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.

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