Michael Stern & Kansas City Symphony - Edward Elgar / Vaughan Williams (2 LP)

The great Kansas City Symphony Orchestra plays works by British composers Elgar and Williams, excellently recorded by Grammy-winning engineer "Prof." Keith Johnson. The first project of the Reference Recordings label with the musicians from Kansas, the release The Tempest , was a success with the critics. The second release, Britten's Orchestra , even won a Grammy for best surround sound. For the present recording, they worked again with the orchestra and with the conductor Michael Stern, son of the world-famous violinist Isaac Stern.

For the 200g vinyl double LP at 45rpm in the gatefold cover, the Vaughan Williams orchestra chose a setting of an Aristophanes piece, "The Wasps", for which he composed music for the first time. Edward Elgar became known for his Pomp & Circumstance March No.1 , from which the hymn Land of Hope and Glory is borrowed. His very own orchestration and dynamic characteristics have never been better captured on a recording. The sound is natural, with great transparency and depth. Recommendable!

180-gram or 200-gram pressing - a question that is not that easy.

For identical titles from Reference Recordings, there are covers labeled 180 g containing LPs that weigh around 200 g, and vice versa. This is due to the fact that the commissioned pressing plants QRT and RTI in the USA specify a 10 percent tolerance for weight on the one hand and then occasionally simply get the orders mixed up. In terms of sound, the pressings do not differ. 

Track-list:

RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS

The Wasps — Aristophanic Suite

1. Overture

2. Entr'acte, molto moderato

3. March Past of the Kitchen Utensils

4. Entr'acte, andante

5. Ballet and Final Tableau

6. Fantasia on 'Greensleeves'

SIR EDWARD ELGAR-

7-20 Variations on an Original Theme: 'Enigma,' op.36