BRC-3428 Kubelik/Chicago Tchaikovsky-Mussorgsky

We have often tried our hand recently re-mastering some glorious oldies that can actually be found on commercial issues, some even from their original labels. The Concertgebouw/Szell Brahms-Dvorak symphonies on BRC-3384 is one of them, shedding new light on a perfect original recording transferred unsatisfactorily by the owners of the master tapes. Here we present you with a pair of glorious single-mike technique Mercury recordings of 1951 that made history. Kubelik became chief conductor of the Chicago orchestra in 1950 – a tenure that lasted very little due, for one thing, to the conductor’s nostalgia for the Old World whence he came to America and, for another, to the deleterious polemic unleashed against him byClaudia Cassidy, the dreaded Chicago music critic who later also disparaged William Steinberg. Still Kubelik/Chicago signed some reference recordings, both musically and technically, thanks to their contract with the ambitious new brand, Mercury, and their recording team. The Tchaikovsky 4 has gone on CD from the owners of the old Mercury tapes, but this particular tape was badly damaged and the official reissue on a “Mercury” CD is made from LP sources. Not very well, unfortunately. So we tried our hand, as I say. Our copy had only very minor clicking noises easily eliminated. We added Kubelik’s epoch-making Pictures which hasn’t yet been transferred officially and treated both works to our custom MSE Ambient Sound Mastering. Here they are sounding better than ever before, as if recorded only yesterday. A great CD!

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