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Thanks Richard! This makes me feel good, to get a good report from someone who's actually heard and recorded a bunch of pipe organs. As you'll hear, the French organs sound very different from Aeolian-Skinners. I was amazed at the trippy sounds Dupre was able to get out of the Saint-Sulpice instrument in particular. Check out CD4 cuts 2-12 CD7 cut 7. That's in the Moog league of trippy sounds from an analog instrument. Regarding the subway, highly annoying! It was the story behind the dozens of splices in fragile acetate tapes. Oy. -- Tom Fine ----- Original Message ----- From: "Richard L. Hess" <[log in to unmask]> To: <[log in to unmask]> Sent: Wednesday, October 07, 2015 4:33 PM Subject: [ARSCLIST] Mercury Living Presence Marcel Dupré Box Set Hi, Tom, I received the Marcel Dupré Box Set a couple of days ago from Amazon.CA for a very reasonable price. I had used their low-price pre-order system and received a substantial reduction from the originally quoted price. I'm very happy. All I can say is FANTASTIC! I haven't even gotten into the Paris and Rouen recordings yet, just have spent time with the St. Thomas and Ford recordings. The fact that the St. Thomas recordings were made a year after the rebuilding of the organ by G. Donald Harrison--a project that precipitated his death--means this is a very important milestone recording of one of the great examples of Aeolian-Skinner organ building at its peak, played by one of the great organists of all time. As you have noted, a flood damaged that shortly after the recording was made and the Gilbert Adams renovations to the organ have not fared well and also, as you have noted, a MAJOR renovation is in the works, although the leading light behind that renovation, Dr. John Scott, the replacement for the late Dr. Gerre Hancock (my friend and mentor), has also died, unexpectedly at a young age. I am very impressed with the sound that the Mercury team obtained on the St. Thomas recordings, having recorded the later incarnation of that organ many times, including for a record released in the past on my own label, featuring Dr. Judith Hancock performing Mozart and Dupré. I need to check if the precise same pieces are on my recording and the MLP set. That will be a fun comparison. Judith is a superb organist. I do appreciate the Saint Saëns Organ Symphony and it is interesting to compare the new CD version to the Box Set #2 version. I will, at some point, do a careful comparison, but for now, I've just enjoyed listening. Marvellous! I also became enthralled reading the diary excerpts in the book. Totally fascinating. Your mother made quite the impression on Mme. Dupré. And yes, the subway is one of the main non-joys of recording at St. Thomas. The cost of ameliorating that is phenomenal. While in theory it could be done, the price prohibits it. Cheers, Richard -- Richard L. Hess email: [log in to unmask] Aurora, Ontario, Canada 647 479 2800 http://www.richardhess.com/tape/contact.htm Quality tape transfers -- even from hard-to-play tapes.