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Mercury Living Presence Boxed Set CD49 van55.
The Mercury Living Presence catalog alternated between "serious" music - usually under the baton of Dorati or Paray - and "pops", the territory of the Eastman-Rochester School of music under Howard Hanson and, for its wind band, Frederick Fennell. This one definitely belongs to the "pops" category, and for once Fennell conducts the full Eastman-Rochester "Pops" Orchestra rather than its wind band. It collates the full and partial contents of two recording sessions and LPs. The first, Hi-Fi a la Española, was made on March 25, 1957 and released on MG50144 (mono) and SR90144 (stereo). The second program, from May 3 & 5, 1959, was released as "Pop-Overs" on MG50222/SR90222.
The music is entertaining and boisterous, not very deep (it's not its purpose) but sometimes even poetic (Turina's La Oracion del Torero, the Prayer of the Bullfighter). I'm not convinced the (uncredited) orchestral arrangement does any good to Liszt's Liebestraum, turning it into Hollywood music. To be honest, I haven't done any comparative listening, even on the few pieces that might have called for it, Falla's Ritual Fire Dance, Turina's Oracion del torero and Sibelius' Finlandia. They seemed fine enough, and one doesn't usually buy that kind of collection for the finest interpretive points, but rather for the sonic fireworks. The sonics are great, I am particularly impressed by the naturalness of the sound and the great stereo spread, achieved with only three microphones.