Re: [ARSCLIST] Mercury Living Presence mono-only recordings

[Tom Fine <tflists@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

One more comment on this topic, perhaps of aid to collectors.

There were chunks of the SR90200's, 90300's and 90400's that were budget reissues. The first series 
was the "Curtain Up", which was more a "greatest hits" re-combining than a budget reissue series. 
These were mostly regular-length LPs. Then there were the "great composers of ..." for several 
countries (Russia and France come to mind). These were long-side, low-level LPs that combined 
different works of the same composers, sometimes using different orchestras. This was actually a 
model used plentifully in the CD era by all classical labels. Then there was "great music of the 
baroque period" and "great music of the romantic period" which appear to be both Mercury reissues 
and Philips-originated chamber music reissues. Some were fake stereo, some real stereo, all 
long-time/low-level LPs. These also appear to be pressed at Mercury Richmond.

I would suggest, any of these LPs is sonically compromised compared to the original-issue LP and 
certainly compared to the CD's, if the material was issued on CD.

I don't own any Wing LPs to pull out and comment about except a handful of very late 60's Wing 
reissues of some old Mercury mono stuff, in "re-processed stereo."

One man's opinion here, but I think I come by it with deep knowledge. By far my favorite version of 
this material is the reissue CDs. In any case where I've heard the master tapes, the CD's sound 
closer to the masters than any other release of that material. Next I'd choose the Classic Records 
reissue LPs (there were only a handful of these done) from the 1990's. The reason these are great is 
that they were made the same way the original LPs were made but with 30 year better mastering 
technology and really superior pressing and vinyl compounds. Next I'd choose the original-issue LPs, 
first editions for the stereo material, perhaps favoring the 1958-60 re-cuts for the mono material. 
I wouldn't bother with the budget reissues unless you simply _had_ to have a particular piece of 
work and couldn't find it anywhere else or you're a sleeve collector and found a nice-looking sleeve 
for a buck or less. The Philips "Golden Import" LPs were decent but nothing near as dynamic as the 
originals, but were sometimes much better pressings. I would avoid the Bel Canto quarter-track reels 
like the plague and also avoid the few Golden Imports mass-duped cassettes that seem to have been 
issued in a few European markets. I would also avoid any Wing reissues unless you have no other 
options.

-- Tom Fine