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I am going to play all my RCA Living Stereo LPs...

All right, we have gotten through the Rubinsteins, and now...

...we are back to the real shaded dogs, that have the golden-age RCA sound that everyone is looking for.

LSC-2129.jpg


This one is a greatly underrated recording that has not been reissued by any of the reissue labels. It's got the great playing of the Boston Symphony players under the Boston Pops label, the underrated conducting of Fiedler, and sparkling sound that jumps out of the speakers. The only problem is that my copy is full of ticks and pops - I really need a better one.

Highly recommended, and not expensive when found.
 
Now here is one of the great ones.....

...although some find fault with the sound balances.

LSC-2130.jpg


Yes, the violin is gigantic, but this is a virtuoso concerto. Heifetz gives a riveting performance, and you can hear the quality of the orchestra in the woodwind and brass playing. Reiner gives a very disciplined reading of the score, as you would expect.

This record is rather common, and well worth picking up if you can find a clean copy.
 
vinyl1 said:
...although some find fault with the sound balances.

LSC-2130.jpg


Yes, the violin is gigantic, but this is a virtuoso concerto. Heifetz gives a riveting performance, and you can hear the quality of the orchestra in the woodwind and brass playing. Reiner gives a very disciplined reading of the score, as you would expect.

This record is rather common, and well worth picking up if you can find a clean copy.
Click to expand...

A great recording! :thmbsp:
 
To continue.....

...we come up to a mixed bag, followed by some of the top RCA shaded dogs.

LSC-2130-1.jpg


This one is a nice enough record, but the music and playing are not going to win any awards. The soundstage is small but the strings are sweet. This is the sort of thing you would pick up if you saw it in the $1 box, which is where my copy came from.
 
This one, too, gets a mixed review:

LSC-2131.jpg


The performance is quite good - Munch was a French music specialist, and the Boston was a fine orchestra. However, the recording, although detailed, lacks some of the power it needs for the climaxes.

I never really cared much for this work, so perhaps I am a poor judge. This recording was not very popular compared to Monteux's version, which we will come to if I ever reach the 2500s.
 
vinyl1 said:
This one, too, gets a mixed review:

LSC-2131.jpg


The performance is quite good - Munch was a French music specialist, and the Boston was a fine orchestra. However, the recording, although detailed, lacks some of the power it needs for the climaxes.

I never really cared much for this work, so perhaps I am a poor judge. This recording was not very popular compared to Monteux's version, which we will come to if I ever reach the 2500s.
Click to expand...

Do you own every LSC title?
 
vinyl1 said:
This one, too, gets a mixed review:

LSC-2131.jpg


The performance is quite good - Munch was a French music specialist, and the Boston was a fine orchestra. However, the recording, although detailed, lacks some of the power it needs for the climaxes.

I never really cared much for this work, so perhaps I am a poor judge. This recording was not very popular compared to Monteux's version, which we will come to if I ever reach the 2500s.
Click to expand...


Most of the Red Seal copies of Munch's Franck D Minor are mono; the Victrola budget-priced release is also uncommon. The stereo version sounds strange; the brass gets harsh when loud. This didn't get fixed until digital remastering for CD issue.
 
vinyl1 said:
This one, too, gets a mixed review:

LSC-2131.jpg


The performance is quite good - Munch was a French music specialist, and the Boston was a fine orchestra. However, the recording, although detailed, lacks some of the power it needs for the climaxes.

I never really cared much for this work, so perhaps I am a poor judge. This recording was not very popular compared to Monteux's version, which we will come to if I ever reach the 2500s.
Click to expand...

I agree about the sonic qualities reservations. My opinion is that the digital release of this recording finally made some justice to its fantastic music qualities.

BTW, I see a Benz Micro cart. What is your TT , cart and associated electronics in the picture?
 
Now here is a semi-great one...

....with great sound, but relatively minor-league music:

LSC-2134.jpg


This is the first recording made by Decca for RCA under their alliance contract. Recorded at Kingsway Hall by Decca engineers, these light overtures have plenty of zing and dynamic punch. Conductor Raymond Agoult was a specialist in proms-type music who knew how to whip up light overtures with plenty of brass and drums.

The vintage RCA mastering holds the dynamics back a little, with side 2 on my Rockway copy being distinctly better than side 1. If someone like George Piros had been sitting at the lathe, this might have been really something. The Classic Records reissue, which I have never heard, is probably punchier as well.

The cover shown here is the 'squares' cover, which seems to have been used by RCA for early releases when the artwork they had ordered was late. It was used for several LPs, in each case subsequently replaced by the a more spectacular cover.
 
OK, the first two I don't have, LSC-2139, Christmas Songs, and LSC-2147, Schubert Trout Quintet.

If you're guessing I haven't looked very hard for LSC-2139, you're right. On the other hand, LSC-2147 is a great record, but it is very rare because it was only issued in stereo in tiny quantities in 1964, at the very end of the shaded dog era. Even the white dog pressings aren't common, and this usually goes for big $$. I'd love to have one, but just haven't been lucky enough to get one.

The mono, of course, is quite common, but this is a Living STEREO thread.
 
Now for one of the all-time greats....

...from the Living Stereo catalog:

LSC-2150.jpg


This one has it all, great sound, great performance, interesting music. I had not played the Stravinsky side much, but the work is excellent and Reiner turns out to have been a fine conductor for this music - I would have liked to have heard him do the Firebird. The Prokofiev is a truly classic performance, tightly controlled with beautiful woodwind playing.

One notable thing about this record is that it stayed in print forever, and even the paper-thin Dynaflex copies from the seventies have astounding sound quality. If you see one in the dollar bin, buy it.
 
I must admit to bypassing this thread for some time now. Have now gone through it and must look over my collection purchased some time ago at an estate sale.........an audiophile collector of both RCA & Columbia Masterworks classical music. At this point organized by label and at least in numerical order. Will check back in with a listing of what is at this end of the world.
 
I collect the Columbia Masterworks and never considered the RCA Living Stereo. But you've got me thinking I might set the alarm and hit the thrifts tomorrow.
 
vinyl1 said:
This thread is temporarily suspended while my phone stage is being repaired. The next records are queued up by the audio rack, but right now the CDs are all that can be heard.
Click to expand...

I just started reading this thread, and perhaps the answer to my question is later. My school record library has around 6,000 records and many of these are there. I'm a big Chicago/Reiner fan and have most of those myself. A quick search showed many of the others in our library, so I'll have to start listening.

So your mention of CDs prompts this question: Do you have any of these on CD, and what differences do you hear? (and I'm definitely NOT after a debate on which is better, just what you hear differently)

I've seen box sets of these now, as well as Mercury Living Presence. I have many of those also, but I'm more familiar with the CD versions. Currently my listening room doesn't have a turntable set up (it's a Thorens TD-124 with Dynavector bottom end cart... room is being remodeled).

So for those that know vinyl best, what differences do you hear when you listen to the CD?

PS This is a GREAT thread. Thanks for doing it. I don't stop by this forum much and that's gonna have to change.....
 
tromba said:
So your mention of CDs prompts this question: Do you have any of these on CD, and what differences do you hear? (and I'm definitely NOT after a debate on which is better, just what you hear differently)
Click to expand...

No, I don't personally listen to performances that are on CD when they are available on vinyl.

RCA did issue a lot of these performances on SACD, some of them in the original three-channel versions. These are worth listening to if you want a digital version, but they will not sound like the vinyl. The vinyl was specifically equalized for LP at the time the series was mastered, and the tapes were fresh and the equipment in the chain was all-tube.

The closest anyone has come to the original sound was the Chesky vinyl reissues from the early 90s. They are fine reissues, and much easier to find in clean condition than the originals. But there were only a limited number of titles.
 
Here is another very fine one....

....that you don't often see:

LSC-2177.jpg


The orchestral playing is beautiful, and both the strings and the woodwinds are quite realistic. There is not much bass, but you can't have everything. Monteux is a great conductor for this type of music.


My copy is in great condition, it's like playing a new record from 1960.
 
Here's another one of the great ones...

LSC-2183.jpg


...with beautiful playing and sound.

I always thought it was strange for RCA to highlight Reiner's talents with such subtle and difficult music, rather than something like Dvorak or Bartok. The woodwinds are truly out of this world, and the recording has tremendous micro-dyamics. Although there were a fair number of pressings, this one is rather rare and hard to find.
 
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