I am going to play all my RCA Living Stereo LPs...

Now for one that I really do like!

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This is one of the truly great RCA Living Stereos, and my copy is a 1S/1S A1/A1 in near-perfect condition. The soundstage is huge, the tone colors are fantastic, and you can hear every little thing Monteux does in the performance. Unlike his disaster with the Paris Conservatory Orchestra, Monteux elicits fantastic playing from the Boston players.

Surprisingly, this record has not attracted much attention from the audiophile reissuers. I have no idea why, but you can't order a new 200-gram pressing from anyone.
 
I was tied up for a while with various personal things, but I am ready to resume. I have pulled the next dozen or so records, and they are next to the turntable ready to photograph.

However, since I have two more from the last batch, I'll put them on the turntable. Here is the first one:

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As I mentioned before, Bartok is not exactly my favorite composer. I just don't get his music. Certain short passages are nice enough, but it doesn't hold together for me. It's not that I don't like composers of this era; I am fine with Prokofiev, Shostakovitch, and Pettersson.

Anyway, this is certain a fine recording, with plenty of dynamics, good bass, and a nice deep soundstage. Reiner was a friend of Bartok and a sympathetic interpreter of his music. If you do like Bartok, this is a highly worthwhile recording.
One of my all time favorites and first shaded dogs. So noisy that my record doctor was given a workout. I need to get a better copy.
 
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OK, let's continue. I have uploaded another 12 covers, so I should be good for a while.

Now for some chamber music. In general, people think it is bad idea to have two star musicians playing these sonatas, since they'll try to show each other up.
The performance here, however, seems quite reasonable to me, and the sound is pretty good.

This record sold well, and was in print for a long time, so it's not hard to pick up a clean copy. Even the later pressings have quite acceptable sound.
 
Now for a step up....

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...in both sound and performance. This is one of the great chamber music record in the RCA Living Stereo series, and was always widely recognized as such. While not as rare as the Trout Quartet and the Brahms trios, it has always been highly sought after.

The Julliard RCAs are uniformly excellent, and on this particular LP they get better sound than usual. The timber of each instrument is distinct, and they are well place on a medium-sized soundstage.
 
Now for one that I really do like!

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This is one of the truly great RCA Living Stereos, and my copy is a 1S/1S A1/A1 in near-perfect condition. The soundstage is huge, the tone colors are fantastic, and you can hear every little thing Monteux does in the performance. Unlike his disaster with the Paris Conservatory Orchestra, Monteux elicits fantastic playing from the Boston players.

Surprisingly, this record has not attracted much attention from the audiophile reissuers. I have no idea why, but you can't order a new 200-gram pressing from anyone.
I'd like to hear this SACD:
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And now for some elevator music!
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It is beautifully played by some of the world's top orchestral musicians, and very well-recorded, but elevator music is what it is. They sold a lot of this LP, and it is not difficult to pick up a copy in decent condition. If you want to hear what great string sound RCA could get, and you are not terribly concerned about musical quality, you might pick one up.

It's too bad that RCA didn't record Fiedler in more serious music, as he was a fine conductor.
 
Excellent reviews and such a great education for some of us who grew up on these wonderful LPs.
Thanks a lot.
If I'm ever in NY dinner at...my treat!

Michael
 
And now for one of the good ones.....

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This is one of the better Sorias, where the record outshines the packaging. As a conductor, Reiner was a mixed bag, but his approach really paid off with composers like Moussorgsky, Bartok, and Richard Strauss.

They turned this into a bit of a sonic spectacular using seven mics, and why not? That's what Strauss intended. The strings are lush, the soundstage is huge, and the orchestra is tightly disciplined and gives just the effect Reiner calls for.

This is quite a common record, probably one of the best-selling Sorias. The booklet is sumptuous, with tipped-in color prints and multi-color text. In the colophon, it states "OF THIS FIRST EDITION - COMPLETED FEBRUARY 1ST, 1960 - A LIMITED EDITION OF 200 WAS PRINTED". But in reality, far more copies have been sold on eBay alone, all containing this blurb, so they must have kept the printing presses running for quite a while. You can pick up a decent copy for $15-25 on eBay.
 
Here's one from left field:
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Yes, a one-act French opera with words by Jean Cocteau and music by Francis Poulenc. It's a sumptuous Soria production in excellent sound, but somehow I have a feeling that the music will have limited appeal. As very few copies were sold, it is quite scarce, and there is very little chance of a reissue.
 
Here's one from left field:
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Yes, a one-act French opera with words by Jean Cocteau and music by Francis Poulenc. It's a sumptuous Soria production in excellent sound, but somehow I have a feeling that the music will have limited appeal. As very few copies were sold, it is quite scarce, and there is very little chance of a reissue.
Never seen or heard of this one. For Soria would you add the catalogue number? Its not evident from the covers.
 
I heard this at the SF Opera many years ago. It works better on stage with sub titles even though she is just talking on a phone and nothing much happens on stage, except her pathos. I actually liked it, to a point. It might be more relevant with today's cell phone culture.
 
Pretty good for a 'greatest hits' record!

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Yes, it's excerpts from some of the best RCA Living Stereo operas, with some of the best singers of the late 50s and early 60s. And contrary to what you would expect, it's not the overtures either, but the top arias and ensembles. I don't think it would convert any actual opera-haters, but if you have any interest at all this would at least lead you on to the highlights records.
 
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This one gets the short shrift - I simply don't care for Haydn. I'm sure he had wonderful musical skills, but I find his music boring. So this one doesn't get much play, excellent though Monteux' performance might be.

However, the next six records in the catalog are very good indeed, an unusually strong run. Stand by!
 
OK, let's move on to some of the top dogs.

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Before I begin, I should say that anyone who did not see my description of my recent turntable purchase should look at my thread over in the turntable forum. I listened to several other RCA Living Stereos as well on the latest rig in order to get used to the sound. It is now fully installed, leveled, and set to the correct tracking force.

The Reiner Nevsky is a stunning recording in many ways. It was multimiked, and they got very detailed sound from the brass and the percussion. You can hear the vibrating skins of the drums, and the mellow sonority of the deep horns very clearly. The soundstage is wide and deep. The very deepest bass and the general dynamics of the orchestra seem, however, to be just slightly rolled off, as if they were afraid to cut it too hot. The performance is well-controlled, with the orchestra to the front and the singers stepping forward when called upon. This performance uses an English translation which is bit on the corny side, reminding you that this is the Midwest around 1960.

This record was overlooked by earlier reissuers, but there is now a 200-gram reissue from the new Analogue Productions series. I would be curious to hear if the reissue is more dynamic than the originals. The earliest known stamper from the first RCAs is 10S/10S, which has led many to suspect that they originally cut more dynamic stampers but decided not to use them.

The competition is stiff. There is a wonderful Thomas Schippers with the New York Philharmonic from the same era as the Reiner. It is a wild performance, with incredibly deep bass and big climaxes, although the tonal colorations of the instruments are not as well-articulated as on the RCA. It is also sung in genuine Russian. You can probably pick up a six-eye of the Schippers for much less than a good copy of the Reiner would cost.
 
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This one, while rare, is not so great. Both the sound and the performance acceptable, but its not a record you should go to great lengths to acquire. My copy seems to have an electronic hum in places, which may have come from a bad tube in the mastering amp.

Do you want to hear a great Beethoven Piano Concerto #3? Then get the Backhaus/Schmidt-Isserstedt/VPO on Decca. Both the sound and the performance are great, with a huge soundstage, very realistic piano sound, and deep, deep bass. The wideband is a little expensive, but there are many reissues.
 
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This is another fabulous orchestral RCA. The music is excellent, and the recording is big and lush with an impressive soundstage. My copy is a white dog from 1964-68, but it is a 5S/1S pressing, so it is evident that this was not a big seller. That's too bad, because Kondrashin was an top Russian conductor and the RCA Symphony was mostly moonlighting members of the LA Philharmonic, so they missed of fine performance of very entertaining modern music.

This LP was reissue by the original Classic Records, and I have a copy. Like most Classics, it has much better bass than the original, but the strings and the woodwinds are not as good and a lot of the air in the original is lacking. Since it has now been reissued by the new Classic label owned by Acoustic Sounds, that is the one I would try if I wanted a reissue.
 
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And now for a rather unusual one as a bonus. This is a symphonic synthesis of various Mendelssohn orchestral music, put together by proms conductor Ronald Binge. I could well see such a piece being created for proms concerts, but why RCA would have Decca record it and issue it in the US as a Living Stereo I cannot say. Perhaps they thought the elevator music version of Mendelssohn would appeal to their older customers? It's a nice enough record, but don't waste your time waiting for the 200-gram reissue.
 
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