Brahms Concerto 1 Rubinstein Reiner

The Japanese company, BMG Japan, sorted the original RCA RED SEAL CDs according to the composers and the year when the music pieces were created. BEST100 series are the best representative CDs, which were carefully chosen from those music pieces by acting and recording, and they were released again with the mark of RCA BEST100. These CDs are the most impressive records in the classical field at RCA’s best. Theoretically, we could find the single originals of those CDs, but BMG Japan reorganised excellently for everyone. During BMG Japan period, it was released for the first time in 1999 and for the second time in 2008 after SONY took over BMG. BEST100 series belong to the latter.

At the height of his popularity, pianist Oscar Levant was the highest-paid concert artist in America. He outdrew Horowitz and Rubinstein, with whom he shared the distinction of a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He performed under conductors including Toscanini, Beecham, Mitropoulos, Reiner and Ormandy, and was the definitive interpreter of his friend George Gershwin. Levant's 1945 recording of Rhapsody in Blue remained one of Columbia Records' best-selling albums for decades. That classic interpretation and all his other recordings for the label, spanning the years 1942 to 1958, have now been collected in this set: painstakingly restored and remastered from the original analogue discs and tapes, the vast majority of them are appearing for the first time ever on CD.

~ The ultimate “Living Stereo” Collector’s Edition – A celebration of high-fidelity analogue recording ~ All 60 CDs newly remastered from the original 2- and 3-track master tapes using 24 bit / 192 kHz technology ~ First ever release of 48 “Living Stereo” LPs on CD ~ Hardcover bound book with a new introduction by discographer Michael Gray, full discographical notes and content listing ~ All albums with facsimile LP sleeves and labels About “Living Stereo”: Early in the fall of 1958, the world of high-fidelity music reproduction changed forever.