I have thoroughly enjoyed Vol.s 1 and 2 but I must admit that the Puyana discs were the least enjoyable. They exhibited to me a classic example of how harpsichords should NOT be recorded, but was typical of how harpsichords WERE recorded in the '50s. In a concert hall I'm sure not even the largest pedal harpsichords would have the organ pedal type bass that these records have. However, every time I went to remove the CD my hand stopped in mid-air and in the end I listened to all of the Puyana CDs and enjoyed them for what they were, (late '50s harpsichord recordings). 

db



Sent from my iPhone

> On Apr 16, 2015, at 3:12 PM, Thomas Stern <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> 
> fwiw
> Ordered from Amazon France (just over $101), shipped
> from UK.  No problems noted.
> A few comments-
>  I was not familiar with RAFAEL PUYANA, harpsichordist, but see he recorded
> many albums for Mercury/Philips, his last recordings for SanCtuS.  He was
> somewhat controversial in regard to performance practice.  Wonder if any
> have any strong opinions of his work ???
>  It is wonderful to be able to obtain these Living Presence recordings at
> so incredibly low prices, however I do miss having annotations which were
> part of the original albums, and in the very few vocal performances, some
> sense of the texts (either text and translation or summaries).  I understand
> that it might be too expensive to include all this text in the booklets, but
> it could be included as a .pdf file on a disc, or made available online at
> Universal's website.
>  Best wishes, Thomas.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Wade Lewis
> Sent: Wednesday, April 8, 2015 12:32 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Mercury Living Presence 3
> 
> well My copy of vol 3 arrived, sent from Amazon German location though I
> purchased it from Amazon Italy.  All the discs appear to be correct so that
> is one good thing. My thanks go to Tom Fine for his participation in this
> effort. 
> What I am sorry about is that from the documentation, this is the last
> volume that will be issued.  This means there is a significant group of
> Mercury recordings that will never be available in high quality CD
> transfers.  That includes most of the mono orchestral issues (especially the
> remaining Kubeliks, the Dorati Sleeping Beauty and various Hansons), ALL the
> chamber music monos and a still sizeable number of Stereo items, whether
> missing individual tracks or whole LPs.  This makes me sad as, having spent
> a large block of time relistening to the existing CD issues has reinforced
> my impression of the entire catalog as a major statement of the quality of
> recordings made by Mercury in the 1950s-60s.  
> I am happy that I have almost all the monos in my LP collection but now it
> seems that i will be running around trying to find good condition Stereo LPs
> once I determine which ones are outstanding as unreleased CD items.  
> My OTHER observation is the wonderful quality of the graphics of the
> original LP covers. The boldness of the designs certainly matched the
> statements made by the recordings themselves. 
> Finally, looking at the recording dates, it is interesting to see that the
> Capriccio italien on the Stereo 1812/Wellington's Victory CD in vol 1 is the
> same recording that appears in Vol 3 along with the mono 1812. I had always
> wondered if they were the same or different recordings.