One of my first classical records, though not in the Soria version. Still,
quite a nice package, IIRC, with a nice cover and booklet. You got good
perceived value back then for the equivalent of - what? - $30 US in today's
money. I was totally charmed by the music. I don't have a copy anymore, but
would like to hear it to study its production flaws. I suspect singers mixed
too loudly and a garish orchestra pickup? It did emerge from the Admiral
console hifi with some grandiosity, as intended.

Contrast that with one of my favorite recordings of anything,
Milhaud/Munch/BSO, a more modest Soria issue. All the sensitivity and
authenticity of style that the MSND performance lacks. Unfortunately, all
the issues of this session I've heard have a strange veiled sound, though
the ensemble balance is plausibly life-like.

-----Original Message-----
From: Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Donald Tait
Sent: Friday, April 26, 2013 6:23 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Single LP box sets

  Yes, I also remember the Leinsdorf/BSO MSND music on Victor as being yet
another depressing example of Leinsdorf's suffocating musical style. All
very correct. And all very the last word in absolutely nothing.

  Don Tait

 

 

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Dennis Rooney <[log in to unmask]>
To: ARSCLIST <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Fri, Apr 26, 2013 4:56 pm
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Single LP box sets


I purchased the MSND music with the Boydell engravings of Fuseli when it
was released. I kept it in a heavy manilla envelope for decades until I
finally sold it on eBay several years ago, not enriched thereby,
unfortunately, but happy to pass on the ungainly package. I recall the
performance as disappointing, rather prosaic, and recorded with RCA
Victor's celebrated incompetence.

DDR

On Fri, Apr 26, 2013 at 4:52 PM, Donald Tait <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>   The Don Quixote was in the Soria series and was packaged with a de luxe,
> gorgeous heavy booklet containing tipped-in art reproductions. The
> Reiner/CSO Beethoven Pastoral was also in a slipcase sort of thing, at
> least at the beginning. Later issues were in standard cardboard sleeves.
> The de luxe Pastoral  package doesn't turn up often in my experience.
>
>   In a class by itself was the original RCA Victor packaging of
> Mendelssohn's Midsummer Night's Dream music with Leinsdorf/BSO. As James
> North writes in his BSO discography:
> "LSC/D-2673 is a limited edition, housed in a 13.5 x 17 inch hard-cover
> folder, which also contains reproductions of two eighteenth-century
> engravings of Henry Fuseli paintings basked on Shakespeare's play."
>
>   The Victor LP package, bound in dark blue cloth, was so awkward at 17"
> high and 13.5 wide that it seemed to pose problems for dealers to display.
> I remember that Rose Records on Wabash Avenue in Chicago had a few copies
> on the floor, leaning against a vertical pipe. They had nothing else to
do.
>
>   Don Tait
>