Older Orchestral – Reviews and Commentaries

TAS List Thoughts about Festival – Harry, This One Is Out of Polarity, Man!

Hot Stamper Pressings of Living Stereo Titles Available Now

Harry Pearson put this on his list of the best Classic Records RCAs. It may be. I don’t recall ever playing one.

If you can reverse your absolute phase, this original pressings of this record actually sound fairly decent. Do you think Harry knew to do that, or even how to do it? I have my doubts.

He’s gone now so the point is moot, but I maintain it’s the rare reviewer who grasps these kinds of issues with anything approaching the depth and understanding that are required in order to be informative and accurate.

This is an older classical/orchestral review

Most of the older reviews you see are for records that did not go through the shootout process, the revolutionary approach to finding better sounding pressings we started developing in the early 2000s and have since turned into a veritable science.

We found the records you see in these older listings by cleaning and playing a pressing or two of the album, which we then described and priced based on how good the sound and surfaces were. (For out Hot Stamper listings, the Sonic Grades and Vinyl Playgrades are listed separately.)

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Favorite Beethoven Concertos / Heifetz & Rubinstein – Reviewed in 2007

Hot Stamper Pressings Featuring the Violin

This is a very old listing and it is doubtful if we would agree with our rave review for the sound these days. The part about it beating the Classic Records pressing is probably still accurate.

If you see this record in the bins for cheap, give it a try, but don’t pay a high price for it on our say-so.

RCA Red Seal LPs. DEMONSTRATION QUALITY SOUND!

The first LP of this disc is the equivalent of LSC 1992 and sounds AMAZING. The mastering is right on the money.

This compilation was created in 1971. The tapes were still good then, because the transparency of this pressing is top notch. I wish I could say as much for the second record, which, like most of these reissues, is a disaster. It should go without saying that the LP here KILLS the Classic Records reissue.

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Song Of the Nightingale – Our Shootout Winner from 2009

More of the music of Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971)

This Hot Stamper pressing has DEMONSTRATION QUALITY SOUND for the Stravinsky piece that takes up side two, the one on the TAS Super Disc List. The sound is BIG and BOLD, stretching from wall to wall, and so transparent you can clearly hear all the way to the back of the stage and then some. Trust me, few Shaded Dog pressings sound like this one!

Normally we list this record under Prokofiev, but, as usual, the Prokofiev side of this copy is not very good sounding. (In fact I’ve never liked the sound of Reiner’s Lt. Kije. It always sounded hard and sour like a bad DG to me.) (more…)

Britten / Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra / Ozawa

The sound of this White Hot Stamper side two is SUPER TRANSPARENT — you can hear all the way to the back of the hall and then some! There’s so much ambience on this pressing it forced us to reevaluate the other copies in light of the sound we were discovering here.

As if that wasn’t enough, it had energy and immediacy we simply did not expect to hear. The sound is big and bold during the loud passages, but sweet and delicate when, for example, the woodwinds are spotlighted in the composition. (more…)

Debussy & Ravel – We Loved It in 2005 and Did a Real Shootout for It a Mere 19 Years Later

Near Mint SUPER RARE Demonstration Copy Shaded Dog of this Debussy and Ravel string quartet recording. 

I haven’t seen a clean one of these in probably close to ten years. This record looks like it has been played very little.

The sound is also very natural. Not bright or close miked — much more the way it would actually be heard in a smaller more intimate setting.

This is an older classical/orchestral review

Most of the older reviews you see are for records that did not go through the shootout process, the revolutionary approach to finding better sounding pressings we started developing in the early 2000s and have since turned into a veritable science.

We found the records you see in these older listings by cleaning and playing a pressing or two of the album, which we then described and priced based on how good the sound and surfaces were. (For out Hot Stamper listings, the sonic grades and vinyl playgrades are listed separately.)

(more…)

Adam / Giselle / Fistoulari

Hot Stamper Mercury Pressings Available Now

This pressing has been remastered by Philips from a Golden Age Classical Recording by Mercury, originally released in 1961.

This Mercury Golden Import 2 LP set has VERY GOOD sound. The average copy tends to be a bit dark and recessed, but this one is refreshingly free from those problems.

It’s not quite up to Hot Stamper status — it might have earned a grade of 1+ — but it is a very enjoyable record and worth picking up at the right price.