A review of the Cisco record from AUDIOPHILE AUDITION

Posted by ecl876 (A) on April 8, 2020 at 10:04:33

In Reply to: On vinyl Cisco put out a wonderful reissue posted by ecl876 on April 7, 2020 at 22:20:42:

PROKOFIEV: Symphonic Suite of Waltzes; Gypsy Fantasy - Kansas City Philharmonic Orchestra/Hans Schweiger - Cisco Music Records LP CLP 7002:

This 180 gram audiophile LP was the first recording for the Kansas City band and came out in l959. Thomas Frost, known for his work with Columbia Records, was the original producer. The six sections of the suite of waltzes come variously from Prokofiev's familiar Cinderella ballet, from his opera War and Peace, and one even from the several scores he wrote for Russian films. The Gypsy Fantasy filler is great fun as well. I still have a Melodiya LP of that one conducted by Golovanov which I picked up in the Soviet Union many years ago. Talk about an A/B comparison! It's like moving from a cylinder record to a multichannel Ambisonic spectacular. The original liner notes which are reproduced on the LP jacket strangely describe the suite from The Stone Flower ballet which is not included on this disc. Perhaps the reissue producers decided against it in favor of spreading out the grooves further for improved fidelity.

And it certainly meets a high standard in that department. The dynamic range is especially wide - who says LPs never could have wide dynamic range? The dance music of Prokofiev is some of his most approachable and full of achingly lovely melodies. After listening to this I was moved to search for my much-loved Sheffield direct disc of excerpts from his Romeo and Juliet - one of the finest symphonic recordings ever, in my estimation. The Cisco LP has one major advantage over that gem - it has some natural-sounding hall ambience. The Sheffield sounds like it was recorded in a giant Kleenex box (actually it was an MGM sound stage). The Cisco surfaces are also completely silent; so if you have one of those analog/MC front ends that brings out all the music in the grooves but also all the surface noise along with it, this one will especially please you.

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Follow Ups Full Thread

Topic - New BIS Release: Prokofiev's Colorful Stone Flower Ballet Suite(s) - jdaniel@jps.net 11:22:07 04/6/20 (14)

On vinyl Cisco put out a wonderful reissue - ecl876 22:20:42 04/7/20 (3)

A review of the Cisco record from AUDIOPHILE AUDITION - ecl876 04/8/2010:04:33 04/8/20 (0)

Agreed on the sonics... - Jim Treanor 09:30:51 04/8/20 (0)

Wow! I'm amazed - I remember seeing a listing of that original Urania release. . . - Chris from Lafayette 01:19:52 04/8/20 (0)

RE: New BIS Release: Prokofiev's Colorful Stone Flower Ballet Suite(s) - steve.ott@kctcs.edu 08:54:46 04/7/20 (4)

I prefer complete scores to suites and excerpts too. . . - Chris from Lafayette 10:36:48 04/7/20 (3)

The Noseda pops up quite a bit at 50% off. Nt - jdaniel@jps.net 10:50:12 04/9/20 (1)

Yeah - I think I've seen that offer sometimes - Chris from Lafayette 19:14:06 04/9/20 (0)

I, too, would not want to be without a note of R&J and Cinderella, but there's a limit. - jdaniel@jps.net 17:10:42 04/7/20 (0)

Thanks for the heads-up. - Jim Treanor 18:15:40 04/6/20 (2)

Well... - Jim Treanor 19:47:47 04/7/20 (1)

Bummer. One would hope that today's musicians would pick up a little imagination from playing video games, - jdaniel@jps.net 20:03:22 04/7/20 (0)

Downloaded it last night - haven't listened to it yet - Chris from Lafayette 12:56:37 04/6/20 (1)

Just listened to it this afternoon - thumbs up! - Chris from Lafayette 01:05:03 04/7/20 (0)

Follow Ups

A review of the Cisco record from AUDIOPHILE AUDITION - ecl876 04/8/2010:04:33 04/8/20 (0)

A review of the Cisco record from AUDIOPHILE AUDITION

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