Mercury SR 90212: Paray's Fantastic Chabrier

Mercury Living Presence SR 90212
Chabrier: Espana, Suite Pastorale, Fete Polonaise, Overture to "Gwendoline", Danse Slave
Detroit Symphony Orchestra
Paul Paray, conductor

Pressing: US, maroon 1st label, colorback

Date first published: 1961

Stampers: RFR-1/RFR-1

Price range: $28-300 (mean $96) on popsike.com

Comments: A close second behind SR 90313, my all-time top-ranking Mercury Living Presence recording, this is for many music-lovers and collectors one of the finest classical records that Mercury ever released.  From the opening minutes of the first track, you can tell that this is going to be a stunning album.  First, unlike many of the Mercury Living Presence LPs, there is minimal tape hiss (on my pressing at least), and the surfaces are relatively quiet.  Second, the sound is especially natural and blessed with fantastic dynamic range and clarity and a very nice reproduction of the hall acoustics.  Third, and most important, the music is delightful to hear, and Paul Paray and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra truly deliver excellent performances that really captivate the spirit of this French music.

This album is one of the more valuable Mercuries, and interestingly, its reissues by Classic Records have also held legendary status.  I am quite certain that one of the reissues has made it to one of Arthur Salvatore's lists.  I haven't had the opportunity to compare the reissue to the original, but I can say that the original has always held a special place in my collection.  The album was also digitally remastered by Wilma Cozart Fine in the early 1990s and sounds surprisingly good on CD.

I just thought I'd share this passage from the liner notes on the back:

"If no one has yet written extensively about the theory that nationalistic music is enhanced by being played in auditoriums of respective national origin, someone probably will before long.  In these days of extreme recording fidelity, Mercury has proudly admitted that Living Presence recordings reproduce not only the exact sound of the music but the acoustical "presence" of the auditorium as well.  From there it is only a step to inquiring into the question of what kind of auditorium fits particular music best.  And answers to that question bring up other, more speculative questions.

It was while the Mercury classical staff was investigating not only the answers but the questions themselves that the Cass Technical High School auditorium in Detroit, Michigan, was discovered as a potential recording hall.  At first glance it seemed to be perfect -- the right size, well-aged surfaces, full-blown acoustical resonance, an adequate stage for the orchestra.  Tests by the engineers and classical staff revealed that all these qualities were indeed the assets they seemed, and in addition the sound seemed to have a kind of French quality to it.  French music seemed at home in it.  In climaxes it was taut, in pianissimo sections it was sensuous.  It was so good, in fact, that Mercury moved its equipment then and there, and all the Detroit Symphony Orchestra's latest recordings have been done at Cass.  The orchestral music of Chabrier in this album shows the conductor and the orchestra at their best, certainly.  But it also shows the special merits of an important new auditorium in the recording world."

Reminds of the time that we played Chabrier's Espana for our high school orchestra concert in our high school auditorium.  I wonder if the auditorium at Downers Grove North sounded anything like Cass ... I know we didn't sound quite like the Detroit Symphony.