Pre-Owned Brahms: Symphonies Nos. 1-4 (CD 0028943438025) by Minnesota Orchestra, Antal Doráti (conductor)

0028943438025. Pre-Owned: Good condition. CD. To a certain segment of classical music enthusiasts, purchase of this reissue will be (or already has been) a foregone action of some urgency. Why? In the late 1950s and early 60s Mercury Records produced a number of recordings hailed as landmarks in sound reproduction and mastering. To this day, some assert that Mercury's recording techniques of that era remain unsurpassed. They note the close-up clarity of the sonics and the naturalness of the soundstage. I remember my first hearing of Byron Janis playing Prokofiev's Third and Rachmaninov's First on a Mercury LP when it came out in the early 60s: the sound was spectacular, so vivid, so lifelife, so powerful. I wondered then why the other labels simply didn't copy Mercury's techniques and produce LPs of that impressive quality. Hearing these Brahms performances from December 1957 (No. 2), June 1959 (No. 1), and July 1963 (Nos. 3 and 4), one marvels still at the sonic properties--and also at the consistency of the readings by the late Antal Dorati.I...