RCA's Golden Age was a scant period, roughly from 1958 to 1963, the beginning of the Stereo era. Pure vacuum tube amplification helped produce recordings demonstrating unparalleled fidelity and warmth, lifelike presence and midband illumination. Analogue Productions RCA Living Stereo Reissue Series, with newly remastered mainstay classical albums, will delight and astound your ears!

• Limited Edition
• 33rpm 200 Gram Audiophile Vinyl
• Cut from Original Analog Master Tapes
• Pressed at Quality Record Pressings QRP USA
• Lacquers plated by Gary Salstrom
• Mastered by Ryan K. Smith at Sterling Sound
• Deluxe "tip-on" Cover by Stoughton Printing

RCA's "golden age" was more like a "golden minute" - in a scant period, roughly from 1958 to 1963, the beginning of the stereo era - pure vacuum tube amplification helped produce recordings demonstrating unparalleled fidelity and warmth, lifelike presence and midband illumination.

Analogue Productions' RCA Living Stereo Reissue Series No. 1, with 25 newly remastered mainstay classical albums, will delight and astound your ears with their clarity and warm, rich tone. With our first highly-regarded LSC series, shortcomings of previous editions have been improved upon — from the mastering, to the LP pressing, to the sharp-looking glossy heavyweight Stoughton Printing tip-on jackets that faithfully duplicate the original artwork, "Living Stereo" logo, "Shaded Dog" label and all!

Mastered by Ryan K. Smith at Sterling Sound from the original 2-track master tapes, cut at 33 1/3, and plated and pressed at Quality Record Pressings — makers of the world's finest-sounding vinyl LPs, — no other editions match these for the quietest 200-gram platters available. Note that we've also expanded this reissue to include a Stoughton Printing tip-on gatefold jacket with additional photos - a luxurious upgrade from the original single pocket jacket.

"These records are definitive." — Michael Fremer, Analog Planet

"These are the best vinyl releases of RCA LPs I've yet heard." — Jonathan Valin, executive editor, The Absolute Sound

One of the most popular and successful pieces of music written for piano. This album also has the benefit of being one of the best sounding LPs ever made. Side 2 is a very fine Nights In The Gardens Of Spain.

Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody was composed during a sojourn in Switzerland during the summer of 1934. The music itself is of such clarity, of such structural simplicity, that analysis would be a distasteful condecension. The macabre humor, the wit, the poetry, the nostalgia, the warm sentiment and the wry cynicism which the composer puts into the work and which the soloist extracts from it are inescapably clear.

Characteristically, Falla labored over Nights in the Gardens of Spain for six years. He began it in 1909 as a set of pieces for piano solo, but it grew to become a series of "symphonic impressions" for orchestra with piano obbligato. This recorded version is doubly authoritative, since both the soloist and the conductor were close to the composer and studied his scores with him.

Not only does Rachmaninoff's "Rhapsody On A Theme Of Paganini" happen to be one of the most popular and successful pieces of music ever written for piano, this album also has the benefit of featuring Arthur Rubinstein on piano and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra with Fritz Reiner at the helm. Augmented by a very fine rendition of Manuel de Falla's "Nights In The Gardens Of Spain" with Enrique Jorda and the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, it all adds up to form one of the best sounding LPs ever made!

Musicians:

Chicago Symphony Orchestra (Rachmaninov)
Fritz Reiner, conductor (Rachmaninov)
San Francisco Symphony Orchestra (Falla)
Enrique Jorda, conductor (Falla)
Artur Rubinstein, pianist (Falla)

Track Listing:

Bela Bartok (1881-1945)

Concerto for Orchestra

Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943)
Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, Op. 43

Manuel de Falla (1876-1946)
Nights in the Gardens of Spain