Reissue Roundup.

This edition of Reissue Roundup will cover just two new reissues, one of which would have qualified for my Collector's Corner feature (soon to be renamed) until Universal surprised all of us by re-releasing one of the most sought-after recordings from its Mercury Living Presence series on CD. That doesn't tell the whole story, though.

The recordings of Howard Hanson with his Eastman-Rochester Orchestra had been reissued a decade ago in single CD releases collecting the symphonies and incidental works along with a 2-CD set entitled, The Composer And His Orchestra (434 370-2). This set offered his Piano Concerto, Mosaics and the Merry Mount Suite on one CD, and a collection of Hanson's talks about these works on the other. It is this collection that has had audiophiles and music collectors lining up to pay big prices on the Internet.

The new reissue is entitled Howard Hanson Conducts Howard Hanson (475 6867). This is a 4-CD box set that collects the three symphonies and the material appearing in "Composer" at mid-price. A thorough comparison with selections from the earlier 2-CD set confirms the notations in the booklet for the new release: these are, indeed, identical to those that Wilma Cozart Fine oversaw and endorsed. If you have the original releases of the symphonies and the 2-CD set then you need do nothing.

That being said, one of the most natural sounding recordings of orchestral music eve made is restored to the catalog. If you are an SACD enthusiast as I am, you probably had purchased the hybrid disk of the first two symphonies (475 6181) when Universal released it just a year ago. I recommend that you overlook this duplication (or sell the SACD) and buy this new reissue for the additional music before its publishers delete it again.

Audio Fidelity has reissued another Steve Hoffman special. This time around it's Deep Purple's Who Do We Think We Are (AFZ 027). As with everything that Mr. Hoffman touches, this recording reveals subtle pleasures those engineers at the big labels overlook. I did not have an original vinyl pressing of this one to compare, but there is little to quibble over here. Dynamic contrasts are as good as I've heard from studio recordings like this one; highly recommended.

It's time for another installment of Collector's Corner. This time around I'd like to mention a few recordings of what's generally called Bachelor Pad or Space Age Pop music. There is a web site that can provide interested readers with more information on this strange little genre: www.spaceagepop.com. Of course, these CDs are out of print (that's what qualifies them for this feature), but as Internet surfers know, finding something that's no longer available from your traditional record shop is just a mouse-click away.

The first of these is a series that RCA called The History of Space Age Pop. Released in 1995, the series capitalized on the ultra-lounge fad that had record companies reissuing hundreds of recordings of this ilk. What separates these from most of those others is their strange mixture of often-humorous arrangements and that the sound quality is generally of reference quality. Perhaps the most interesting of the three is the third volume of the series, The Stereo Action Dimension (66647-2), which is most dramatic with its widely panned stereo signals that move images to various places in your sound stage. This one truly is a lot of fun to play for just about any guest to demonstrate the prowess of your audio system. Image size is huge, as is the frequency bandwidth and dynamic range. This ranks as one of the best sounding CDs in my collection. If you have and enjoy Dick Shory's legendary Music for BANG, baa-rOOM and HARP, you'll find this one surpasses the antics heard there and with better sound quality too. Honorable mention goes to the other two disks in this series: Melodies and Mischief (66645-2) and Mallets In Wonderland (66646-2). Mallets includes The Three Suns' recording of "Fever" that uses the same arrangement as Peggy Lee's hit version. All three of these are still generally available from online sellers, but the prices vary considerably. Most of these are cutouts or used pieces.

I was actually curious about this next one, and although it has been out of print for several years, I was not able to find one reasonably priced until recently. The album is Enoch Light's Persuasive Percussion (Varese Vintage VSD-5636). There is a companion release entitled Provocative Percussion (VSD-5637), but since both of these qualify as rare collectibles, I'll wait for one more reasonably priced to appear; these two are currently bringing $75-$100 in online auctions.

For those of you too young to remember the famous Command LPs, these were generally aimed at audiophiles. Most of them contained all sorts of data on how the recordings were made--where microphones were placed, what tape machine was used etc.--and pressed to the highest standards of the day. Persuasive Percussion was one of the most popular of these in its day. I stumbled upon this one while looking for CDs containing the Leroy Anderson song, "Blue Tango." I searched online for several weeks, patiently resisting the temptation to enter the fray of bidders driving prices up on ebay. Then one evening I caught my opponents sleeping and pounced on one with mere seconds to go before it closed.

If there are any large record companies that consistently do excellent work in their remasters of vintage music, Varese is certainly one of them --especially when Marry Wekser is at the controls. I've known Mr. Wekser for years, and have always found his oldies remasters to be among the best. It came as no surprise to me, then, when after hearing this marvelous sounding CD to see his name among the credits. Although the sound quality is not quite as amazing as what you'll find on Stereo Action Dimension, it's almost there and with much of the same enjoyable sonic fireworks as well.

As always, I invite questions or comments about the music or recordings I mention. You may reach me by email at [e-mail].

-SGB