Below find an idiosyncratic listing of vinyl recordings that
I think have outstanding sound.
I hope I did not include any inferior performances. Performance was a
secondary consideration, because, even if I had had confidence in
myself as a music critic, that I do not, I lack resources for adequate
ie. complete comparison.
My choice is not representative. I have preferences and blind spots
amongst composers.
The listings are not in alphabetical or any other order.
1) Vaughan Williams Symphony # 9 on Everest (35 mm. film)
I have not heard any of the 35mm film Everests that did not have
superior sound. I have no idea why this technique was never widely
used and appears to have been completely abandoned. (Everest gave it up
first)
2) Renata Tarrago Guitar music of Torroba and Rodrigo. On Odyssey (CBS)

Guitar sound for people who don't care for guitar sound. Same goes for
"Segovia plays Bach" on "Fidelity" label if you ever find it
3) I loved IsaacStern (L.Bernstein conducting and not ruinining it) in
Beethoven's "Violin Concerto" on Columbia.
Of the performances of this old standby that I heard this is the one
to own.
And now for something completely different:
4) Rachmaninoff's "Symphonic poem" played by the Philadelphia Orch.
5) Busoni's Piano Concerto played by John Ogdon on Angel
(Busoni, Nielsen and Janacek are my candidates for underappreciated
composers. Brahms and Mahler on the other hand...)
6) Last but not least a relatively easy to find choice; Ravel in the
ridiculously named "Great Men of Music" Time/Life series-
representative selection of Ravel's music in good performing hands and
mostly excellent sound..
Many of these LPs were bought in the bargain basement, used property
stores for pennies. And they don't make them like this any more.
I append the account of the backgrounf for my selections..


Audiophilia was born together with
"high-fidelity".
Both terms referred to the pursuit of excellence
in music recording.
Fidelity meant reproduction as close to the
original, live musical experience as humanly possible.
It coincided with many advances in music
reproduction: belted turntables, light-weight cartridges and jewel
needles, higher powered, better designed amps such as the early tube
Dynacos, speakers such as early ARs and ELS Quads. Then stereo was
invented to give the listener at home the semblance of natural
speciousness of the orchestral performance
The ideal has not and probably never will be
reached. In the meantime experimentation targeting the audiophiles
continues bypassing those who believe that the target has been reached
because they never felt the need for anything better than what they
already have.
Whatever that is.
And the target is excellence in sound imitating
life not "I have the most expensive". The two don't always go together
except in the minds of the vulgarisers.

Lately the assertion that fidelity means faithful
reproduction of the masters produced by the sound engineer. has been
gaining ground. I think that when the term was born it was assumed as
self evident that the engineer also wanted to make flutes sound like
flutes and violins like violins not like chalk misfiring on the
blackboard.
That was long ago when Blumlein's two microphone
setup was State of the Recording Art, before the two mikes began having
grandchildren and before electronic gadgetry tempted some audio
engineers to try and go one better on the artist and the composer.
Ludovic Mirabel

In article .com,
" wrote:

Below find an idiosyncratic listing of vinyl recordings that
I think have outstanding sound.
I hope I did not include any inferior performances. Performance was a
secondary consideration, because, even if I had had confidence in
myself as a music critic, that I do not, I lack resources for adequate
ie. complete comparison.
My choice is not representative. I have preferences and blind spots
amongst composers.
The listings are not in alphabetical or any other order.
1) Vaughan Williams Symphony # 9 on Everest (35 mm. film)
I have not heard any of the 35mm film Everests that did not have
superior sound. I have no idea why this technique was never widely
used and appears to have been completely abandoned. (Everest gave it up
first)
2) Renata Tarrago Guitar music of Torroba and Rodrigo. On Odyssey (CBS)

Guitar sound for people who don't care for guitar sound. Same goes for
"Segovia plays Bach" on "Fidelity" label if you ever find it
3) I loved IsaacStern (L.Bernstein conducting and not ruinining it) in
Beethoven's "Violin Concerto" on Columbia.
Of the performances of this old standby that I heard this is the one
to own.
And now for something completely different:
4) Rachmaninoff's "Symphonic poem" played by the Philadelphia Orch.
5) Busoni's Piano Concerto played by John Ogdon on Angel
(Busoni, Nielsen and Janacek are my candidates for underappreciated
composers. Brahms and Mahler on the other hand...)
6) Last but not least a relatively easy to find choice; Ravel in the
ridiculously named "Great Men of Music" Time/Life series-
representative selection of Ravel's music in good performing hands and
mostly excellent sound..
Many of these LPs were bought in the bargain basement, used property
stores for pennies. And they don't make them like this any more.
I append the account of the backgrounf for my selections..


Audiophilia was born together with
"high-fidelity".
Both terms referred to the pursuit of excellence
in music recording.
Fidelity meant reproduction as close to the
original, live musical experience as humanly possible.
It coincided with many advances in music
reproduction: belted turntables, light-weight cartridges and jewel
needles, higher powered, better designed amps such as the early tube
Dynacos, speakers such as early ARs and ELS Quads. Then stereo was
invented to give the listener at home the semblance of natural
speciousness of the orchestral performance
The ideal has not and probably never will be
reached. In the meantime experimentation targeting the audiophiles
continues bypassing those who believe that the target has been reached
because they never felt the need for anything better than what they
already have.
Whatever that is.
And the target is excellence in sound imitating
life not "I have the most expensive". The two don't always go together
except in the minds of the vulgarisers.

Lately the assertion that fidelity means faithful
reproduction of the masters produced by the sound engineer. has been
gaining ground. I think that when the term was born it was assumed as
self evident that the engineer also wanted to make flutes sound like
flutes and violins like violins not like chalk misfiring on the
blackboard.
That was long ago when Blumlein's two microphone
setup was State of the Recording Art, before the two mikes began having
grandchildren and before electronic gadgetry tempted some audio
engineers to try and go one better on the artist and the composer.
Ludovic Mirabel

Except for the Beethoven/Stern selection I don't know the recordings
that you've recommended (I agree with the Beethoven recommendation), but
on everything else, I very agree with you here.

In article .com,
" wrote:

5) Busoni's Piano Concerto played by John Ogdon on Angel
(Busoni, Nielsen and Janacek are my candidates for underappreciated
composers. Brahms and Mahler on the other hand...)

I might have this one somewhere. It's not a piece I listen to often, and
it's easier to find Ohlsson on a Telarc cd.

Stephen