SWAN LAKE / Antal Dorati / *RARE* 3 LP Mercury OL-3-102A / Cecil Beaton Artwork

$

30

Description

Offered is a hard to find copy of the release of Tchaikovsky / Swan Lake / Complete Recording of Tchaikovsky's Original Score / Antal Dorati / Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra / Illustrations by Cecil Beaton / Text by Walter Terry,  on Mercury Records High Fidelity Olympian Living Presence Label, OL-3-102A.

Discogs  has a note about this particular Mercury release:

"SWAN LAKE was recorded on December 14 and 15, 1954 in Northrop Auditorium in Minneapolis (USA) on quarter-inch tape using Fairchild tape machines and a single Telefunken U47 microphone. It was originally released as OL3-102 in a deluxe 3 LP album. "

Wikipedia provides this information regarding the talented and versatile Antal Dorati :

"Doráti became especially well known for his recordings of Tchaikovsky's music. He was the first conductor to record all three of Tchaikovsky's ballets - Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty and The Nutcracker - complete. The albums were recorded in mono between 1954 and 1955, for Mercury Records, with the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra (later renamed the Minnesota Orchestra), as part of their famous "Living Presence" series. All three ballets were at first issued separately, but were later re-issued in a 6-LP set. Dorati never re-recorded Swan Lake, but he did make a stereo recording of The Sleeping Beauty (again complete) with the Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam for Philips Classics Records, and two complete recordings in stereo of "The Nutcracker", one with the London Symphony Orchestra (again for Mercury), and the other with the Concertgebouw Orchestra for Philips - all this within a span of about twenty-seven years."

THE VINYL :   Averages EX+.  All 3 LP's retain much of their original gloss with  minimal spindlewear and have been seldom played:

LP # 1 (MG 50050) :  EX+ :  No visible marks on Side 1 or 6. RFR 2 Stampers.

LP # 2 (MG 50051) :  EX+ :  No visible marks on Side 2 or 5. RFR 1 Stamper for Side 2. RFR 2 Stamper for Side 5. 

LP # 3 (MG 50052) :  EX+ :  1 Hairline Scratch on Side 3.  RFR 1 Stampers on Side 3. No visible Stamper on Side 4.

THE ALBUM COVER / BOOK :  VG+ :  As you can see from the photos, the album housing the LP's is in book form, with laminated covers front and back. There are some cosmetic scuffs on the front and back; the binding is tight; there is no paper loss or tears.

The front pages have artwork, photos from the ballet, and a narrative. The final 3 pages are the inner sleeves for the LP's, made of a manila-style paper material.