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Mercury Living Presence

I have a few Mercury Living Presence label CDs. I've found I have an affinity for what I've heard on this label in terms of recording quality, in particular for the vintage of the original recordings. I was listening to the MLP recording of The Nutcracker recently and was semi blown away.

Does anyone else share my affinity for these recordings? Are they all equally well recorded? Which are the best?

What about the original vinyl recordings, which I have not heard. Are these any good?
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Showing 2 responses by rushton

rushton's avatar
rushton
2,445 posts
 
Mercury has been one of the prized classical music recording labels since it's first monoraural release in the early '50s. Here are two articles that will give you a lot of the background about this label:

http://www.soundfountain.com/amb/mercury.html
http://microgroove.jp/mercury/LivingPresence.shtml

The original vinyl is highly prized by many collectors. Speakers Corner is in the process of reissuing much of the Mercury catalog on vinyl, and the results thus far have been outstanding.
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rushton's avatar
rushton
2,445 posts
 
Russ, it's been good to see you weighing in with comments on the recordings!

Another series of recordings that are well worth seeking out for a very direct and natural reproduction of an orchestra (provided you care for the music) are the Harmonia Mundi USA recordings engineered by Peter McGrath. These are beautifully recorded with a pair of spaced omni microphones. Examples:

..Mozart Horn Concertos, McGegan/PhilBarO, Greer -hn, HMU 7012
..Vivaldi Flute Concertos, McGegan/PhilBarO, See -fl, HMC 5193
..Handel Water Music, McGegan/PhilBarO, HMU 7010

And don't forget Robert von Bahr's work with his BIS label over more than 30 years (very natural sounding, simply miked recordings), and the early work Brian and Ralph Couzens were doing with Chandos.
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