Sold Date: April 19, 2021
Start Date: January 27, 2021
Final Price: £24.99 (GBP)
Seller Feedback: 3488
Buyer Feedback: 78

1982 Sealed ED1 Decca SXDL 7535 Bernard Haitink conducting the London Philharmonic Orchestra in the Second Symphony op.14 "To October", and the Third Symphony op.20 "The First of May" of Shostakovich. New Old Stock. This would have been around the time that Haitink was  their at least principal guest conductor, if not main. A friend who played in the 1st Violin section back then told me that he then had a quality to him that was exceptional in his generation, the tawdry and over used term star quality does not do it justice, a form of aura in his view, from the music making they had together, and that all of the orchestra shared a similar serene glow from the pleasure of what they performed with him in rehearsal and on stage. The incomplete cycle he made of this composers Symphonies on Decca are similarly rather special. About 20 years ago I bought the complete backroom vinyl stock of a Hi Fi shop that was closing down. These were mainly well reviewed classical lps in their full priced versions, many first pressings from the 70s to the 1990s. I am now listing some of the sealed examples for the first time. These were quality control checked in the shop and then sealed in house for eventual sale, and those I have had for myself are all pristine and unmarked, flat and not off centre, playing perfectly, so were not the demonstration stock. They are mainly the late vinyl Decca's, plus some Phillips and EMI, so I have saved the best until last. All of these 80s Decca lps are made for high end cartridges, best suited to an Elliptical or better tip. There's no point in trying to play these with a cheap old conical, it might struggle.