Starting the arduous task of the Cluytens set. So much music I don't know at all, so that will be fun. Also in this set is a complete Beethoven symphonies, so that will be interesting. Also complete Ravel music that this conductor is known for. And I'm very intrigued by the early stuff from 78s and the early mono tape recordings so I'm uploading those. I first listened to the Shostakovich 11th - I had this performance and loved it on another CD, but in the final movement there was a sudden shift to mono sound rather than the glorious early stereo I'd been hearing - it only lasted about forty seconds but very jarring. Sadly, it hasn't been fixed - I'm guessing there was tape damage there that couldn't be repaired and it sounds like they went from a mono LP - I'm wondering if there was a separate mono tape recorder running, because otherwise why wouldn't they have gotten a stereo LP? Unless: It was never released in stereo - and that's certainly possible and especially if there was this problem. I'm now listening to Richard Strauss's Don Juan - don't know it at all but am enjoying it quite a lot.
