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Mercury Living Presence

I have a few Mercury Living Presence label CDs. I've found I have an affinity for what I've heard on this label in terms of recording quality, in particular for the vintage of the original recordings. I was listening to the MLP recording of The Nutcracker recently and was semi blown away.

Does anyone else share my affinity for these recordings? Are they all equally well recorded? Which are the best?

What about the original vinyl recordings, which I have not heard. Are these any good?
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rushton's avatar
rushton
2,430 posts
 
Mercury has been one of the prized classical music recording labels since it's first monoraural release in the early '50s. Here are two articles that will give you a lot of the background about this label:

http://www.soundfountain.com/amb/mercury.html
http://microgroove.jp/mercury/LivingPresence.shtml

The original vinyl is highly prized by many collectors. Speakers Corner is in the process of reissuing much of the Mercury catalog on vinyl, and the results thus far have been outstanding.
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earthpulse
58 posts
 
I agree that they're quite sonically special. Try the Rachmaninoff Piano Concertos 2-3 with Byron Janis, exceptional performance.

The vinyl is equally, or even surpassingly good with the right kit.
chadnliz
3,736 posts
 
I like them, they are IMO dynamic but bright compared to many other high quality issues.
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