s and the After The Gold Rush’s of this world. When you hear that sound there’s no mistaking it. It’s what we audiophiles live for.

The Classic Records Reissue Was a Real Bust

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A Couple of Key Tracks to Play on Pictures at an Exhibition

LHot Stamper Pressings of Living Stereo Recordings Available Now

UPDATE 2026

This is a very old listing for Pictures at an Exhibition, so take it for what it’s worth.

This TAS List record with a Super Hot stamper side one has some of the best sound we have ever heard for the Shaded Dog Reiner/CSO Pictures, and side two, although it starts out a little weak, gets going soon enough and earns a Super Hot Stamper sonic grade as well.

Side one is open and natural in the best Living Stereo tradition, with rich lower strings that have virtually no Golden Age smear.

Turn it up and listen for the big cymbal crashes — that’s the sound we love. It’s so good it even allows me to enjoy Reiner’s performance, never one of my favorites.

Side One

A++, transparent and free from smear, not many copies are going to beat this one! A little more top would have been nice.

Listen to: Samuel Goldenburg und Schmuyle

Superb sound! The brass and strings on this part of the work are as good as it gets. No smearing of the brass — it’s clean and clear like it is in the concert hall. We’re so used to hearing it wrong that it takes a record like this to remind us how good a full brass choir can really sound. (more…)

Mendelssohn / Violin Concerto / Rybar

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Felix Mendelssohn Available Now

UPDATE 2026

This review is from ten or fifteen years ago. If you see the album for cheap in the bins, pick it up and tell us what you think of it. Our favorite recordings of the work by Ricci, Heifetz and Campoli can be found here.

This Whitehall budget reissue stereo pressing has SUPERB Hot Stamper sound on both sides and a performance by Peter Rybar that can hold its own against any you may have heard.   

This recording easily beats most of the vintage Shaded Dogs, Mercurys and London records that we’ve ever played here at Better Records, and it was released on vinyl by a relatively obscure budget label that most audiophiles have never even heard of and would probably not want to be caught dead with.

Which is a good reason to judge records by playing them, not reading about them, on the net or in magazines. The sound of this record is so wonderful that, had it been a rare Shaded Dog, Merc or London it would have sold for something approaching twice the money we are asking here. In my experience relatively few of those recordings are as good as this one.

Whitehall

The best Whitehall records can be superb, but finding them on quiet vinyl is next to impossible. This copy plays Mint Minus Minus which is about as quiet as any we have heard.

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Star Wars, Close Encounters and Other Multi-Miked Messes

Decca and London Hot Stamper Pressings Available Now

This Mobile Fidelity LP contains the music of Star Wars and Close Encounters, conducted by Zubin Mehta. The MoFi pressing is far more transparent than the London pressings we have auditioned of the album, even the ones Half Speed mastered by Stan Ricker himself.

Yes, he cut the original Londons! At Half Speed! (We’ve also played some later pressings not mastered by Stan, of course. We don’t pretend to be able to predict which version would sound the best.)

It’s still one of the better MoFi remasters, all things considered. The music, to these ears, has always been hi-fi-ish schlock, and the recording itself is too multi-miked to be taken seriously. It sounds far too much like a bad Phase IV recording, and we know whereof we speak when it comes to Phase IV, good or bad. We’ve played them by the score.

This famous record from the Top Seven of the TAS Super Disc List has the same problem, but I never hear anybody mention it. Why that is I cannot imagine, other than our favorite explanation for just about everything that seems to fly under the audiophile radar, or perhaps a better description would be flying over the heads of the self-appointed audiophile cognoscenti, our old standby, reviewer malpractice.

Bottom line, a loser, but the original Londons in our experience are even worse!

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Adam / Giselle / Karajan – A Classic Decca Recording from 1962

Hot Stamper Pressings on Decca and London Available Now

UPDATE 2026

Reviewed in 2010 so take what we say with a large grain of salt. Dutch pressings are rarely the way to go.

This Dutch Import is the best sounding copy I have ever heard. It is dead silent and rich!

Big spacious hall sound. Lovely mid-hall perspective. Very smooth and sweet.

You can listen to music like this for hours and never get tired — the opposite of your typical Classic Records pressing.

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