[S Clark]

My mono classical collection grew to the point that I finally broke down and picked up a decent mono cartridge- the Denon DL-102, and since I've been on a buying tear.  My local record store puts all classical LP's at $2, and I've been grabbing everything that looks clean. So in my effort to get great music cheap, I've got winners and losers, and thought I'd make a thread for fellow mono fans to list the winners.

We'll start with a 1955 two record set that I almost passed on, after all, how many copies of Rh. in Blue/Amer. in Paris/Porgy n Bess/Conc. in F do you really need.  Well apparently one more.  "The Serious Gershwin" with Morton Gould playing and directing is a seriously well recorded and performed version.  Instruments are beautifully clear, cleanly layered with no smearing of sound. Technically, Gould is more than up to the task, as these are no virtuoso pieces, but they are all too often dulled by bad directing.Not this time.   This version puts the Jazz first in the jazz/classical labelling of these works. 

So first on the list is:

1. "The Serious Gershwin" Morton Gould   RCA Victor LM-6033.... a two record set with book

OK, somebody give us #2 with a brief review- description, what are the points that lead you to recommend it.  Hopefully we can build a mono must have list that can be a nice reference.





Scott

[bakufu]

[S Clark]

Bakufu,
Can you give us a bit more than a picture?  What is special about these?

[bakufu]

> What is special about these?

about the furtwangler set?  really?  i would have thought this to be self-recommending.  but ...

i've owned various incarnations of these recordings for 40 years.  the first thing to note is the vastly improved sound over earlier releases on various italian and japanese cd labels.  M&A has done a brilliant job restoring these recordings.

for details on the individual performances, i refer you to jeffrey lipscomb's fine review on amazon.  he's absolutely right in highlighting the berlin '43 5th and the terrifying '42 9th.  but by now, both of these performances have acquired legendary status.

unfortunately, the set does not include furtwangler's BP Grosse Fuge, which i believe can only be found on a very hard to find japanese DG disk, else i would have selected that one as well.

and the milhaud?  i have several recordings of Creation du Monde, in better sound and with with more accomplished playing, but i still prefer milhaud's reading over e.g. bernstein's.  if i'm not mistaken, this is the same performance once available on a nonesuch LP.  but i no longer have that disk so i could be wrong. in any case, this one sparkles and dances, and i never tire of listening to it.

[Tyson]

Bruno Walter's NYPO recordings of both Brahms and Mahler are must have.  Who knew the old man was such a firecracker in his youth?

[S Clark]

Next up is a Mercury MG50000.  This is the vinyl that was famously reviewed in the NY Times as "like being in the living presence of the orchestra", and Mercury used the catchphrase for decades afterward.  Kubelik leads the Chicago Sym. with an early recording of the now omnipresent Pictures at an Exhibition by Moussorgsky, but at the time (1951?) it had only been recorded once before. 

What recommends it? The brass jumps at you as the tonality is excellent, the tymani erupt into sound, bassoons have weight, and even the quiet celeste comes through the orchestra with great clarity.  Each instrument is heard at its beginning and end, and keeps its place while adding to the totality of the music.  For a 60 year old recording, this sounds like an audiophool direct to disc recording (with a bit more surface noise).  Find a copy if you can.

Scott

[Ralph]

> What is special about these?

about the furtwangler set?  really?  i would have thought this to be self-recommending.  but ...

i've owned various incarnations of these recordings for 40 years.  the first thing to note is the vastly improved sound over earlier releases on various italian and japanese cd labels.  M&A has done a brilliant job restoring these recordings.

for details on the individual performances, i refer you to jeffrey lipscomb's fine review on amazon.  he's absolutely right in highlighting the berlin '43 5th and the terrifying '42 9th.  but by now, both of these performances have acquired legendary status.

unfortunately, the set does not include furtwangler's BP Grosse Fuge, which i believe can only be found on a very hard to find japanese DG disk, else i would have selected that one as well.

and the milhaud?  i have several recordings of Creation du Monde, in better sound and with with more accomplished playing, but i still prefer milhaud's reading over e.g. bernstein's.  if i'm not mistaken, this is the same performance once available on a nonesuch LP.  but i no longer have that disk so i could be wrong. in any case, this one sparkles and dances, and i never tire of listening to it.

I would add Furtwangler's Beethoven Eroica and Ninth on Tahra SACD's, the Audite set of his RIAS recordings, and his Salzburg "Fidelio" on Opus Kura, with Flagstad and Patzak. Simply the greatest Beethoven conductor of them all!

[rpf]

I don't listen to '40s or earlier recordings, with only a couple of exceptions. Nor do I listen to vinyl so I don't know how these items sound in that medium, although I suspect that they were re-mastered well (from '78s in the first two cases) given they are legendary performances. I don't have time to go into detailed descriptions so take this fwiw. These are, however, all widely acclaimed (and therefore obvious) choices. And take that fwiw.
 
The Cortot/Thibaudet/Casals Beethoven "Archduke Trio" coupled with Schubert's Piano Trio No. 1 on EMI. Still among the greatest performances.

The Busch Quartet's recording of Schubert's String Quartet Nos. 14 & 15, also on EMI. 14 is still very good, 15 still excellent. This is the recording that got me into chamber music.

Furtwangler's Lucerne Beethoven's 9th Symphony. Still one of the greatest performances on record. His Bayreuth Beethoven 9 is also highly recommended as is his EMI LVB 6th.

[medium jim]

The first Five Beatles albums!

Jim