The Mercury Living Presence recordings have acquired legendary status and have been much sought-after by audiophiles and “ordinary” listeners alike for their outstanding sound quality and roster of famous artists in both core repertory and less well-known music. As well as a wide variety of Central European music, Mercury Living Presence achieved distinction for the wealth of American music that appeared on the label.
This set presents a wide selection of twentieth-century repertory that ranges from important masterpieces such as Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring and Petrouchka and Prokofiev’s Fifth Symphony to American favourites such as Gershwin’s An American in Paris and Copland’s Rodeo to rarities such as Bloch’s Sinfonia Breve and Gunther Schuller’s Klee Studies. And all of these under the direction of one of the conducting giants of the twentieth-century, Antal Dorati. A musician of enormously wide sympathies that ranged from Haydn and Mozart to Schoenberg, Bartók and beyond, Dorati was one of the conductors very closely identified with Mercury Living Presence recordings for many years.
