OLD WINE, NEW BOTTLES

posted by James Reel

    RCA is reissuing many of its old Living Stereo recordings in high-resolution SACD format, sounding better than ever (even better than the original LPs—no surface noise). I review several of the latest items in the latest issue of Fanfare; two of the reviews are online. Of Artur Rubinstein’s treatment of the Chopin piano concertos, I note, “His stereo RCA recordings of Chopin were always elegant and poetic, aptly expressive without being either under-characterized or willful.” Let me also call your attention to a fine Mahler recording by a conductor not generally associated with Mahler, Fritz Reiner. It’s “a brisk, unsentimental rendition of Mahler’s pseudo-Classical [fourth] symphony, incisively played and spectacularly executed.”