Bizet / Borodin / Chabrier / Vienna Festival Orchestra Conducted By Philip Vernal - Carmen Suite No. 1 / Espana / Polovtsian Dances download mp3 album

A Hall of Fame PressingThis record PUTS TO SHAME most vintage Shaded Dogs, Mercurys and London records we've ever played , and it's released on vinyl by a relatively obscure budget label that most audiophiles have never even heard of and would probably not want to be caught dead with.Which is a good reason to judge records by playing them, not reading about them on the net or in magazines. The sound of this record is so wonderful that, had it been a rare Shaded Dog, Merc or London it would have sold for something approaching twice the money we are asking here. In my experience very few of those recordings are as good as this one.How can we make such an outrageous claim? It's simple -- we have the record, the actual physical piece of vinyl, that backs up our seemingly ridiculous claims for its sound, and if you have the buck and a half we're asking you too can weigh the evidence of its sonic superiority.If I were a better writer I might be able to convey to you the beauty of the sound in such a way as to entice you to part with such a sizable amount of money for such a low-born pressing like this, one that you never even knew existed. That's if I were a better writer, which, judging by the awkwardness of the above sentence, is clearly not the case.The Value of this CommentaryOf course everything that I might say about the music, performance and sound is completely beside the point. All that matters is what you hear when you play the record. What we heard when we played this very record was the kind of music, performance and sound that a handful of records out of a thousand can boast of.If I were to choose one record to play to demonstrate just how good classical music can sound in my listening room, I would have a hard time choosing any but this. (I will of course not be able to do any such thing as this record will leave here and most likely never come back. It's the lucky audiophile who will own it, and probably only he and a few friends will ever get a chance to enjoy it. Such is the world of Hot Stampers; every one is unique and once they leave here they can only be played by their new owner, usually in private.)Keys to the SoundWith this record the one quality I would point to that makes it stand well above the crowd is tonal neutrality. It's the rare RCA Living Stereo record that doesn't have some tonality issues. Practically no Mercury Living Presence recording has no boost in the upper midrange. London would be the label I would single out with the best chance of being tonally correct in the midrange.Hearing a record that sounds as good as this one throws all that into a cocked hat. Only a small fraction of RCAs, Mercs and Londons have sound that competes with the sound of this cheap Whitehall pressing, and for that I have no explanation. How could they accomplish with no money what the major labels could not, with all the money in the world?I cannot explain it. What I can say is that we have been critically evaluating Golden Age recordings for close to two decades now and in that time we have literally played thousands of them. Few in my experience sound better than this.The Law of Increasing ReturnsNow, that's not being perfectly fair, as every year the stereo system and room get progressively better. As record cleaning technology continues to improve that too results in better sound, dramatically better in many cases, especially with these forty-plus year old records.If you are continually putting into your system, room, etc. the necessary resources, you will find as we have that the goal posts keep moving. As long as you keep at it they'll never stop moving, and we think that's exactly the way it should be. No record you haven't played in a while should not sound better than it used to. This has to be seen for what it is -- PROGRESS. It just can't be anything else.Side OneSide one has the Carmen Suite No. 1, some of the most recognizable and beautiful music ever written. I know of no better better performance. I know of no better sound. For fans of soundstaging, this record will surely blow your mind. It's as three-dimensional, wide and deep as any record we have every played, yet the transparency and freedom from coloration make even the sections of the orchestra furthest away still sound clear and lively. How they managed to pull that off where so many others have failed is frankly beyond me.With a grade of A++ this is not the best sounding copy we have ever played, but it is still AMAZINGLY GOOD . It very nearly did it all, and it will put to shame practically any large scale orchestral recording you have ever heard. It does not have the last ounce of subtlety (read: resolution) but the sound is so GLORIOUS in every way, with such a huge bottom end and extended top, that there is almost no way anyone will notice. When you have five copies you notice these things. With one it's practically impossible to hear it.Side TwoA to A+, sub Hot Stamper and the kind of sound you might expect from a cheap reissue. It's smeary with no real top end and no real texture to the strings. The coupling works for side two are wonderful performances of Espana and Borodin's Polovtsian Dances.The MusicWho can resist these sublimely colorful orchestral works? They are an audiophile's dream come true.Espana -- The PerformancesI much prefer Ansermet's and Vernal's performances to those of Paray on Mercury. It should also be noted that the famous Classic pressing of the Mercury, SR 90212, is a grainy, gritty, shrill piece of crap. I don't know how dull and smeary a stereo would have to be in order to play a record that phony and modern sounding and make it listenable, but I know that it would have to be very dull and very smeary, with the kind of vintage sound that might work for Classic's Heavy Vinyl pressings but not for much else.TAS List, Really?It's a disgrace, and the fact that it's on the TAS Super Disc List is even more disgraceful. Of course this lovely Whitehall is nowhere to be found on Harry's List, which should not be too surprising. Most of the best records are exactly that -- nowhere to be found on his list. (You can of course find the best classical pressings in our Hall of Fame and in our Hot Stamper section.)Condition IssuesWhitehall is a budget label and budget labels tend to have noisy vinyl. Many copies of this record are just plain defective, with bad swooshes and non-fill at the start of both sides.

I have a copy of this album in mono. Cover has seen better days but record in very good condition. Any idea on value ? Thanks in advance .