Hi Carl, after listening last night, the Fiedler probably would satisfy your wishes. It's LSC 2442, a Mohr-Layton recording, called The Music of Franz Liszt. I have a 1S/1S shaded dog, and the strings are quite lush, the bass is excellent (a little full, but sounds good on this music), and the dynamics are very good--startling, in fact, on some of the other cuts. A little bit of compression or distortion with the brass on side two in the loudest parts. Surface noise can be obtrusive on this one--I also have a 7S/9S shaded dog that was rated M- which has that sandpapery crackle behind the music that I hear on a lot of the old RCAs. Probably pricey on the used market, but if you run across one at a reasonable price it's worth picking up. The Stokowski re-issue is a little less lush in the strings, but has far better transparency, excellent low end and dynamics, and has a few of Stokowski's variances from the score that made him the unique conductor he was. You might check with some of the record dealers to see if they have any of those left over--I remember Classic was selling them for $15 each when they were cleaning out their old stock. Haven't heard the Dorati; probably a very good performance, but not sure of the sound on the Golden Imports series. Interested in hearing from Dacostab on that one.
