More of the Music of Maurice Ravel
More of the Music of Sergei Rachmaninoff
- With big, bold, dynamic Double Plus (A++) Living Stereo sound or close to it throughout, you’ll have a hard time finding a copy that sounds remotely as good as this original Shaded Dog pressing
- It’s also remarkably quiet at high end of Mint Minus Minus, a grade that even our most well-cared-for vintage classical titles have trouble playing at
- Side one is doing just about everything right – it’s rich, clear, undistorted, open, spacious, and has depth and transparency to rival the best recordings you may have heard, and side two is not far behind in all those areas
- True, side two earned a minimal Hot Stamper grade of 1.5+, but we still guarantee that it will beat the pants off any Heavy Vinyl reissue, because every one of those that we played was ridiculously opaque, muddy and thick enough to have us crying “uncle” after five minutes
- This record will have you asking why so few Living Stereo pressings actually do what this one does (particularly on side one). The more critical listeners among you will recognize that this is a very special copy indeed (also particularly on side one). Everyone else will just enjoy the hell out of it.
- Contains two works by Ravel: Rapsodie Espagnole and Pavan for a Dead Princess, as well as Rachmaninoff’s Isle of the Dead
This former TAS list record really surprised us on two counts.
First, you will not believe how dynamic the recording is. Of all the classical recordings we’ve played lately, I would have to say this is the most dynamic of them all.
The explosively loud sections of these wonderful works, with their huge orchestral effects, are dynamic contrasts that are clearly part of the composer’s intentions but ones that rarely make it from the concert hall to vinyl disc the way they do here.
Second, there is simply an amazing amount of top end on this record. Rarely do we hear Golden Age recordings with this kind of energy and extension up top. Again, it has to be some of the best we have heard recently.
(This is, of course, one of the reasons the Classic reissue is such a disaster. With all that top end energy, Bernie’s gritty cutting system and penchant for boosted upper midrange frequencies positively guarantees that the Classic Reiner Sound will be all but unplayable on a tonally correct system. Boosting the bass and highs and adding transistory harshness is the last thing in the world that The Reiner Sound needs.)
Unlike many bien-pensant audiophiles who buy into HP’s classical choices, I am not the biggest Reiner fan. On these works, though, I would have to say the performances are top drawer, some of the best I have ever heard. The amount of energy he manages to coax from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra is nothing less than breathtaking.
