Whats on your turntable tonight?

Vaughan Williams, A Pastoral Symphony/In the Fen Country--Boult, New Philharmonia Orchestra-EMI ASD 2393

Exotic Dances from the Opera--Oue, Minnesota Orchestra--Reference Mastercuts RM-1505

Rodrigo, Concerto de Arajuez--Romero, Marriner, Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields--Philips 9500 563

Arnold, English Scottish Cornish Dances--Arnold, London Philharmonic--Lyrita SCRS 109--HP was right, probably in the top three orchestral recordings I have on vinyl.

Russ, I absolutely agree about the Malcolm Arnold English Dances, Lyrita SCRS 109. Wilkie nailed this one. It is one of 2 or 3 most natural and accurate representations of a full orchestra in my collection. When people want to understand soundstaging, I pull out this LP. The other LP I bring out is Power of the Orchestra (RCA VICS 2659), also recorded by Wilkinson under contract between RCA and Decca.

For those who may not know: "Wilkie" was Kenneth Wilkinson, recording engineer famous for his work with Decca in the '60s and '70s. His work for Lyrita was freelance and no credits appear on the Lyrita album covers, but he did much of his best work (as in natural sounding, more minimally miked) for that label.
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Correction to the above... Wilkinson's work for Lyrita was apparently not freelance. Lyrita contracted with Decca for their recordings (as did RCA and Readers Digest) and Lyrita's owner, Richard Itter, always requested Wilkinson to engineer the recordings. See this Wikipedia article for more detail:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_Wilkinson
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CCR Bayou Country analogue production reissue 200g

Lennox Berkeley: Sextet; Palm Court Waltz - Nash Ensemble - Hyperion A66086 (another masterful engineering job by Anthony Howell)

Debussy: Children's Corner Suite - Michelangeli - DGG 2530 196

Beatles: Mono Masters

Count Basie: One O'Clock Jump - Columbia CL 997
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