[ RCA Red Seal / 60 CD Box Set ]
Release Date: Monday 10 December 2012
Should this item be out of stock at the time of your order, we would expect to be able to supply it to you within 2 - 4 weeks.
AVAILABLE AGAIN FOR A LIMITED TIME!!
This 60-disc box set contains 60 original 'Living Stereo' recordings
This is the first time a comprehensive collection of these iconic recordings has been created.
Each album comes complete with its original LP artwork.
An extensive booklet is included with the liner notes from each original album.
Includes recordings by such great artists as Jascha Heifetz, Charles Munch, Fritz Reiner, Julian Bream, Leontyne Price and Arthur Rubinstein
Includes compete operas 'La Traviata' (Anna Moffo), 'Turandot' (Jussi Bjorling), 'Madama Butterfly' (Leontyne Price) & 'La Boheme' (Anna Moffo)
LIVING STEREO - THE HISTORY
On October 6, 1953, RCA held experimental stereophonic sessions in New York's Manhattan Center with Leopold Stokowski conducting a group of New York musicians in performances of Enesco's Roumanian Rhapsody No. 1 and the waltz from Tchaikovsky's opera Eugene Onegin. There were additional stereo tests in December, again in the Manhattan Center, this time with Pierre Monteux conducting members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. In February 1954, RCA made its first commercial stereophonic recordings, taping the Boston Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Charles Münch, in a performance of The Damnation of Faust by Hector Berlioz. This began a practice of simultaneously recording orchestras with both stereophonic and monaural equipment. Other early stereo recordings were made by Toscanini and Guido Cantelli respectively, with the NBC Symphony Orchestra; the Boston Pops Orchestra under Arthur Fiedler; and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under Fritz Reiner. Initially, RCA used RT-21 quarter-inch tape recorders (which ran at 30 inches per second), wired to mono mixers, with Neumann U-47 cardioid and M-49/50 omnidirectional microphones. Then they switched to an Ampex 300-3 one-half inch machine, running at 15 inches per second (which was later increased to 30 inches per second). These recordings were initially issued in 1955 on special stereophonic reel-to-reel tapes and then, beginning in 1958, on vinyl LPs with the logo 'Living Stereo'. Sony Music and successor companies have continued to reissue these recordings on CD. Another 1953 project for RCA was converting the acoustically superior building Webster Hall into its East Coast recording studio. It operated this studio venue from 1953 to 1968.
1 Various Living Stereo Sampler
2 MUNCH, CHARLES Saint-Saëns: Symphony No. 3; Debussy: La Mer; Ibert: Escales
3 MUNCH, CHARLES Ravel: Daphnis et Chloé
4 REINER, FRITZ Strauss: Also sprach Zarathustra; Ein Heldenleben
5 REINER, FRITZ Bartók: Concerto for Orchestra; Music for Strings, Percussion & Celesta; Hungarian Sketches
6 HEIFETZ, JASCHA Beethoven: Violin Concerto; Mendelssohn: Violin Concerto
7 CLIBURN, VAN Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No. 1; Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 2
8 FIEDLER, ARTHUR Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue; Concerto in F; An American in Paris; Variations on "I Got Rhythm"
9 REINER, FRITZ Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition
10 PRICE, LEONTYNE Leontyne Price: Arias
11 RUBINSTEIN, ARTHUR Chopin: Ballades & Scherzos
12 MONTEUX, PIERRE Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 6 "Pathétique"
13 GOULD, MORTON Brass & Percussion
14 HEIFETZ, JASCHA Sibelius, Prokofiev, Glazunov: Violin Concertos
15 & 16 Berlioz: Requiem
17 MUNCH, CHARLES Ravel: Boléro; La Valse; Rapsodie espagnole; Debussy: Images for Orchestra
18 PIATIGORSKY, GREGOR Dvorák; Walton: Cello Concertos
19 REINER, FRITZ Dvorák: New World Symphony
20 REINER, FRITZ Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade
21 RUBINSTEIN, ARTHUR Brahms: Piano Concerto No. 1
22 FIEDLER, ARTHUR Offenbach: Gaïté parisienne
23 CLIBURN, VAN Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 3; Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No. 3
24 FIEDLER, ARTHUR Hi-Fi Fiedler
25 HEIFETZ, JASCHA Brahms; Tchaikovsky: Violin Concertos
26 MONTEUX, PIERRE Franck: Symphony in D Minor; Stravinsky: Petrouchka
27 MUNCH, CHARLES Beethoven: Symphonies Nos. 5 & 6
28 MUNCH, CHARLES Berlioz: Symphonie Fantastique; Love Scene From Romeo & Juliet
29 REINER, FRITZ Strauss: Scenes from Elektra & Salome
30 REINER, FRITZ Mahler: Symphony No. 4
31 RUBINSTEIN, ARTHUR Chopin: Piano Concertos
32 STOKOWSKI, LEOPOLD Rhapsodies
33 GOULD, MORTON Copland: Billy The Kid & Rodeo; Grofe: Grand Canyon Suite
34 MOFFO, ANNA Arias from Faust; La Bohème; Dinorah; Carmen; Turandot; Semiramide; Lakmé
35 REINER, FRITZ Respighi: Pines Of Rome; Fountains Of Rome & Debussy: La Mer
36 REINER, FRITZ Vienna
37 MUNCH, CHARLES Mendelssohn: Symphonies Nos. 4 & 5; Octet: Scherzo
38 FIEDLER, ARTHUR Pops Caviar
39 RUBINSTEIN, ARTHUR Beethoven: Sonatas (Moonlight; Les Adieux; Pathetique; Appassionata)
40 HEIFETZ, JASCHA Bruch: Violin Concerto No. 1; Scottish Fantasy & Vieuxtemps: Violin Concerto No. 5
41 LANZA, MARIO Mario! Lanza At His Best; Vagabond King Highlights
42 FOX, VIRGIL Encores
43 & 44 Puccini: La Bohëme
45 & 46 Puccini: Madama Butterfly
47 & 48 Verdi: La Traviata
49 & 50 Puccini: Turandot
51 MUNCH, CHARLES Schubert: Symphonies "The Great" & "Unfinished"
52 REINER, FRITZ Strauss: Don Quixote & Don Juan
53 HEIFETZ, JASCHA Bach: Concerto for Two Violins in D Minor
54 BREAM, JULIAN Popular Classics for Spanish Guitar
55 PRICE, LEONTYNE Albeniz: Navarra, Iberia; Falla: El amor
56 RUBINSTEIN, ARTHUR Saint-Saens: Piano Concerto No. 2; Franck: Symphonic Variations; Liszt: Piano Concerto No. 1
57 MUNCH, CHARLES Berlioz: Harold In Italy; The Roman Carnival Overture; Benvenuto Cellini Overture; Le Corsaire Overture; Beatrice Et Benedict Overture
58 REINER, FRITZ Mahler: Das Lied Von Der Erde
59 REINER, FRITZ Strauss: Symphonia Domestica; Suite From Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme
60 CLIBURN, VAN Schumann: Piano Concerto In A minor; Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 5, Op. 73 "Emperor"