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Antal Doráti: The Mercury Masters – The Mono Recordings (31CD)

    Antal Doráti: The Mercury Masters – The Mono Recordings (31CD)

    ARTISTS: 
    Antal Doráti,  
    Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra
    $173.99
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    A tour de force of thrilling orchestral playing and brilliant audio engineering, Antal Doráti’s mono recordings are collected for the first time. Newly remastered, this collection comprehensively documents a golden era in American classical recording and most of these vividly-characterized recordings appear on CD for the first time.

    “has to be heard to be believed … is it possible to exceed this in the art of reproduced sound?” The New Records

    MORE INFORMATION

    The Hungarian conductor Antal Doráti joined the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra as its music director in 1949, and immediately began making it into one of the orchestral powerhouses of the post-war United States. Mercury began recording the ensemble in 1952 and continued to do so until his departure in 1960. Doráti’s 51 albums (24 mono, 27 stereo) are a testament to what he achieved with the orchestra during his eleven years there. They reveal a musical personality centred on dynamism, intensity, and an exceptional ability to persuasively articulate rhythms.

    Eloquence presents the most complete ever reissue of the Doráti/Minneapolis legacy in two ‘original jackets’ boxes, faithfully representing the contents of the albums as they were first issued. New remastering made or supervised by Thomas Fine, son of Mercury’s long-time chief engineer and producer, as well as original remastering for CD by Wilma Cozart Fine, bring this legacy to life as never before. Thomas Fine contributes a ‘sessionography’ to each box detailing the technical facets of the Mercury Living Presence recordings, and Dennis D. Rooney is the author of authoritative booklet notes surveying the history of the partnership on record as well as his personal memoirs of the period.

    The mono box begins with a blistering Firebird Suite of Stravinsky and ends with a contemporary Hungarian pairing of unrivalled idiomatic flair, brilliance (Kodály’s Peacock Variations) and lurid, controlled violence (Bartók’s Miraculous Mandarin). Further highlights include the three Tchaikovsky ballets, in versions that quickly became gramophone classics and ‘library choices’ and stayed that way for decades.

    Tracklist

    `CD 1
    BORODIN: Symphony No. 2*
    STRAVINSKY: L’Oiseau de feu – Suite
    *FIRST RELEASE ON CD

    CD 2
    BERLIOZ: Le Carnaval romain
    RAVEL: Pavane; Alborada del gracioso
    DEBUSSY: Nocturnes
    FIRST RELEASE ON CD

    CD 3
    TCHAIKOVSKY: Symphony No. 5
    FIRST RELEASE ON CD

    CD 4
    RIMSKY-KORSAKOV: Scheherazade
    FIRST RELEASE ON CD

    CD 5
    MENDELSSOHN: Symphony No. 4 ‘Italian’
    MOZART: Symphony No. 40
    FIRST RELEASE ON CD

    CD 6
    RESPIGHI: Pini di Roma; Fontane di Roma
    FIRST RELEASE ON CD

    CD 7
    R. STRAUSS: Ein Heldenleben
    FIRST RELEASE ON CD

    CD 8
    GERSHWIN (arr. Russell Bennett): Porgy and Bess (A Symphonic Picture)
    GOULD: Spirituals in Five Movements
    FIRST RELEASE ON CD

    CD 9
    BEETHOVEN: Symphony No. 5; Overtures – Egmont; Coriolan; Leonore No. 3
    FIRST RELEASE ON CD

    CD 10
    COPLAND: Symphony No. 3

    CD 11
    JOHANN STRAUSS II: Waltzes
    FIRST RELEASE ON CD

    CD 12
    STRAVINSKY: Le Sacre du printemps
    FIRST RELEASE ON CD

    CD 13
    TCHAIKOVSKY: The Nutcracker
    FIRST RELEASE ON CD

    CD 14
    BARTÓK: Concerto for Orchestra
    FIRST RELEASE ON CD

    CD 15
    BERLIOZ: Symphonie fantastique
    FIRST RELEASE ON CD

    CD 16
    RAVEL: Daphnis et Chloé
    FIRST RELEASE ON CD

    CD 17
    RESPIGHI: Feste Romane; Vetrate di Chiesa

    CD 18
    GINASTERA: Variaciones concertantes
    BRITTEN: The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra

    CDs 19–20
    TCHAIKOVSKY: Swan Lake

    CD 21
    TCHAIKOVSKY: 1812 Overture (including spoken commentary); Capriccio italien
    Deems Taylor (narrator)

    CD 22
    BRITTEN: The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra
    TCHAIKOVSKY: Nutcracker Suite
    Deems Taylor (narrator)
    FIRST RELEASE ON CD

    CD 23
    STRAVINSKY: Petrouchka (Version 1947)
    FIRST RELEASE ON CD

    CD 24–26
    TCHAIKOVSKY The Sleeping Beauty
    FIRST RELEASE ON CD

    CD 27
    BRAHMS: Symphony No. 3; Academic Festival Overture; Tragic Overture (mono and stereo versions)
    FIRST RELEASE ON CD

    CD 28
    BEETHOVEN: Symphonies Nos. 4 & 8
    FIRST RELEASE ON CD

    CD 29
    STORIES WITH MUSIC
    TCHAIKOVSKY: The Story of the Nutcracker Prince;
    The Story of the Twelve Dancing Princesses
    R. STRAUSS: The Story of Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks
    Jerry Terheyden (narrator)
    FIRST RELEASE ON CD

    CD 30
    SCHUBERT: Symphony No. 8 ‘Unfinished’
    TCHAIKOVSKY: Romeo and Juliet
    Chicago Symphony Orchestra
    FIRST RELEASE ON CD

    CD 31
    KODÁLY: Peacock Variations
    BARTÓK: The Miraculous Mandarin – Suite
    Chicago Symphony Orchestra

    Details

    Artist
    Antal Doráti, Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra
    Release Date
    May 26, 2023
    Genre
    Classical
    Label
    Mercury UK
    UPC
    0028948440641