The Columbia/Epic Artists were often served very badly by the recording team: Ormandy, Bernstein, Szell. As a rule, there's no point to even be concerned. You might get a little more warmth from the tube-pressed Lps--Gold label "strobe" Epic, and "6 eye" Columbia, but for the most part the recordings are dry, edgy in the strings and bass-light.
Generally-speaking (there could always be exceptions) Columbia served Walter and Stravinsky pretty well with the Columbia Symphony in Los Angeles but still no comparison to Decca/Londons of the same period.
I have two Szell's on Epic with shockingly-good sound: his Strauss Don Quixote and his Wagner excerpts from the Ring. The usual engineers must have been out sick those days.
On Columbia 6 eye, I don't even care for the early Ormandy's but I have two Bernstein's which are relatively well-recorded--the Harris 3rd and the classic Mahler 3rd, the latter I believe being Columbia's first stereo effort.
In Columbia's very late period, the recordings made with English orchestras aren't bad.
Generally-speaking (there could always be exceptions) Columbia served Walter and Stravinsky pretty well with the Columbia Symphony in Los Angeles but still no comparison to Decca/Londons of the same period.
I have two Szell's on Epic with shockingly-good sound: his Strauss Don Quixote and his Wagner excerpts from the Ring. The usual engineers must have been out sick those days.
On Columbia 6 eye, I don't even care for the early Ormandy's but I have two Bernstein's which are relatively well-recorded--the Harris 3rd and the classic Mahler 3rd, the latter I believe being Columbia's first stereo effort.
In Columbia's very late period, the recordings made with English orchestras aren't bad.