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Mercury Living Presence Boxed Set CD52 van55
The Rach 2 and Franck symphonies - one might wonder how both of them can fit on one CD. The answer: conductor Paray's fleet-footed treatment - swifter than most, yet totally idiomatic - along with taking the composer-sanctioned cuts in the Rach symphony. I like listening to the symphony both cut and uncut ... and Paray does the cut version so well you'd swear the symphony was written that way originally.
I'm even more impressed by the Franck Symphony. Paray really blows the cobwebs off this work- maligned by more than one conductor trying to make some sort of "profound statement" when they should just chill and let the music play. After hearing Paray work his magic, it's really hard to go back and endure listening to even one of the scads of alternate recordings that clocks in at 35 minutes or longer. The DSO players are finely disciplined here, and the recorded sound is of demonstration quality.