LSC 2322-45 – Age of Gold Ballet Suite-Classic Records-180g 4 LP Set - Last Copy

$

125

LSC 2322-45* – Age of Gold Ballet Suite - Classic Records 180g 4 LP Set - Still Sealed

LAST COPY!

Early, highly-accessible and dramatic Shostakovich composition. One of Decca's best Kingsway Hall recordings. A powerful and dynamic performance.  Four single-sided 45-rpm discs.  This title was mastered directly from the two track analog master tapes that were on the machine at the recording at the famed Kingsway Hall in London where many of the greatest Decca recordings were made.  Tony Hawkins, the legendary Decca "Transcription Engineer" flew over at Classic Records expense in the Fall of 1995 with the tapes for the mastering sessions at Bernie Grundman Mastering in Hollywood.  Hawkins would oversee many of the Decca/RCA mastering sessions over the early years of Classic Records.

(from Anthony Kershaw’s site) –

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.

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.

*45 rpm records have long been recognized as providing a higher fidelity musical experience resulting purely from the cartridge being able to extract more of the nuance from the complex vertical and horizontal groove modulations in stereo LP’s. Further, Classic Records 45 rpm “single sided” pressings dramatically reduce the mechanical resonances created by the cartridge during playback by allowing these resonances to be more fully transmitted to and absorbed by the turntable platter.  Classic Records Clarity Vinyl 45 rpm pressings are designed and manufactured to provide the “LOWEST DISTORTION” in every aspect of LP playback resulting in putting the listener as close to the music as possible.  With only a handful of  copies of this definitive reissue left, don't hesitate before the price on the secondary market skyrockets!

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