[78-L] Mercury

[DAVID BURNHAM]

Many thanks to MB for sharing that fine article about Mercury Living Presence and Wilma Fine.

I was disturbed by an early statement in the item - that the SACD releases from Mercury didn't use the same equipment as Wilma Cozart Fine did in her earlier CD masterings.  The purpose of the statement was not spelled out but the tacet implication is that these SACDs suffered as a consequence.  This is simply not true.  I don't care if they played the original tapes on a Seabreeze to make the SACDs, the results were stunning.  Each of the SACDs also had WCF's CD mastering included and if one had the facilities to do an A-B comparison, it was clear that the SACD version was far more focused and transparent than the CD layer.  Indeed, the Mercury SACDs are some of the finest I've ever heard, particularly the Suppé Overtures and the Chabrier disc.

I don't know if David Hall is still with us but I've had a life long desire to meet the man.  I've had the 1941 "Record Book" since I was 5 years old and I read it so often in those days that I could quote from memory many of the statements made therein.  It's becoming less likely that this meeting will ever take place because if he's still around, he's well into his 90s and the last I heard - at the ARSC gathering in Cleveland a few years ago - he was in ill health.

db