# Sony/Columbia Legacy Ormandy / Philadelphia orch / Mono / 120-CD box set



## 13hm13 (Oct 31, 2016)

In case you haven't heard the "big" news (Apr. 2021) ...






And David Hurwitz made two videos on this set ... one over an hour long.

What you may not not know is that most of the MONO recordings were re-mastered by Sony a few years back and have been made avail. in HIGH-REZ (24 bit 96 khz) since as far back as (to my knowledge) 2017:

https://www.hdtracks.com/#/artist/Eugene Ormandy

I'm not really sure what's new in the 120-CD box -- other than the book -- that's not in earlier high-rez releases. I can confirm that the high-rez files sound very good. And I am one of those geeky audiophiles who believe that even older mono (magnetic tape) recordings sound better in high-rez than in "Red Book" 16/44.1 std. CD format. In any case ... nice work Sony!
BTW: there are a few of those orig. mono albums with material that was not conducted by Ormandy and/or Phila. 
Example:


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## mbhaub (Dec 2, 2016)

After giving it a lot of thought, weighing the pros and cons, I bought the set. Hasn't arrived yet...

The last thing I need is another monster box, or any more cds for that matter. The rave review from Hurwitz and then a similar one on Music Web International pushed me closer to buying. Then the cost: ok, even at $260 on Amazon it's not cheap. But then I figure the per-disk cost is only $2.16 and that made it more enticing. But what sealed the deal was talking to a friend of mine who went to college at Temple, went to many of the Ormandy concerts, played with the orchestra several times and she said "Buy it!" No one makes music like that anymore. No conductor (except maybe Karajan) has been so thoroughly documented on record as Ormandy - from his early years, then on RCA, now the Columbia monos, then on the Columbia stereos, back to RCA and a few for EMI, Delos, Telarc and probably others.

In general I don't like conductors tampering with scores. Cuts, re-orchestration, added percussion parts I find distressing. And Ormandy does plenty of that. It was the way music was made in a different era. Nonetheless, the chance to hear so much music from a truly blessed place and time in musical history was too much to pass up. It should arrive sometime in the next 10 days and then I'll try to do two or three disks a day. Then maybe off to Vail where the Philly is in residency for a week!

I'm glad Ormandy has been given first-class treatment; he deserves it. Can we hope for a similar Columbia stereo edition in the next couple of years? I already have so many of those on single cds, but remasterings would be nice.


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## 13hm13 (Oct 31, 2016)

I don't care for the official Sony video commercial (see my 1st post). It's a bit too "worshipy".

Decca/UMG does a way better job in their commercials .... those unboxing animations are super cool!!


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## 13hm13 (Oct 31, 2016)

> The last thing I need is another monster box, or any more cds for that matter.


Yeah ... although I have a high-end "audiophile" system, I rarely play CDs ... They've all been ripped to my PC and then playlisted -- for home or portable use.

That said, I'll admit, there is some kind of greater "event satisfaction" (more appreciation of the music and listening event) if I have gone thru the time and labor of heading for my rack, pulling off an Lp or CD, and then playing the whole thing.

With playlists, however, not only can one listen to much more music (per time/labor session) but compare and contrast various recordings, performances ,even album artwork, _on the fly_. E.g., how does that Ormandy Haydn 101 symph compare with that by Mackerras, etc ...









Yes, A/B comparisons like that (based on playlist back and forth) are highly controversial. But I'm very sensitive to timing and pacing ... and rapid back and forth can help me weed out recordings from my collection.


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