Fritz Reiner Rimsky-Korsakov Scheherazade 180g 45rpm 2LP

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RCA Living Stereo classical LPs - the gold standard for top quality orchestral performance and sound!

The jewel in the Living Stereo crown. Enchantment awaits within! Fritz Reiner and the Chicago Symphony convey the listener on a magic carpet of Living Stereo sound to mythic Arabia and China, guided by two of Russia's greatest orchestral masters.

This, like the Respighi, is considered one of the very best recordings by Reiner, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and RCA's crew. A disc of supple and sensuous performances, the sound alternately shimmers and stuns with the clarity of its definition and intensity of its climaxes.

Reiner's reading of Scheherazade is the pinnacle of grace, precision, delicacy, and drama, and it's no wonder it commands the highest prices in the market for used shaded dogs. The late Harry Pearson once told me that he could learn anything he needed to know about an audio component by playing the final movement of this recording... When I spun them [Analogue Productions RCA Living Stereo 200g 33 1/3rpm LP reissues], I was floored. After comparing them to early shaded-dog pressings of the same recordings, I felt the only area in which the originals were still superior was the subtle, additional layer of air and sparkle in the highs (master-tape age, perhaps?). But the reissues' quality and extension of bass and high-level dynamic contrasts were superior. And the surfaces of the new pressings are so quiet they let each subtle midrange detail emerge from a 'black' background. At times, the background is so silent I have to do a double take to verify that the needle is still in the groove and the platter is still turning.