LSC-2436 – Respighi – Pines Of Rome – Fountains Of Rome ~ Reiner, Chicago Symphony

Front Cover
Back Cover
Label Side 1
Label Side 2

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{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }

317x July 20, 2011 at 9:09 pm

One of my favorites. Would like to find a 1s pressing, some say they have clearly superior sound.

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Mark Wieman July 20, 2011 at 9:38 pm

Hi, 317x.
I have three pressings of this record. They are 1S/1S, 3S/3S, and 15S/14S. On my system, I would give the edge to the 1S/1S, but I wouldn’t say it’s a landslide. All three pressings sound impressive.

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Louis Cardona March 16, 2016 at 3:00 pm

This lp was compressed after 5s: many turntables of that era could not track the grooves. A 1s/1s or 3s/3s are most definitely preferable. I have heard both: I prefer my 3s/3s “H” pressing.

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Daryl June 26, 2019 at 8:00 am

How do we know that compression was applied after 5s? I have a 5s/5s copy and it sounds fantastic (certainly doesn’t sound compressed to me, but I don’t have a 1s/1s to compare it to), but Jonathan Valin from TAS says that compression was applied immediately after 1s/1s. To quote Valin: “…tapes were routinely dynamically compressed and bandwidth limited to make them more playable on the turntables of the day. Perhaps the most famous (or infamous) example of this was (Reiner’s) Pines of Rome. In its original 1s/1s (the first stamper) pressing, it was released without dynamic/frequency limiting. Pfeiffer told me that almost every single copy of that first issue was returned to RCA by angry consumers, who simply couldn’t play it (their phonograph needles would literally jump out of the grooves), which is why the 1s/1s is so rare. The tape was immediately remastered and by the second stamper the usual dynamic/frequency limitation had been applied.”

Do we have any other clarifying information?

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Mark Wieman June 26, 2019 at 3:27 pm

I’ve often wondered about this myself. Reiner and the CSO were top sellers when this was made, and given the popularity of the material, it seems strange RCA would have only cut the 1S/1S for initial release. BTW, I had the 1S/1S and never thought it quite lived up to the hype. Both my 10S/11S and 14S/11S copies of Scheherazade with Reiner/CSO are better, IMO. I kept those because they are so outrageously good. They beat the recent Analogue Productions version, although I didn’t try the 45RPM yet.

Brian March 30, 2017 at 8:42 am

For Pines of Rome, the 1S (or the ‘pre-compression’ stampers) are the holy-grail of this LP, but I’ve found the costs for a mint, non-groove damaged version is very high. I had a mono, a later stereo (8S? can’t remember – I got rid of it) and the Analog Productions re-issue. Let me speake to the AP reissue: if you like the performance, and dream of finding a minty 1S (like I did), go buy the AP reissue. I’ve done a shootout with the Classic Records, and the Analog Productions wins, hands down: it is a superb mastering and pressing. All I can assume is, that it is the way it was “supposed to be” from the start. Big dynamics, big bass, large soundstage, all with the benefit of mondern, heavy vinyl. Like I said before, I would not spend any more time or money finding a rarity (unless that’s just your thing, for collectors sake) but if you want to LISTEN to this – the AP is the way to go. It “is” the 1S pressing 🙂

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K S May 5, 2017 at 2:03 pm

I own a 1s1s pressing of Pines. I bought it back in the mid to late 1980s at Academy Book Store in NYC on a Wednesday evening in the summertime. Almost mint – but plays mint save about 4 ticks $10. Along with it I bought two soria series Brahms and another and I left there the Decca Head 6 record on the super disc list ($40 was too strong for me). I won’t even go into the NEW PLUM Victrolas that I bought that night. God, my life was exciting in those days. You could go to Tower Records in the city and come home with NEW Lyritas, Deccas, all sorts of imports including but not limited to- Mercury Golden Imports (found in the cutout bin for silly money, together with an occasional new Victrola which sometimes would turn out to be a plum label (as opposed to the later pink label.))

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Mark Wieman May 5, 2017 at 3:14 pm

That’s funny. I went to Academy Records in Manhattan three weeks ago and left with a nice stack of used classical LPs. All were in excellent condition and reasonably priced. One was Decca Head 11, Gerhard Astrological Series, NM for $15–they had two identical copies and I bet the other one is still there! Fun record with ridiculous sonics.

As for the Pines record, I ended up selling my 1S/1S and now have a Analogue Productions test pressing, which is quite nice but missing some of the tubey magic of the original. I also have the SACD that RCA released a while back.

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K S September 24, 2017 at 4:28 pm

Was in Portland, Maine at the end of August and went to a small record shop… bought a mint Decca Head 6 Gerhard the Plague for $20. I was not going to pass this record up again.

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