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hobbyists's
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50 Years
Living Presence: 1951-2001
In Roman mythology Mercury
is the god of commerce, manual skill, of travel and thievery.
But he is also eloquent and is the bringer of tidings.
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The utmost
concentration is essential when mixing the 3 channels of the original
Mercury recording tapes to two channel stereo in order to achieve that
perfect stereo-balance and a real to life sound at all instances, at
all sounds. Because "real to life" means: dynamics that are
detailed and frequencies that are harmonious in all registers - as is
the case in the recording of 'Pictures at an Exhibition' played by pianist
Byron Janis on Mercury CD 434 346-2. PREPARATION It is a question of microphone placement, of choosing the right position of the instrument in the studio or concert hall and of using top quality tape recorders, playback amplifiers and monitor loudspeakers. But to mix the three channels down to two-channel-stereo while the master is being cut or when the signal is transferred to a DAT recorder while preparing the reissues for CD, that takes as great a skill as the initial transfer to records. Obviously Wilma Cozart Fine has the ability to concentrate in abundance. The Mercury CD with 'Pictures at an Exhibition' is the eminent proof. AUDIOPHILE Wilma Cozart
Fine: 'Not so long ago a dealer called and told me that he had some
trouble in selling a pair of Thiel high-end loudspeakers. The client
had been listening to all sorts of music but was unable to decide if
he would buy the speakers. Until the dealer played this CD and the client
went home with the speakers and the CD.' |
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NEW MIX In recent
years Wilma Cozart Fine has transferred over 200 Mercury tapes that
date back from the years when analogue recording was an art as well
as a science. She mixed the many legendary tapes to a DAT recorder from
which the CD-masters were made. EARLY EXPERIMENTS Wilma Cozart
Fine: "Bob handed the specifications to Ampex. You know, he was
a technician and an inventor. Already in 1955 he experimented and compared
the
quality of 2 and 3-track stereo. He said that only recordings made with
3 channels could provide a good stereo-image." |
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One of the earliest proofs of Bob Fine's stereo technique is on CD. It is Mercury 432 005-2 with Kodály's 'Hary Janos Suite', 'Dances of Galanta' and 'Maroszek Dances', and Bartok's 'Hungarian Sketches' and 'Roumanian Folk Dances', all performed by the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra conducted by Antal Dorati. The recording date: November 1956! (It was Robert Blake, Don Gabor's recording technician, already recorded in stereo for the Remington label in November 1953 with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra under Thor Johnson and with the Helsinki University Chorus; see the link on top of this page). RCA and English Decca (London) followed in 1954. However, Bob Fine's stereo recording is unique because of the use of three microphones and the specific placement to record the performance on three tracks (channels) in order to capture the original orchestral balance. UNIQUE So a stereo-recording is only then true to life if the sound stage is picked-up by three microphones. This means in case of an orchestra: one microphone for the left section, one for the right section and one for the players sitting right in the middle in front of you. DIGITAL RECORDINGS AND 3 MICROPHONES There are
technicians who try to use this basic set up in these modern days of
digital recording and conclude that the original 3-microphone set-up
has it flaws. They forget that digital formats are completely different
from analog. They forget or do not know that the digital format has
only 16 bits and is a linear format where close miking of all the instrumental
sections of an orchestra, A band or AN ensemble is imperative. Hence
they are forced to use more than the three channels as the Mercury team
did. Today they are likely to use 24 channels for large orchestral recordings
and meticulously have to adjust the sound balance. |
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The diagram shows the microphone setup and the 35 mm film sound recorder with 3 tracks. In the cutting room the various takes were spliced. Each recording had a minimum number of splices which makes the recording all the more natural. Nowadays, with the digital technique up to 400 (or even more) splices are not uncommon in a recorded symphony. (Diagram drawing by R.A.B.) |
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Note:
The drawing more or less indicates a Neumann lathe.
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'But
the CD's are closer to the masters, the original tapes, than the Lp's.'
That is certainly true for certain aspects of the sound. Many early stereo releases lacked the full dynamics and warmth of the monaural issues. We all know that this is true for all labels, classical, pop and jazz, in the beginning of the stereo era. That is why early stereos of the Riverside and Blue Note labels (and even of Contemporary) sound much better when skillfully remastered. The OJC catalog (Fantasy) showed this all too clearly. The first HiFi Stereo Philips recordings too do not have the appropriate dynamics, specifically in the lower register. That is why so many music lovers did not like the stereo Lp in the beginning too well. They knew that there was something wrong with the overall signal, even when big loudspeakers with large woofers were connected. It can be heard how strange for example a piano (an upright most of the time) sounded on Blue Note and on early Riverside discs. The CD (Pulse Code Modulation - PCM) format gives to these old recordings much better dynamics. And the original recording of Prokofiev's Fifth Symphony on Mercury can sound loud and sometimes aggressive (depending on the pressing) as the Mercury people never applied a correction, nor did they use limitters and filtering. The reissue has benefited from the digital format. Analog reissues on vinyl in recent years can, if carefully mastered, sometimes sound better than the original issue. MORE I
could have talked with Wilma Cozart Fine about many more subjects and
details.
For instance about their journey to Russia and the recordings they made there with Byron Janis and the ones for Philips with pianist Sviatoslav Richter, cellist Mstislav Rostropovich, conductor Kyril Kondrashin, conductor and violinist Rudolf Barshai, and pianist Vasso Devetzi. About conductor Antal Dorati, the pupil of Zoltan Kodály, about Dorati's Hungarian programs and the always and everywhere emerging 'Pictures at an Exhibition' on many different labels (on an early Philips Minigroove as well). About Frederic Fennell and the spectacular recordings of 'The Civil War', a sonic documentary about this dramatic and decisive episode in American history for which recordings authentic instruments were used (LPS2-901) with the Eastman Wind Ensemble conducted by Frederick Fennell, with Martin Gabel (narrator) and Gerald C. Stowe (military advisor). |
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NOTE: Before the mono recording of '1812' with Dorati was produced, Mercury had Tchaikovsky's '1812 Festival Overture' (Ouverture solennelle) and Richard Strauss's Don Juan in their catalogue, performed by the Concertgebouw Orchestra and conductor Willem Mengelberg: Mercury 15000. These were original Telefunken recordings and generally Telefunken was issued on Capitol. But as Irving Kolodin pointed out in 'The New Guide To Recorded Music' (Doubleday & Company, New York, 1950), Mercury had negotiated with Czech Ultraphone and obtained their rights for the same recording. We could
have talked about the French programs of Paul Paray. About how the valve
equipment was kept on the right temperature - when the recording van was
parked in a cold garage - in order to provide the same sound quality at
all times (tubes need at least one hour warming up time and a near constant
temperature to function well as we all know). About the financial success
and the decline of the label. About the jazz that also had a special sound
quality, but then different microphone placements were used. |
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Since 1954
Philips had an agreement with Columbia (CBS). Columbia-recordings were
released on the European continent by Philips and Philips-recordings
were released in the USA on the Epic label. When American Columbia and
British Columbia split up, Philips had access with the US Columbia recordings
on the UK market. MESSENGER In 1967
the last recording was made, Mercury Living Presence became history.
But after more than 35 years Wilma Cozart Fine gave new life to the
'Living Presence' recordings. FOOTNOTES 1.
Not Pictures at an Exhibition was the first classical Lp on the Mercury
label. The first release on the Mercury label was a 12" Lp with reference
number 10000. It contained the Russian recording of Khachaturian's Violin
Concerto played by David Oistrakh of which Bob Fine obtained the rights
in 1950. The technical quality is bad, but Bob Fine makes more than the
most of it. That was not the first time Oistrakh could be heard on record
in the United States and in this concerto. The same performance was
already available on 78's on the USSR-label according to 'The Gramophone
Shop Encyclopedia of Music', 1948 edition, New York. The conductor is
Alexander W. Gauk.
I own a set of this shellac-edition made in the former USSR, ref. 14151/2/3/4/5. Wilma Cozart Fine: 'You are the first person I meet who has these records.' 2.
The lacquers originally made for pressings by RCA bore the stamped initials
FR, in a later stadium other lacquers were made with handwritten matrix
numbers for pressings done by Columbia (CBFR) and lacquers were made for
the early Philips pressings in Europe (PFR). Numbers with prefix RFR were
of the Vendor Series. (The Columbia-pressings were generally of lesser
quality.)
(Continued
below.)
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Mercury's first classical release in the Olympian Series: Aram Khatchaturian's Violin Concerto performed by David Oistrakh and conductor Alexander Gauk, a recording which sometime later could be found on many different record labels. |
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Mercury had a license contract with EMI in Great Britain. Mercury 50000 was released in Great Britain on a 10" HMV in the fall of 1952. | |
| Apparently Mercury also bought ready recordings from other sources, like this performance of 'Das Klagende Lied' (Gustav Mahler) with conductor Zoltan Fekete and singers Ilona Steingruber (soprano), Sieglinde Wagner (contralto) and Ernst Majkut (tenor). In Great Britain it was not released as a Mercury but was issued on the Concert Artist label in April 1955. |
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Critics considered the Fekete Mercury recording as excellent. Maybe because of the optimization of the playback curve of the tape and the cutting of the lacquer. Note that on the right of the spindle hole is printed: Reeves-Fairchild Thermodynamic Margin Control. |
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In dynamic and complex passages the behavior of the cutter diamond is more intense and this raises the temperature which can be detected by a sensor to which the speed of the motor of the cutter head responds. This is an easier way to keep optimal land at adjacent positions of the groove. | |
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In
the early days recordings of the TONO label from Denmark were released
by Mercury in the US. At right the label and the cover of the TONO edition
of Beethoven's Sonata for Piano and Violin No. 9, "Kreutzer",
performed by Antoinette Wolf (piano) and Endre Wolf (violin). Reference
LPA 34001. The Mercury release from December 1952 had reference number
10120 and contained also Sonata No. 5 performed by the same artists.
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The Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, conductor Odd Grüner-Hegge with Alfred Maurstad (Peer Gynt), soprano Eva Prytz (Solvejg/Solveig), Gunvor Mjelva, Synnove Haugan and Randi Brandt Gundersen (the Saeter Girls), perform the Original Stage Version of Grieg's Peer Gynt: Recorded under the auspices of the Norwegian Performing Rights Society, originally released by TONO. As a Mercury release it is MG 10148. | |
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Benjamin Britten's 'Young Person's Guide To The Orchestra' and Tchaikovsky's most famous ballet 'The Nutcracker' were exquisitely enlightened by composer/musicologist Deems Taylor (cover not displayed here). At far left the British EMI pressing of the mono recording. He also explained the recording of the 1812 Festival Overture - Ouverture Solennelle (shown is the release by PYE in England of the 1956 recording). |
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In April 1978 Antal Dorati returned to his old neighborhood, Minnesota, to make his third recording of Tchaikovsky's Festival Overture, coupled with Capriccio Italien and Marche Slave, this time with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, and for English Decca (SXL 6895; London 7118), and featuring the Liberty Bell, Philadelphia, the bells of the National Cathedral, Washington DC, and an American Civil War cannon. | |
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Antal
Dorati recorded The Suite of Stravinsky's Firebird with the Minneapolis
Symphony on 18010, coupled with Borodin's Second Symphony.
Later the complete ballet was recorded in London and released on SR 90226. This performance is compelling even if you content yourself with a release from EMI in Great Britain or Germany, or a Philips-Fontana pressing, if you cannot acquire an original Mercury. |
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| Some of the releases of Mercury recordings by Philips on the Philips and Fontana labels can boast of matrixes cut by George Piros like the recordings of Gershwin's Concerto in F with Eugene List and Howard Hanson, and Brahms's Piano Concerto No. 2 with pianist Gina Bachauer and conductor Stanislaw Skrowaczewski. See also: Mercury Recordings on Fontana. |
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The Philips recordings of the Piano Concertos of Franz Liszt performed by Sviatoslav Richter and Kyril Kondrashin were made in London by the Mercury team: 835 474 HiFi-Stereo label, original first Dutch matrices which differ substantially from German HiFi-Stereo matrices. At left the first edition in its original cover. Mercury had already recorded these concertos with Byron Janis in Moscow for their own catalog, also a/o. with Kondrashin. At right the American Richter release pressed in Chicago by Mercury (PHS 900 000). |
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The
two Liszt concertos played by Richter were remastered for CD (446-200-2)
from the original 3-track master tapes
by Wilma Cozart Fine who, together with her husband Robert Fine and the
other members of the Mercury team, produced these outstanding recordings
in 1961 for Philips .
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| The Mercury recordings of the two Liszt concertos with Byron Janis were made in Moscow with the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Kyril Kondrashin and the Moscow Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Gennady Rozhdestvensky (SR 90329). |
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Another
recording made for the Philips label was with cellist Mstislav Rostropovich
and pianist Sviatoslav Richter playing Beethoven's Complete Sonatas for
Piano and Cello, first issued on the Philips HiFi Stereo label (835 182/83)
and later reissued using the same plates in the 839 Series (839 602/03).
At right the American release of the Sonatas in a double album with matrices
made by Mercury. Reference number of the set: PHS 2-920.
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The same performances of Beethoven's Complete Sonatas for Piano and Cello were also released in the Soviet Union on the Mk label (torch) on two discs: 013811/12/13/14 (mono). |
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Josph Szigeti was invited to record the Beethoven Concerto with Antal Dorati (SR 90358) and of course the Brahms (SR 90225) and also Prokofiev's No. 1 (SR 90419) with conductor Herbert Menges. The accompaniments for the old master are careful and sympathetic. | |
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of the most admired recordings of Byron Janis is his performance of Rachmaninoff's
3rd Concerto with the London Symphony conducted by Dorati (SR 90283). This
recording is also one of the most admired performances of "Rach's Third". The original Mercury covers had a colored back and additional notes explaining the technical ins and outs of each recording. |
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| Other outstanding recordings are those of Marcel Dupré at the organ of the Saint Sulpice in Paris, playing César Franck (SR 90168), Charles Widor (SR 90169), and five volumes of works by Johann Sebastian Bach (SR 90227/ 90228/ 90229/ 90230/ 90231). |
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| Yehudi Menuhin plays Bartok's Violin Concerto with the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra and Antal Dorati on SR 90003. The early American recordings in the SR 90000 Series had the Mercury logo in the upper left corner next to the STEREO lettering. |
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Although
it is known that the earliest pressings from matrices with prefix FR are
to be considered the best, in many cases it seems to be more important
to have a pressing with silent surfaces and no audible rumble. Dorati's
Beethoven 3rd (Eroica) in stereo pressed from FR plates suffers from a
lean lower register and some rumble caused by the drive of the cutting
lathe.
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A lean lower register is also a trait of many releases in the Golden Import Series. On the left Janos Starker, cello, is accompanied by pianist Georgy Seebok performing Bach's Sonatas for Violoncello and Piano, BWV 1027, 1028, 1029 on SRI 75104. |
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English pressing from EMI plates of Gershwin's Concerto in F and Rhapsody
in Blue with Eugene List and Howard Hanson conducting the Eastman-Orchestra,
EMI reference number AMS 16026 (originally SR 90002). The British Mercury releases were pressed from plates cut at a lower level. Also the English Mercury records are less dynamic. |
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Paul
Paray conducting Wilhelm Tell Overture, Dance Macabre, Invitation to the
Dance and Mephisto Waltz with the Detroit Symphony (SR 90203)
At right the cover of a Dutch Philips mono pressing of Stanislaw Skrowaczewski and the Minneapolis Symphony with Prokofiev's Suites from Romeo and Juliet (originally SR 90315). |
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Like
most labels, also Mercury issued 4 track tapes of many of their recordings.
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The
earliest recordings were made with conductor Rafael Kubelik and the Chicago
Symphony Orchestra: the famous recording of Mussorgsky's 'Pictures at
an Exhibition' with Adolph Harseth, trumpet (MG 50000), Bartok's 'Music
for Strings Percussion and Celesta' (MG 50001),
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Dvorak's
'New World' Symphony (MG 50002), Tchaikovsky's Fourth Symphony (MG 50003)
and 'Pathétique' (MG 50006), and Brahms's First Symphony (MG 50007).
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At left the gatefold cover of the British EMI release of the Mercury recording of Dvorak's New World Symphony Op. 95 by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Rafael Kubelik (ALP 1018). | |
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Antal
Dorati (Minneapolis Symphony), Paul Paray (Detroit Symphony Orchestra),
Howard Hanson (Eastman- Rochester Symphony Orchestra) and Frederick Fennell
(Eastman Symphonic Wind Ensemble) were the principal conductors who recorded
for Mercury.
At right the British release of MG 50143. |
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