Kubelik, Chicago Symphony Orchestra - Mussorgsky: Pictures At An Exhibition

180-gram vinyl

Mercury Living Presence Vinyl Series 1

Hear how Tom Fine, the son of the original recording engineer Robert Fine, and original producer Wilma Cozart Fine, VP of Mercury Records' classical division, handled duties as both the reissue producer and remastering engineer for the Mercury Living Presence Vinyl Series. Here.

This year marks the 70th anniversary of the Mercury Living Presence label and its distinctive sound. To celebrate Decca Classics is planning to release the complete digital catalog and reissue selected titles on CD and vinyl.

Series 1 includes five beloved titles from the famed classical music label, newly remastered from the original master tapes and cut to vinyl at half-speed by Miles Showell at Abbey Road Studios, and pressed at Optimal in Germany on 180-gram super-quiet vinyl.

Available on vinyl for the first time in decades, here's the recording that birthed a label: Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition, with Rafel Kubelik conducting the Chicago Symphony Orchestra — the release which led Howard Taubman, chief music critic of The New York Times to write, "One feels one is listening to the living presence of the orchestra."