AS Disc who produced around 24 BSO discs, as you correctly say, did produce these as true pressed CDs. As did LYS, who also had a Koussevitzky edition (I can't remember how extensive that edition eventually was - I only have nine of them). The end result of this was twofold: they were issued at very low bitrates (today they would be unacceptable) and the CDs, notably AS Disc, have a very high bronzing rate making them unplayable.
What is also clearly different today, and St Laurent benefits from this, is the sources of their performances. Many Koussevitzky releases now come from sources much closer to the original broadcast; AS Disc (and LYS) were sometimes copies of copies of copies. But I do have a preference for the ysl Koussevitzky - Sibelius or otherwise; the lack of interference with the engineering makes it as authentic to the original concert as possible.
Times have changed, and with it the quality of what we now have.
I suppose whenever anyone calls something a “first release” or “first recording,” some bilious Beckmesser somewhere writes to dispute it. On this occasion I’m sorry to be the pestilent nuisance in question.
On the Friday April 23rd 2021 review index page, the live Koussevitzky Sibelius recordings recently issued by Pristine Audio are described as “previously unavailable.” However, William Kreindler’s excellent review makes no such assertion.
In fact, all the symphony recordings are already available from St Laurent Studio. YSL 78-843 has the 1945-10-13 Symphony No 1 (coupled with a 1946-04-20 No 7). YSL 78-844 has the 1945-10-27 No 2 (coupled with Rimsky-Korsakov’s Capriccio espagnol). YSL 78-845 has the 1946-01-05 No 5 and the 1946-03-09 No 6. Unfortunately all the St Laurents are, like the Pristines, only CD-Rs. However, they are beautifully clear, crisp, incisive transfers, clearly taken from high-quality source material. I’m sure it’s good to have these performances available from two reputable companies with such radically different policies (St Laurent does a lot less acoustic manipulation than Pristine, a question on which I take no side whatsoever!).
I suspect the recordings of the three short works have also been issued before, but the alleged recording dates vary so much that only direct comparison could settle the question.
True pressed CDs of some of these recordings were issued by AS Disc in 1989, although in cracklier sound. AS 558 has the 1945-10-13 No 1 (coupled with Swan of Tuonela). AS 562 has the 1946-03-09 No 6 (coupled with Finlandia and a 1943-12-25 No 5 [definitely not the 1946-01-05 recording]). I think AS also issued others, which I didn’t obtain.
What a shame there seems to be no surviving Koussevitzky performance of No 3 or No 4! He would have done both excitingly.
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