Golden Age of RCA and Mercury.

[Irons]

A strange one. Album of British music recorded by Bob Fine and his Mercury recording team. The second photo of inside truck.

[Spotted Horses]

Miaskovsky/Rimsky-Korsakov
Bax

I hate to be pedantic but these recordings, excellent they might be, are not from RCA's golden age. They are from RCA's dark age, the dynagroove era!

I associate the RCA golden age with Lewis Layton

[vandermolen]

I hate to be pedantic but these recordings, excellent they might be, are not from RCA's golden age. They are from RCA's dark age, the dynagroove era!

I associate the RCA golden age with Lewis Layton

Fair enough! They're just favourites of mine.

[Spotted Horses]

Fair enough! They're just favourites of mine.

The Bax looks intriguing.

I don't see any evidence that it is available on CD.

[Roasted Swan]

The Bax looks intriguing.

I don't see any evidence that it is available on CD.

It isn't (don't get Jeffrey started......!)

[vandermolen]

The Bax looks intriguing.

I don't see any evidence that it is available on CD.

It has never been on CD and is my favourite version of the 3rd Symphony 

[Spotted Horses]

It has never been on CD and is my favourite version of the 3rd Symphony 

I am imaging a comedy/thriller film about an eccentric collector who organizes a raid on the RCA vaults, in search of a long lost audio tape. Tom Cruise can be the lead (since Marty Feldman isn't available).

[steve ridgway]

[vandermolen]

I am imaging a comedy/thriller film about an eccentric collector who organizes a raid on the RCA vaults, in search of a long lost audio tape. Tom Cruise can be the lead (since Marty Feldman isn't available).

Marty Feldman would be a better match for me! I once saw him give a talk at the Roundhouse in London and as a boy got his autograph at a Chelsea FC match (along with John Cleese and one or two others)

[vandermolen]

It isn't (don't get Jeffrey started......!)

Lyrita were once thinking of issuing it but it never happened. Also I didn't realise at the time that I was communicating with the conductor's (Sir Edward Downes) son who worked for Lyrita. When he wrote that 'my father would like to see it released as well' I just assumed that his dad was another eccentric Bax fan. I then got into trouble for 'announcing' that the RCA Bax 3rd was going to be issued by Lyrita' when I had only suggested it as a possibility - but, as RS implies, let's not go there...

[Pohjolas Daughter]

Bob Fine's mobile recording studio in Moscow.

Cool picture! 

PD

[Spotted Horses]

Bob Fine's mobile recording studio in Moscow.

Not clear why the truck would be parked outside the Cathedral of Vasily, except for a publicity photo.

[Irons]

Cool picture! 

PD

Not clear why the truck would be parked outside the Cathedral of Vasily, except for a publicity photo.

"The photo above was shot by Harold Lawrence, Mercury's Musical Director at the time.  In the photo you can see my father getting scolded by a Moscow policeman for parking the truck on Red Square. They were driving toward the Tchaikovsky Conservatory after picking up the truck at a rail yard outside Moscow, and everyone wanted to snap photos at Red Square, so my father pulled over. CBS News captured footage of Mercury's recording trip to Moscow which was edited into a feature story that ran on the CBS Evening News."

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

The central presence is strong while the 1960 recording is stereo. It sounds like a mixture of stereo and mono. Plus strong bass. Nice performance and interesting/attractive sound.

[Mookalafalas]

Posting so as to subscrible. I'm a big fan of both labels.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Maria Callas at Scala. Love the cover as well. Was this recorded after her association with Luchino Visconti?

[ritter]

Maria Callas at Scala. Love the cover as well. Was this recorded after her association with Luchino Visconti?

The first production on which Callas and Visconti worked together was Spontini's La Vestale, which opened the La Scala season on December 7th, 1954 (that was Visconti's debut as an operatic director). The poster of that performance presides the entrance hall of my flat.



Their last joint new production was Gluck's Ifigenia in Tauride (like that, in Italian) which opened in June 1957. Their last work together was a revival in April 1958 of the production of Anna Bolena which had premiered one year earlier. All their collaborations (five productions in total) were at La Scala.

That Medea was recorded in September 1957, so it's from the tail end of the period of collaboration between Visconti and Callas (but they never worked together on that particular opera).

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Rafael, thank you for the info. I'm a fan of Luchino Visconti, and as you already know, the Visconti family was the patron of La Scala (and many other institutions in Milan). I find it fascinating that L. Visconti had a few romantic relationships with ladies. When he was young, he dated Coco Chanel.

[Irons]

Byron Janis: Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No.3. Recorded Watford Town Hall.
Piano Concerto No.2. Recorded Northrop Auditorium, Minneapolis.

Janis is the equal of my favourite recording of 3, Ashkenazy on Decca, and I have not heard a stronger rendition of 2.

The Minneapolis recording is clearer and less congested at climaxes then Watford. I am slightly puzzled by this as they were recorded within a year of each other. A possible explanation is that 35mm magnetic film used at Watford with half-inch tape as backup. For transfer to CD the backup tape was used as 35mm tape unavailable. For Minneapolis the recording was transferred with the original 3-track half-inch tape.

[George]

Janis/Dorati is my overall favorite Rach 3.

For Rach 2, Richter/Wislocki is my favorite.