Winner of a Gruvy Award, chosen by AnalogPlanet’s editor, Michael Fremer, for vinyl records that are musically and sonically outstanding and are also well mastered and pressed. http://www.analogplanet.com/content/gruvy-awards
“These are the best vinyl releases of RCA LPs I’ve yet heard.” — Jonathan Valin, executive editor, The Absolute Sound
“Grade A. The exceedingly rare 1s/1s pressing of this disc has been celebrated and sought after ever since Carol B. Kessler wrote her famous article in TAS on the best RCAs (she ranked the 1s/1s Pines the #3 RCA of all-time). If you don’t have a 1s/1s pressing, you will doubtlessly find this remastering sensational. Since I do have a 1s/1s, I’d have to say that there are aspects of the 1s/1s that are marginally superior to the Analogue Productions reissue — and vice versa. Though beautiful, string tone doesn’t seem quite as silken on the Kassem reissue as it does on the RCA original; on the other hand, the staggeringly powerful bass on “The Pines of the Appian Way” (replete with gong and organ) retains all of its thunder and then some on the Analogue Productions re-pressing with, once again, a fair measure of tape-like ease and authority. (As with The Reiner Sound, the base is a little murky in spots, probably the results of mic preamp overload. In any event that occasional murkiness is also present on the 1s/1s and the Classic reissue.)” — Jonathan Valin, The Absolute Sound.com, June 11, 2013.
| Ottorino Respighi (1879-1936) | |
| 1 | The Pines of the Villa Borghese |
| 2 | Pines Near a Catacomb |
| 3 | The Pines of the Janiculum |
| 4 | The Pines of the Appian Way |
| 5 | The Fountain of the Valle Giulia at Dawn |
| 6 | The Triton Fountain at Morning |
| 7 | The Fountain of Trevi at Midday |
| 8 | The Villa Medici Fountain at Sunset |