08 Friday Sep 2017
Posted in Boxset, Mercury, Mercury Living Presence
Tags
Albeniz, Bloch, Copland, Dorati, Falla, Gershwin, Mussorgsky, Prokofiev, Richard Strauss, Smetana, Stravinsky
27 Monday Mar 2017
Posted in Boxset, Mercury, Mercury Living Presence
29 Saturday Oct 2016
Posted in Boxset, Mercury, Mercury Living Presence
Tags
Albeniz, Barber, Bartok, Beethoven, Bizet, Chabrier, Debussy, Delibes, Dorati, Dvorak, Falla, Fistoulari, Frederick Fennell, Gershwin, Grainger, Gustav Holst, Hindemith, Howard Hanson, Ives, Jacques Ibert, Kubelik, Marcel Dupre, Milhaud, Morton Gould, Mozart, Mussorgsky, Paul Paray, Rafael Puyana, Ravel, Respighi, Roussel, Saint-Saëns, Schoenberg, Starker, Tchaikovsky, Vaughan Williams, Webern, Widor
Label : Mercury
Format : Flac track
Cover : Yes
This new collection of 55 CDs from the acclaimed Mercury Living Presence label offers a wealth of recordings from the 1950s and 1960s in an unrivalled range of repertory from solo Bach played by harpsichordist Rafael Puyana and American composer and conductor Howard Hanson in his own works as well as music by fellow-Americans, and Antal Dorati in works ranging from Beethoven to Bartok and Berg. Frederick Fennell, Rafael Kubelik, Paul Paray and Janos Starker are among the other key artists in the set.
29 Saturday Oct 2016
Posted in Boxset, Mercury, Mercury Living Presence
Tags
Bach JS, Bartok, Beethoven, Berlioz, Brahms, Byron Janis, Chopin, Copland, Dorati, Dvorak, Edouard Lalo, Enescu, Ferde Grofé, Frederick Fennell, Gina Bachauer, Herbert Menges, Howard Hanson, John Sousa, Khachaturian, Kodaly, Kondrashin, Kreisler, Kubelik, Leclair, Liszt, Los Romeros, Menuhin, Mussorgsky, Paul Paray, Prokofiev, Rachmaninov, Schumann, Shostakovich, Skrowaczewski, Smetana, Starker, Stravinsky, Suppe, Szeryng, Tchaikovsky
Label : Mercury
Format : Flac track
Cover : Yes
The classical division of Mercury Records recognized a great brand name when a New York Times critic used the line “one feels oneself in the living presence of the orchestra” in his review of a 1951 Rafael Kubelik/Chicago Symphony recording of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition. Soon dubbing itself Mercury Living Presence, the label evolved from that first mono LP recorded by a single microphone to high-quality three-microphone stereo LPs and recordings made on 35mm film stock that still thrill audiophiles. Mercury Living Presence led by the sharp-eared, ever-devoted producer Wilma Cozart Fine, made hundreds of records until 1967, amassing one of the great legacies for an American company in classical music. This boxed set collects fifty CDs drawn from that catalog, utilizing the early-’90s remasterings supervised by Fine, housing the discs in miniature faux LP sleeves and including a booklet retelling the story of the label and its artists. And those artists, prime among them conductor Antal Dorati, cellist János Starker, pianist Byron Janis and violinist Henryk Szeryng, almost invariably made the best records of their careers for Mercury Living Presence.
