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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.