Trust Your Ears: exploring the history of Mercury Living Presence

[effinity]

From DCS Audio…….’’Our new podcast series, produced in partnership with Decca Records, tells the fascinating story behind a treasured collection of classical recordings and the role that dCS converters played in their digital revival.”

The whole story link here:

https://dcsaudio.com/the-dcs-edit

 

[alanbeeb]

Finally got round to watching that video. Thanks for sharing, very interesting.

I have a number of the Living Presence recordings on Speakers Corner vinyl, which sound magnificent. Including the recorded-in-Russia Shostakovich 4th and 8th String Quartets played by the Borodin Quartet - pretty much new music at the time. And also a few on SACD, they were released in early 2000's and I assume must be the ones that dCS were involved with the digital remastering. They too sound amazing.

The one I'd really single out is the recording of Brahms Haydn Variations and Elgar's Enigma Variation with the Pierre Monteux and the LSO from early 1960s, Wonderful performances and the sound is sublime, including of course the tube trains rumbling under the Kingsway Hall! In fact that Enigma Variations was top choice for BBC R3 Building a Library despite being nearly 60 years old. It has been a mainstay of the Decca Catalogue for decades and available on CD since 1980s - and doesn't sound bad at all on the non-dCS CD mastering.

Its very easy to confuse Living Presence with Living Stereo - which was RCA's contemporary of Living Presence. They also made magnificent recordings in the late 1950s of mostly US based artists, and they too were remastered in 2000s into DSD and released as SACD, and also sound superb. Charles Munch and Boston Symphony recording of Ravel's Daphnis et Chloe.... incredible recording and almost impossible to believe it was made in 1954.

 

[effinity]

Glad you enjoyed it, two more to go!

Although generally enjoying classical music when I hear it entry points have tended to overwhelm with choice and particularly not knowing which are good recordings. This media and your comments are very helpful thanks.

 

[alanbeeb]

Its very easy to confuse Living Presence with Living Stereo - which was RCA's contemporary of Living Presence. They also made magnificent recordings in the late 1950s of mostly US based artists, and they too were remastered in 2000s into DSD and released as SACD, and also sound superb. Charles Munch and Boston Symphony recording of Ravel's Daphnis et Chloe.... incredible recording and almost impossible to believe it was made in 1954.

LOL... just had a look at the LP of that Pierre Monteux/LSO Brahms/Elgar Variations LP.... and its Living Stereo not Living Presence! Told you it was easy to get them confused!

 

[marshanp]

Glad you enjoyed it, two more to go!

Although generally enjoying classical music when I hear it entry points have tended to overwhelm with choice and particularly not knowing which are good recordings. This media and your comments are very helpful thanks.

There are very fine classical recordings going back a long way in time. The engineers, mostly teams working in the same venue time after time, had essentially solved the problem of capturing orchestral sound in stereo before the mid 60s - which is not to say that all recording teams took the same approach. RCA, CBS, Phillips and DGG have different house sounds, but all (at their best) can be very satisfying.

One of my favourite happy hunting grounds is mid-70s EMI - particularly their recordings of orchestras outside London. The Bournemouth SO under Paavo Berglund, for example... superb performances and recordings of Scandinavian music, many of them, in my opinion, yet to be bettered.

 

[effinity]

LOL... just had a look at the LP of that Pierre Monteux/LSO Brahms/Elgar Variations LP.... and its Living Stereo not Living Presence! Told you it was easy to get them confused!

Ha, I wonder if Living Presence, at outset, thought about calling themselves Living Stereo and since regretted not doing as LS is more generic!?

 

[effinity]

RCA, CBS, Phillips and DGG have different house sounds, but all (at their best) can be very satisfying.

One of my favourite happy hunting grounds is mid-70s EMI - particularly their recordings of orchestras outside London. The Bournemouth SO under Paavo Berglund, for example... superb performances and recordings of Scandinavian music, many of them, in my opinion, yet to be bettered.

The trick is I suppose finding the ‘best’ and ‘affordable’, thanks for the example re Panavision Berglund and Bournemouth SO.