Classic Audiophile 2 x 180g TEST PRESSINGS LSC 2322
$
88
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Description
LSC 2322 - Shostakovich
Symphony No. 1 and Ballet Suite from the Age of Gold
London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Jean Martinon.
Producer: James Walker.
Recording Engineer: Alan Reeve.
Recorded in Kingsway Hall, London
With the real Classic cover!
A powerful feeling of ineptness can greet musicians when performing Dmitri Shostakovich's First Symphony. Technically, it is extremely difficult, and contains a musical sophistication that is quite staggering. The symphony was offered to the jury of the Leningrad Conservatory as his graduation exercise! Even today, the wealth of invention continues to amaze, more so when one recognizes that young Shostakovich's unique musical voice was already formed - a voice that continued to speak and develop in all his work, one representative of the essence of the gigantic struggles of the Soviet people.
This particular recording of the work is splendid. In fact, Jean Martinon and the London Symphony Orchestra present one of the finest renditions. Their personification of style, interpretation and ensemble are a trinity of near perfection. From the opening clarinet solo (Gervase de Peyer, perhaps?) to the closing orchestral fortissimos, the late fifties LSO shines gloriously. Strings have a beautiful golden sheen, woodwinds glow and brass resonate thrillingly. And the recording - simply spectacular! The Decca-sourced RCA displays Kingsway Hall to perfection, with its requisite Holborn/Aldwych "tube" rumble. By this account, London Transport were on time, the regular deep growling adding visceral pleasure to the audiophile need quotient.
As a filler, the Ballet Suite from The Age of Gold is representative of Shostakovich at his sarcastic best. The piquant orchestration is, again, performed with reckless abandon by the virtuosos of the London Symphony, with the famous oblique-styled Polka played especially well.
James Walker and Alan Reeve get the somewhat tricky acoustics of Kingsway just right. Imaging and the soundstage are exemplary, both adding to the splendor of the presentation. This is an example of what art as recorded sound should strive to be. A triumph for all participants.
Anthony Kershaw
You are bidding on TWO SINGLE sided 33 RPM discs containing the complete album. These special tests using only one side of the album are designed to result in improved fidelity.
Early 180 gram pressings such as these tend to be quieter and flatter than the current 200 gram pressings. As these rare test pressings are sealed or unplayed there is no way to guarantee that they are perfectly flat or perfectly quiet. They are offered "as is'.
Inside the jackets you will find 180 gram test pressing from RTI with labels very much like the one below.
This record came from a collection of test pressings previously owned by a well known tonearm maker. There are close to five hundred STILL SEALED LPs in the collection, some at 33 RPM, some at 45 RPM, some single sided, some double sided. Practically every title Classic Records had released up until about 1997 is in this collection, including recordings from RCA, Mercury, Epic, Rock The House, Verve, Colgems and many more.
My name is Tom Port. I also sell on Ebay under the name Humorem (2411 feedback rating, a member since 1998). I have been selling audiophile LPs and CDs for twenty years.
I started another "company" on Ebay called dccblowout because in 2002 I bought the remaining stock of DCC Compact Classics, the audiophile label that filed Chapter 11 in that year.
We have a website under that name where we sell the best sounding analog recordings in the world. If you are looking for the finest in audiophile sound, please visit our site.
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