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Chris from Lafayette

With the recent release of volume III of the Living Presence mega collections (53 CD's in this case), we've been given an opportunity to re-examine some newly remastered Living Presence titles as well as a couple of issues which have never been available on CD before.

Some of the new titles and remasterings from this box have also become available as high-rez downloads. I've obtained a couple in hi-rez (24/96), and I'm very excited about them. To take the new remastering first, the Dorati/New Philharmonia set of the Tchaikovsky Orchestra Suites is simply astounding. It was one of the very last Living Presence recordings undertaken (1966, in Watford Town Hall):

In the September issue of TAS, there's a feature article about the mega-set by Arthur Lintgen, and although the sheer number of titles in the set means that Lintgen's comments about individual performances must necessarily be on the superficial side, he nevertheless manages to include some very interesting information. In addition, the program booklet that comes with the download also presents additional information. Both Lintgen and the program booklet reveal that, in contrast to the usual Mercury team (recording director Wilma Cozart, chief engineer C. Robert Fine, assistant engineer Robert Eberenz, and musical supervisor Harold Lawrence), the team that recorded the Tchaikovsky Suites (producer Harold Lawrence, recording engineer Hans Lauterslager, and assistant engineer Henri de Fremery) was mainly a Philips group, with only Harold Lawrence maintaining the continuity. The interesting thing about this is that, although the engineers were from Philips, they still used only three microphones, just as the Mercury team had done. It turns out that these microphones were slightly different from the ones that the Cozart/Fine team had used: Schoeps MK23's, rather than Schoeps/Telefunken M201's.

I used to have the LP incarnation of this set, and it sounded somewhat thin to me - not anywhere near Mercury's best efforts. I chalked this up to the gradual deterioration of the Mercury pressings during the late 60's. This set was also available as an indifferently produced Philips Duo CD album, which didn't sound so thin, but still sounded pretty bland. Now, with this new 2014 remastering, we FINALLY hear the glorious sound that the Philips team captured, using Mercury's own techniques. I'm almost inclined to say that, aside from the 35mm recordings, this is the greatest recording in terms of SQ I've ever heard of a Mercury title. It's SO terrific, the way that the direct sound relates to the hall SO colorfully (and symbiotically!). And I've never heard another recording of these suites that's within hailing distance of these Dorati performances.

Lintgen, reviewing the CD's rather than the high-rez downloads, comments,
The most important of those late Mercury recordings was the four Tchaikovsky Orchestral Suites, recorded in 1966, featuring Dorati conducting the New Philharmonia Orchestra with unrivalled dynamic impact in works that can sound bland in the hands of many conductors. The sound retains the usual Mercury dynamics, but there is a subtle dryness that is not usually present on earlier Mercuries.
I can't help but feel that if Lintgen had heard the 24/96 hi-rez downloads rather than the CD's, he would not have put that last qualification in his observations. IMHO, two-channel recording from that era just does not get any better than this!

Another recording from this set which has never before been available on CD is the Dorati/Minneapolis recording of Beethoven's Eroica Symphony. This was a rather (in)famous recording in the early days of stereo (1957), mainly for the claim that at least one reviewer made that Mercury got the microphone placement wrong (!). There was a review in HiFi Review at that time (not yet HiFi Stereo Review, much less Stereo Review), wherein the reviewer claimed that in the grinding dissonances in the middle of the first-movement development section (E-natural against F-natural), all he could hear were the oboes (playing E-natural and C-natural) - he couldn't hear the French horns (playing concert F-natural) at all! When I heard the LP some years later, I could kind of understand what the reviewer was talking about (although I did think he was exaggerating), as well as sharing his view about the dryness of Northrup Auditorium in Minneapolis. Now, in this magnificent new remastering, the SQ, although comparatively colored (Neumann KM-56 microphones on the right and left) and still a bit dry, has come up like the proverbial roses. The same spot in the development section now sounds perfectly balanced and the instruments have much more depth in their tone (again, allowing for the dryness of the hall). The new transfer was done by the team of John K. Chester and Jamie Howarth and the mastering for compact disc was done by none other than Thomas Fine. Dorati's performance is slashing and driving in a way that not everyone will like, but, again, I must say that I had no idea that the performance was actually this good!

Even with this third mega-volume of Mercury recordings (with some, like the Dorati Eroica, never before issued on CD), there are STILL some Mercury recordings which have never appeared on CD, the most substantial of which IMO is the Schumann Fourth Symphony with Dorati and the LSO. Also lacking are the Beethoven Symphonies 1 and 2 with Paray, and the Haydn Symphonies 59 and 81 with Dorati. One can always hope that the whole catalog will become available at some point, because what's already here (which is the vast majority of Mercury recordings) is marvellous indeed!

Music Lane

Vol. 3 Mercury Living Presence titles and remasterings - some now available separately via download

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