Gayne Ballet Music - Romeo And Juliet Dorati LSO
This exceptional release pairs two powerhouse Russian scores that perfectly showcase the thrilling dynamic range and vivid sonic imagery of the Mercury Living Presence catalog: Aram Khachaturian’s rhythmically driving Gayne Ballet Music and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s deeply passionate Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture. Under the meticulous baton of Antal Doráti, the London Symphony Orchestra delivers performances of astonishing precision and athletic energy. Doráti’s extensive background as a ballet conductor gives him an unparalleled command over rhythm and kinetic pacing, building sweeping romantic themes and explosive battle sequences with a gripping dramatic tension that makes these readings definitive.
While Mercury is famously associated with American recording venues, the engineering team of Wilma Cozart and C.R. Fine found a spiritual home across the Atlantic in Watford Town Hall, an unassuming civic building that became the cradle for some of the most spectacular sonic achievements in high-fidelity history. The hall possessed an ideal acoustic combination of large physical volume, high ceilings, and a resonant wood-on-concrete floor, allowing large orchestral forces to expand naturally with a rich, warm decay while maintaining absolute clarity. Captured via Mercury’s pioneering three-microphone technique onto analog tape, every section of the LSO retains its distinct holographic placement within a breathtakingly wide soundstage.
Artist(s): Conductor – Antal Doráti
Orchestra – London Symphony Orchestra
Recording Info: Recorded in Watford Town Hall
Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture was recorded on June 20, 1959.
Gayne Ballet Music was recorded a year later, in June 1960.
Engineer C. R. Fine
Producer Wilma Cozart
Musical Director – Harold Lawrence
This is sourced from a first pressing Mercury Record Original Pressing with the stamper codes RFR-1 / RFR-1.
Components used for Transfer:
This transfer leverages precision analog playback and mastering-grade digital conversion. The signal path begins with a VPI HW-40 Anniversary turntable paired with an Ortofon MC Anna cartridge, fed through a Merrill Audio Jens Phono pre-amp for accurate RIAA equalization. The analog signal converts via a Merging Anubis converter, powered by a Teddy Pardo Linear Power Supply, synchronized to an Antelope Audio 10MX atomic clock for temporal accuracy. All components receive isolated power conditioning through a Shunyata Research Everest 8000 with Sigma-X cords, while grounding infrastructure utilizes Shunyata ALTAIRA hubs to minimize noise floor and preserve sonic detail throughout the transfer chain.
1 Sabre Dance 2:27
2 Ayesha's Dance 2:34
3 Dance Of The Rose Maidens 2:15
4 Dance Of The Kurds 1:55
5 Lullaby 4:46
6 Dance Of The Young Kurds 2:46
7 Armen's Variation 1:42
8 Lezghinka 2:26
Tchaikovsky Romeo And Juliet
9 Overture-Fantasy After Shakespeare 18:41
Please Note: This release was edited in DXD PCM from a DSD256 Master
then the DXD edited master was used to generate the final DSD files using
Merging Technologies Album Publishing.
DXD (352.8KHz 24/32 bit PCM) is one of the best and least destructive formats for post-processing DSD originated digital recordings
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