Product Information
Product Description
This new collection of 55 CDs from the acclaimed audiophile label offers a wealth of recordings from the 1950s and 1960s in an unrivaled range of repertory.This ranges from solo Bach played by harpsichordist Rafael Puyana to American composer and conductor Howard Hanson in his own works as well as music by fellow-Americans. Key artists include Antal Dorati in works ranging from Beethoven to Bartok and Berg; Frederick Fennell, Rafael Kubelík, Paul Paray and Janos Starker.An extensive 182 page booklet includes new essays on the history and development of the Mercury label by Thomas Fine (son of Wilma Cozart Fine, legendary producer of the MLP label) and Mike Gray. Numerous photographs are included and full recording information is documented. When we say full recording information, we mean it too. All the details collectors love to see is here: the microphones, the recording location, the original engineers, the subsequent remastering engineers, even the type of recording equipment.Two CDs of true rarities are included: Doratis 1953 mono recording of The Rite of Spring; and making its first-ever appearance on CD is John Coriglianos Piano Concerto. The CD also includes a rare 16 minute interview with Corigliano and pianist Hilde Somer.Mercury Living Presence is special in many ways - an American company, from the heyday of classical recording in the U.S., that reproduced some of the most sonically realistic recordings at the dawn of the stereo era. Precious few stereo LPs were pressed when these recordings were issued, and they became some of the rarest, most collectible classical discs ever. Mercury Living Presence continues to enjoy a special reputation as one of the most enterprising, prestigious and sonically-spectacular labels in the history of classical recording.1 DORATI Schoenberg Webern Berg2 RORATI Respighi: The Birds Fountains & Pines of Rome3 DORAT Bartók: Concerto for Orchestra Dance Suite4 DORATI Respighi: Ancient Airs and Dances5 DORATI Dvorák: Symphonies 7 & 86 DORATI Gershwin Copland Schuller Bloch7 DORATI Satie Milhaud Auric Françaix8 DORATI Tchaikovsky: Symphony 6 Pathétique 9 DORATI Bartók: The Wooden Prince10 DORATI Bartók: The Miraculous Mandarin11 DORATI Tchaikovsky: Symphony 4 Borodin12 DORATI Beethoven: Symphonies 5 & 613 DORATI Albéniz Falla Mussorgsky14 KUBELIK Hindemith Schoenberg Kodály15 DORATI Beethoven: Symphony 7 Overtures16-17 DORATI Tchaikovsky: Swan Lake18-20 FISTOULARI & DORATIDelibes: Sylvia Coppélia21 MARCEL DUPRÉ Widor Franck22 FENNELL Leroy Anderson23 FENNELL Grainger Persichetti Khachaturian24 FENNELL ROLLER Gould Giannini Hovhaness25 FENNELL Grainger Coates26 FENNELL Hands Across the Sea27 FENNELL Coates Anderson28 FENNELL The Spirit of 76 Ruffles & Flourishes29 FENNELL Mozart R. Strauss Milhaud30 FENNELL Holst Vaughan Williams Mennin31 HANSON Hanson: Symphonies 1 & 232 HANSON Gould Barber33 HANSON Ives Schumann Mennin34 HANSON Hanson: Symphony 3 Elegy Lament35 HANSON Barber Piston Griffes Kennan36 HANSON McPhee Sessions Thomson37 HANSON Moore Carpenter Rogers Phillips38 HANSON Chadwick MacDowell Peter39 HANSON Music for Quiet Listening Vol.140 HANSON Music for Quiet Listening Vol.241 KUBELIK Mozart: Symphony 38 Dvorák: Symphony 942 PARAY Ibert: Escales Ravel: Rapsodie Espagnole43 PARAY French Opera Highlights: Hérold Auber Gounod44 PARAY Saint-Saëns: Organ Symphony Paray: Mass45 PARAY Chabrier Roussel46 PARAY Ravel: Daphnis et Chloé Suite 2 Debussy: Nocturnes47 PARAY Bizet: Carmen Suite L Arlésienne Suites 1 & 2 Thomas48 PARAY Dances of Death: Liszt Weber Saint-Saëns Schmitt
