Great RCA Living Stereo SACDs

[MichaelRabin]

I am think of buying the following:-

1) Mussorgsky Pictures CSO/Reiner
2) Respighi Pines & Fountains of Rome  CSO/Reiner
3) Rimsky Scheherazade CSO/Reiner
4) Mahler Das Lied   CSO/Reiner
5) Tchaikovsky Sym 6  BSO/Munch
6) Rhapsodies   RCA Victor SO/Stokowski
7) Berlioz Harold in Italy   Primrose/BSO/Munch
Sousa, etc Marches  - Gould

Any comments on the performances & sounds please? Thanks.

[BorisG]

They have done their best to improve the sound. In most cases it has been marginally effective. One can only do so much with 50 year old tapes. And the performances have not changed.

With two or three channels of music, I think the SACD application was a farce. As it was for Karjan's first Beethoven set with DG. You may read more about Living Stereo SACD here: http://www.sa-cd.net/titles/1/296/date/5/1

If you are loyal to this series (unconditional love required), and listening just in two-channel, you should be reasonably happy.

After many many years of reissuing, I have remained loyal to only three in the series. Reiner's R. Strauss, Rimsky-Korsakov, and Bartok, so I can firmly recommend your #3 selection, which I still think beats all comers.

Sousa is not my style, but Morton Gould did nice things with the Copland disc in this series, so you probably won't be disappointed. Enjoy!

[david johnson]

i have many of those and will keep them.  some have yet to be bested.

dj

[MichaelRabin]

Which pieces have yet to be bested please? Please be specific. Thanks.

[Dana]

      I've only heard the Sheherezade among that set, and it is spectacular (particularly the 3rd mvt). Don't miss out on it - the CSO gives a tremendous, taut performance, and the soloists deliver in spades from beginning to end.

      The composers on your list - Rimsky-Korsakov, Ravel, Berlioz, and Mahler - are the composers who suffer the most from live to CD transfer, along with Mozart. The three or four discs that I've heard from this line do a respectable job though, and are among the most "real" discs I've ever heard. I wouldn't pass those recordings up.

      Let me know how number 7 is, I was considering it, but talked myself out of it, since I already have Nobuko Imai's fine recording with Sir Colin Davis.

[BorisG]

   
      The composers on your list - Rimsky-Korsakov, Ravel, Berlioz, and Mahler - are the composers who suffer the most from live to CD transfer, along with Mozart. The three or four discs that I've heard from this line do a respectable job though, and are among the most "real" discs I've ever heard. I wouldn't pass those recordings up.

 

Live?

[david johnson]

Which pieces have yet to be bested please? Please be specific. Thanks.

1) Mussorgsky Pictures CSO/Reiner
2) Respighi Pines & Fountains of Rome  CSO/Reiner
3) Rimsky Scheherazade CSO/Reiner
6) Rhapsodies   RCA Victor SO/Stokowski

some as good, none better.

dj

[Dana]

In concert?

[XB-70 Valkyrie]

Don't know what's available on the SACD, but IMO (judging from original LPs here), my favorite Living Stereos are some of the lesser-known ones. I have some of the big, audiophile favorites (Pictures, Witches Brew, etc), but musically, these are of much greater interest for me at least, and have equally impressive sound.

- Bruch Violin Concerto--Heifetz / Sargent
- Milhaud La Creation du Monde (Soria)--Munch
- Haydn Surprise and Clock Symphones--Monteux
- R. Strauss Also Sprach Zarathustra --Reiner's second Living Stereo Recording
- Debussy and Ravel String Quartets--Juliard SQ
- Hovaness Mysterious Mountain--Munch (?). (Too lazy to get up and find out for sure)

[david johnson]

Don't know what's available on the SACD, but IMO (judging from original LPs here), my favorite Living Stereos are some of the lesser-known ones. I have some of the big, audiophile favorites (Pictures, Witches Brew, etc), but musically, these are of much greater interest for me at least, and have equally impressive sound.

- Bruch Violin Concerto--Heifetz / Sargent
- Milhaud La Creation du Monde (Soria)--Munch
- Haydn Surprise and Clock Symphones--Monteux
- R. Strauss Also Sprach Zarathustra --Reiner's second Living Stereo Recording
- Debussy and Ravel String Quartets--Juliard SQ
- Hovaness Mysterious Mountain--Munch (?). (Too lazy to get up and find out for sure)

Hovaness Mysterious Mountain--reiner/cso

[Iago]

For a real killer-diller, get hold of the Fiedler/Boston Pops/ Offenbach "Gaite Parisienne".Coupled with the Rossini, "Le Boutique Fantasque".

Also (again Fielder and the Pops)....."Pops Roundup"
Great folk songs about cowboys (Shenandoah, Streets of Laredo, Mexicali Rose, High Noon, Cool Water, Deep in the Heart of Texas. Bury me not on the lone parairie) and themes of many TV shows (ex: Bonanza, Have Gun Will Travel, The Lawman, Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterson.

Great Fun, great performances, great sound.

[BorisG]

In concert?

Anything other than Cliburn?

[Dana]

I'm confused. What is your query Boris?

[BorisG]

I'm confused. What is your query Boris?

It involves this statement. Maybe you could clarify--"The composers on your list - Rimsky-Korsakov, Ravel, Berlioz, and Mahler - are the composers who suffer the most from live to CD transfer, along with Mozart. The three or four discs that I've heard from this line do a respectable job though, and are among the most 'real' discs I've ever heard. I wouldn't pass those recordings up."

[RWetmore]

I have a lot of these...mostly the Reiner recordings.  Of particular interest other than that these are mastered in DSD/SACD is that this is first time they have been done from the original master tapes.

[MichaelRabin]

For a real killer-diller, get hold of the Fiedler/Boston Pops/ Offenbach "Gaite Parisienne".Coupled with the Rossini, "Le Boutique Fantasque".
Great Fun, great performances, great sound.

This sounds really good as I checked reviews on the net at Amazon.com. Sounds very good - I will get this one.   Thanks - Iago.

[FredT]

Please buy the Saint Saens Organ Symphony with Munch and the BSO. It remains the greates recording ever of that work and the sound is first rate. In my book, it is one of the top 10 recordings of all time of ANYTHING!

[BorisG]

Please buy the Saint Saens Organ Symphony with Munch and the BSO. It remains the greates recording ever of that work and the sound is first rate. In my book, it is one of the top 10 recordings of all time of ANYTHING!

I respect your enthusiasm, but my greatest is Chung on DG.

[czgirb]

I am think of buying the following:-

1) Mussorgsky Pictures CSO/Reiner
2) Respighi Pines & Fountains of Rome  CSO/Reiner
3) Rimsky Scheherazade CSO/Reiner
4) Mahler Das Lied   CSO/Reiner
5) Tchaikovsky Sym 6  BSO/Munch
6) Rhapsodies   RCA Victor SO/Stokowski
7) Berlioz Harold in Italy   Primrose/BSO/Munch
Sousa, etc Marches  - Gould

Any comments on the performances & sounds please? Thanks.

If sound is a matter, I recommend:

1) Mussorgsky Pictures CSO/Reiner
2) Respighi Pines & Fountains of Rome  CSO/Reiner
3) Rimsky Scheherazade CSO/Reiner

Sorry, I have NO SACD ... but I choose based on my LPs