Everyone have their RCA LIVING STEREO SACDs yet? Better grab 'em! Leontyne Price...

I've had Boheme & Traviata on my Amazon wish list for a few years. Still hoping to get them for a good price.

 

Good luck with that.

 

I know this doesn't make your search any easier but those are some of the best Living Stereo SACDs.

 

I was able to snag sealed copies of both on eBay this year for $18 to $24 each, which is a good price considering both are 2-disc sets. So check eBay. I think you can do pretty well there.

 

Yep, That's about the going rate when they are at normal auction and not much more than when they were new. The Buy-It-Now prices on eBay and Amazon Seller prices are not realistic. Like most physical media the cost will drop even further, demand is low on these, the key is patience.

La Boheme in my opinion is an excellent performance, maybe even one for the ages. My feeling is the Living Stereo La Traviata is more for a completist. Perhaps I feel that way as I'm more of a Puccini fan...?

 

Are any of this series available at deepdiscount.com or importcds.com? I see some still at Amazon. I have maybe 20, but thought I'd grab any still available cheaply during one of the sales if I could. I just don't seem to be able to find any I've searched for at the above retailers. I do still see some at Amazon, and not just from third party resellers.

 

https://www.deepdiscount.com/search?mod=AC&ft=SACD&lb=RCA

 

Thanks! I don't know why I wasn't finding any. Guess I'm just not good at searching for classical.

 

Barnes & Noble used to heavily carry this line. You might want to check their website. I'm not sure if they still run their annual classical sale, these were always discounted during it at Barnes & Noble.

 

I think that sale is end of August into the start of September if I recall.

 

So as to not derail the OP's Beethoven 9th thread on mastering details I'll continue the discussion @ricks and I were having in another thread. @ricks (or I see @rjstauber also discussed this disc earlier in the thread) do you mind posting the mastering details on the poor sounding Charles Munch Beethoven 9th CD you have? Or maybe even a small sample?

I'm at my other place until midweek, I will give this another listen and post the details from the Charles Munch box. I have to agree with Roland that this is not one of RCA's better recordings and I hear a flat stereo stage (like you would get with speakers close against the front wall) on a few of their very early stereo recordings, but I still think this sounds ok and I certainly prefer hearing this in stereo over mono. It is just not up to the lofty standards that RCA set with the stereo recordings discussed with these BMG SACDs.

 

Seeing your post for first time today. Have to find where I stored the disc. If-when I do will post some samples.

For new collectors; A word about the Bream Spanish Guitar SACD, I feel it's the worst of the lot. It has defects on it not present on the 90's CD and just sounds off overall. For much better sound quality go for the 90's Living Stereo CD instead.

 

Sounds good, I didn't listen to that Munch Beethoven 9 since making that post

Here are the mastering credits from the booklet from the box set "Charles Munch The Complete RCA Album Collection" (this pertains specifically to the Beethoven 9th CD)- transferred from the original analog tapes by Brett Zinn, Iron Mountain Digital Studios, mixed and mastered by Martin Kistner, Hansjorg Seiler & Matthias Erb, b-sharp Music and Media Solutions using 24/192 technology.

I was streaming Nelsons' Beethoven 9 recently so I'm not really in the mood to hear this again. If you want some times from movements where we could coordinate so our samples match up I can do that too, maybe some passages that go from forte to fortissimo or where you hear clipping? Will get some waveforms up as well. This will take me a day or two.

 

I complete my collection of all 54 this summer. The opera discs were hard to find. La Traviata cost me $42 in like new condition. It took me a year to find one for that price that wasn’t a cut-out!

 

I found this to be true on several of these, but kept it to myself as I was known as a heretic of sorts, gathering the ire and wrath of many a decade ago.

 

Which album are you referring to?

 

Great idea! Sunday is a good day to hear Leontyne Price! I'll have to spin the vinyl though, no disc player at the moment.

 

Understood. I have the entire series. Great suggestion for a Sunday night. Thanks, Steve.

 

I purchased quite a few. My first purchased disc of the series blew me away with the sound and performance of Van Cliburn. It seemed this album was in the home of my parents friends and relatives, including mine.
BTW, I still have the copy of the one at home as a kid. No wonder I later found out that is was a tremendous classical album hit!

"Cliburn's recording of the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1 went platinum. That was the first million-selling classical album in chart history."

Remembering Van Cliburn, A Giant Among Pianists And A Cold War Idol

 

Listening to this one again...still a wonderful sonic experience.

 

Indeed and I like the coupling of "Song of the Nightingale" on this issue as well.