Wow, did I stumble across a fantastic record!

Posted by vinyl phanatic (A) on August 23, 2014 at 20:55:22

Thumbing through the dollar bin at a local store, I came across this disc. "The Spectacular World of Classic Film Scores", RCA RL 42005, Charles Gerhardt and the National Philharmonic. Side one is a sampler of tracks from the RCA Classic Film Score series, but side 2 has tracks that were never released except on this record. I put it on for a spin this morning and my jaw dropped. I usually try to eschew the hyperbole, but I can't help it here. This is one incredible record. The playing is great, great music from some of the best film composers, and the sound is some of the best I have heard. I don't know when I have heard low end like this, and the strings have a beautiful color to them. It hits all the audiophile touch points without ever sounding "audiophile". I could go on, but you get the idea. Engineered by Kenneth Wilkinson.

Listed rather cryptically in The Absolute Sound list as "Tiomkin, 'The Thing'" (one of the otherwise unreleased tracks, and one of the best things on the record), I had no idea that this was a sought-after record. I'm trying to keep from buying things willy-nilly, so I almost put it back, but it was in such good shape and it looked interesting, so I figured that for a buck I'd give it a shot. Film music buffs probably know about this one, but I did not. If you ever see a copy, grab it. Pressed in Italy. The TAS list says that it's British, but a little research shows that it was only ever issued in an Italian pressing (similar to RL 31540, the Abbado/LSO album with the original Night on Bald Mountain, from around the same time, which I also highly recommend). Obviously recorded by Decca, but it does not have the usual Decca stampers, so it was probably mastered in Italy as well. Whoever mastered it did a hell of a job.

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Topic - Wow, did I stumble across a fantastic record! - vinyl phanatic 20:55:22 08/23/14 (6)

RE: Wow alright - Des 16:51:55 08/24/14 (0)

Thanks for sharing! This one actually has UK pressing. - alc777 05:04:41 08/24/14 (3)

I'm not so sure - vinyl phanatic 11:03:11 08/24/14 (2)

RE: I'm not so sure - alc777 18:21:03 08/24/14 (0)

There was apparently also a US issue - vinyl phanatic 12:02:18 08/24/14 (0)

I hope you didn't hurt yourself (NT) - theophile 23:38:15 08/23/14 (0)

Wow, did I stumble across a fantastic record!

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