1961-must-own-classical

Rachmaninoff – Piano Concerto No. 3 / Janis / Dorati

More of the Music of Sergei Rachmaninoff

  • Outstanding sound for this classic Byron Janis Mercury album, with both TAS-approved sides earning solid Double Plus (A++) grades or BETTER
  • The piano is huge and weighty, the strings rich and highly resolving, and the overall presentation is powerful, balanced, dynamic and exciting like few other piano concerto recordings we have ever had the pleasure to audition
  • Not only is this the consistently best sounding copy we have had to offer in years, but we are happy to report that the vinyl is reasonably quiet for a Mercury stereo pressing of this vintage
  • If you have the system to play a record as big and powerful as this Mercury from 1961, we cannot recommend it any more highly
  • There are about 175 orchestral recordings we’ve awarded the honor of offering the best performances with the highest quality sound, and this record certainly deserve a place on that list.
  • This is one of the two Must Own Mercury piano concerto recordings, the other being SR 90300, which often suffers from inner groove distortion — not to worry, as a matter of grading policy, we check the inner grooves of every record we offer on the site

Not only is the sound amazing — yes, it’s on the TAS Super Disc list, and for good reason: a copy as good as this one really is a Super Disc — but this copy has another vitally important characteristic that most copies of the record do not: no Inner Groove Distortion.

We can’t begin to count the times we have had to return (or toss) a copy of one of these famous Byron Janis records because the piano breakup for the last inch or so of the record was just unbearable. That’s a sound no serious listener could possibly tolerate, yet I would venture to guess that a great many Mercury piano concerto recordings suffer from this kind of groove damage.

Enough about those typically bad copies, let’s talk about how good this one is.

This is an early Mercury Plum label stereo pressing of one of Byron Janis’s most famous performances (along with the Rachmaninoff 1st; it’s also a longtime member of the TAS super disc list).

The sound is rich and natural, with lovely transparency and virtually no smear to the strings, horns or piano. What an amazing recording! What an amazing piece of music.

The recording is explosively dynamic and on this copy, the sound was positively jumping out of the speakers. In addition, the brass and strings are full-bodied, with practically no stridency, an unusual feat the Mercury engineers seem to have accomplished while in Russia.

Big, rich sound can sometimes present problems for piano recordings. You want to hear the percussive qualities of the instrument, but few copies pull off that trick without sounding thin. This one showed us a piano that was both clear and full-bodied.

With huge amounts of hall space, weight and energy, this is Demo Disco quality sound by any standard. Once the needle has dropped you will quickly forget about the sound (and all the money you paid to get it) and simply find yourself in the presence of some of the greatest musicians of their generation, captured on the greatest analog recordings of all time.

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Debussy / Images for Orchestra / Ansermet (London)

More of the Music of Claude Debussy

  • Excellent Double Plus (A++) sound or BETTER brings Ansermet and the Suisse Romande’s performance to life on this vintage London Stereo pressing
  • It’s also fairly quiet at Mint Minus Minus, and for recordings of Debussy, that is quiet indeed
  • Side one was sonically very close to our Shootout Winner – you will be amazed at how big and rich and tubey the sound is
  • If you want to go digging for your own copy, we tell you how to do that on the blog, and we wish you good luck – you’re going to need it
  • This copy is remarkably lively and dynamic – the RCA with Munch is also excellent, but you will find very little to fault in the sound of this record if you don’t have precisely the right stampers for that one
  • It’s worth noting that only the London pressings ever win the shootout, which is something that we run into on a regular basis, but for some reason surprises audiophile record lovers to this very day
  • Why the disparity, we have no idea – they are all mastered by Decca in England from the same tapes, and by the same engineers!
  • There are about 100 orchestral recordings we’ve awarded the honor of offering the best performances with the highest quality sound, and this record certainly deserve a place on that list.

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Falla – Three Cornered Hat / Ansermet

More of the Music of Manuel de Falla

  • An early London pressing of Falla’s orchestral spectacular with stunning Nearly Triple Plus (A++ to A+++) grades from start to finish, just shy of our Shootout Winner – this copy is a true Demo Disc in the world of vintage classical vinyl
  • 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
  • When you play the best pressings of this title it’s almost hard to believe how well recorded it is – even Billboard in 1961 noted the brilliant sound jumped from their speakers
  • “Anyone interested in theatrical music will know that within a few months the work had earned the category of a ‘classic’ and since then has been placed in the annals of great ballets such as Petrushka and Schéhérazade.”
  • If you’re a fan of delightful orchestral showpieces such as these, Decca’s wonderful recording from 1961 belongs in your collection
  • There are about 150 orchestral recordings we think offer the best performances with the highest quality sound. This record is certainly deserving of a place on that list.

This is High Fidelity Audiophile Gold, with bells, drums, voices, trumpets, strings, woodwinds and more, all sounding so real it will take your breath away. The Golden Age tapes have clearly been mastered brilliantly onto this vintage London vinyl.

No doubt you have run into something like this in our classical listings:

This London is energetic, dynamic, spacious, transparent, rich and sweet. James Walker was the producer, Roy Wallace the engineer for these sessions from 1961 in Geneva’s glorious Victoria Hall. It’s yet another remarkable disc from the Golden Age of Vacuum Tube Recording. 

We were impressed with the fact that this pressing excelled in so many areas of reproduction. The illusion of disappearing speakers is one of the more attractive aspects of the sound here, allowing the listener to inhabit the space of the concert hall in an especially engrossing way.
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Rimsky-Korsakov / Scheherazade / Ansermet (Decca)

More of the Music of Rimsky-Korsakov

  • Excellent sound throughout this vintage Decca pressing of Ansermet and the Suisse Romande’s superb performance of this dazzlingly symphonic suite, with both sides earning solid Double Plus (A++) grades or BETTER
  • It’s also remarkably quiet at the high end of Mint Minus Minus, a grade that even our most well-cared-for vintage classical titles have trouble playing at
  • This copy will go head to head with the hottest Reiner pressing and is guaranteed to blow the doors off of it or your money back
  • The top end is natural and sweet – this is the way the solo violin in the left channel is supposed to sound
  • Extraordinary Demo Disc sound – the brass has weight and energy on that powerful first movement like nothing you’ve ever heard in your life )outside of a live performance)
  • This is the first full price Decca pressing we have ever offered with Hot Stampers — most Decca pressings of this title are awful sounding and it took us a long time to figure out how to find the good ones
  • 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

We did a monster shootout for this music way back in 2014, one we had been planning for more than two years. On hand were quite a few copies of the Reiner on RCA; the Ansermet on London (CS 6212, his second stereo recording, from 1961, not the earlier and noticeably poorer sounding recording from in 1959); the Ormandy on Columbia, and a few others we felt had potential.

The only recordings that held up all the way through — the fourth movement being the Ball Breaker of all time, for both the engineers and musicians — were those by Reiner and Ansermet. This was disappointing considering how much time and money we spent finding, cleaning and playing those ten or so other pressings.

Here it is over a decade later and we’re capitalizing on what we learned from the first big go around, which is simply this: the Ansermet recording on Decca/London can not only hold its own with the Reiner on RCA, but beat it in virtually every area. The presentation and the sound itself are both more relaxed and natural, even when compared to the best RCA pressings.

The emotional content of the first three movements (all of side one) under Ansermet’s direction are clearly superior. The roller coaster excitement Reiner and the CSO bring to the fourth movement cannot be faulted, or equaled. In every other way, Ansermet’s performance is the one for me.

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Khachaturian / Tchaikovsky – Gayne Ballet / Romeo and Juliet / Dorati

More of the Music of Tchaikovsky

  • Dorati and the LSO’s masterful performance of Gayne Ballet returns to the site for only the second time in years, here with solid Double Plus (A++) grades on both sides of this Plum Label Mercury Stereo pressing
  • 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
  • An abundance of energy, loads of rich detail and texture, superb transparency and excellent clarity – the very definition of Demo Disc sound
  • The top is correct, even sweet, and you can’t say that about very many vintage Mercury recordings
  • One listen and we think you’ll see why we consider both the performance and recording of the Khachaturian to be the equal of the famous Golschmann LP on Vanguard, and both are in a different league than the Decca on the TAS List

Both of these sides are Demo Disc quality, thanks to their superb low-distortion mastering. It’s yet another exciting Mercury recording. The quiet passages have unusually sweet sound.

This kind of sound is not easy to cut. This copy gets rid of the cutter head distortion and coloration and allows you to hear what the Mercury engineers (Robert Fine and Wilma Cozart) accomplished.

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Offenbach et al. / French Overtures / Ansermet

More Music Conducted by Ernest Ansermet

  • This original London pressing (CS 6205) of these wonderful Romantic works boasts KILLER Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) grades or close to them from first note to last
  • You’d be hard-pressed to find a copy that’s this well balanced, yet big and lively, with such wonderful clarity in the mids and highs
  • The sound of the orchestra is dramatically richer and sweeter than you will hear on practically all other pressings – what else would you expect from Decca‘s engineers and the Suisse Romande?
  • This shootout has been many years in the making – we’ve been trying to do these wonderful French overtures for about five years, which just goes to show how hard it is to find these kinds of records in audiophile playing condition nowadays
  • We also have a recording with Fremaux at the helm for EMI coming soon to the site that’s every bit as good
  • Which one is better is probably a matter of taste as they are both head and shoulders better than any other recordings we have come across in the last five or more years
  • If you’re a fan of delightful orchestral showpieces such as these, Decca’s wonderful recording from 1961 belongs in your collection

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Wagner – The Sound of Stokowski and Wagner

More Richard Wagner

More Orchestral Spectaculars

  • With two stunning Nearly Triple Plus (A++ to A+++) sides, this vintage Shaded Dog pressing of this sought-after classic of the Living Stereo canon is close to the BEST we have ever heard, right up there with our Shootout Winner
  • Lewis Layton engineered this blockbuster recording, and after hearing his brilliant work for The Pines of Rome with Reiner, we can see why they gave him the job
  • The rich, textured sheen of the strings that the advent of Living Stereo brought into being in the ’50s and early ’60s is clearly evident throughout these pieces, something that the Heavy Vinyl crowd will never experience — simply because that sound just does not exist on modern records
  • These shorter pieces are ideal for those who want to listen to Wagner’s music and don’t have the two hours one of his better-known operas requires of its audience

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Chopin / Concerto No. 1 / Rubinstein / Skrowaczewski

Living Stereo Classical and Orchestral Titles Available Now

  • Rubinstein’s superb performance of Chopin’s concerto for piano is finally back in the site after a three year hiatus, here with INCREDIBLE Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) Living Stereo sound or close to it on both sides of this original Shaded Dog pressing
  • Here are just a few of the things we had to say about this stunning copy in our notes: “3D rich piano”…”big and tubey and dynamic”…”lush brash and strings”…”very full bodied”…”zero smear” (side one)
  • So big and transparent, with weight and heft to the brass, we guarantee you have never heard a better piano concerto recording (unless you already one of our White Hot Stamper LPs)
  • The secret to the superior sound of this particular Rubinstein recording over so many others is the engineering by Kenneth Wilkinson – the glorious hall the London Symphony plays in doesn’t hurt either
  • Chopin, according to Arthur Hedley, “had the rare gift of a very personal melody, expressive of heart-felt emotion, and his music is penetrated by a poetic feeling that has an almost universal appeal…”

“Present-day evaluation places him among the immortals of music by reason of his insight into the secret places of the heart and because of his awareness of the magical new sonorities to be drawn from the piano.”

The latest notes for this RCA recording point out that this is the best combination of sound and performance for Chopin’s first piano concerto, with more emotion and finesse in the playing than other versions we auditioned.

The piano is in the foreground, with the orchestra reasonably balanced and clearly more powerful than some of the other recordings we played.

The biggest issue for the lesser pressings — which means the ones that did not win the shootout — is the possibility of some tube compressor smear on the loudest orchestral passages. (This is a subect we discuss on the blog quite a bit, by the way,)

The strings have lovely Living Stereo (Decca-engineered) texture as well. As befits a Wilkinson recording from 1961, there is no shortage of clarity to balance out the Tubey Magical warmth and richness.

We have lately been surveying some of his recordings from the late-60s and 70s to our great disappointment. The All Tube Recording Chain was gone. Opacity and lack of warmth prevented us from proceeding with any shootouts we might have attempted.

We love the huge, Tubey Magical sound of this recording. The piano is solid and powerful — like a real piano.

With tremendous hall space, weight and energy, this is Demo Disc quality sound by any standard.

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Mozart / Eine Kleine Nachtmusik / Munchinger

More of the music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)

Hot Stamper Classical and Orchestral Imports on Decca & London

  • Stunning sound throughout this vintage London pressing, with both sides earning Nearly Triple Plus (A++ to A+++) grades – just shy of our Shootout Winner
  • This copy has the clarity, space and transparency that recreates the live event and really lets you hear into the music
  • Karl Munchinger is of course an expert on Mozart and here he does not disappoint – it’s a top performance with sound to match
  • You will have a very hard time finding a better Eine Kleine Nachtmusik on record, sonically or musically
  • Need we even bother saying it’s guaranteed to beat the pants off of the Speakers Corner pressing of the Decca of the same performance from 1994? No? Okay, we won’t
  • If you’re a Mozart fan — and what audiophile wouldn’t be? — this London from 1961 is surely a Must Own

What to Listen For

On most copies the strings are slightly drier and more steely than one would want, occasionally turning strident in the louder passages. As always, proper VTA adjustment — by ear — is critical to getting the strings to sound their best.

An extended top end helps the harmonics of the stringed instruments immensely.

The more resolving copies will show you more of the hall which adds to the sense that you are listening to live music, not a record.

Is It Live?

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Paganini – Violin Concertos Nos. 1 & 2 / Menuhin

The Music of Paganini Available Now

Album Reviews of the Music of Paganini

  • Two of the truly great virtuoso/romantic violin concertos in seriously good Double Plus (A++) sound can be found on this vintage EMI pressing
  • It’s simply bigger, more transparent, less distorted, more three-dimensional and more real than much of what we played
  • The best balance of orchestra and soloist we know of for both works, with sound to rival the greatest violin concerto recordings we’ve played

Another remarkable demo disc from the Golden Age of Vacuum Tube Recording Technology, in this case 1961, with the added benefit of mastering using the more modern cutting equipment of the ’70s. (We are of course here referring to the good modern mastering of 40 years ago, not the bad modern mastering of today.)

This combination of old and new works wonders on this title as you will surely hear for yourself on this wonderful copy.

The sound of the best copies is transparent, undistorted, three-dimensional and REAL, without any sacrifice in solidity, richness or Tubey Magic. The illusion of disappearing speakers is one of the more attractive aspects of the sound here, pulling the listener into the space of the concert hall in an especially engrossing way. (more…)