Great MONO recordings

I don't know if Classical is your thing, (let alone opera!) but Furtwangler's Tristan und Isolde is my most cherished Mono set. I own the poor-man's pressing, last of the tube, or valve-cut: His Master's Voice black label on 5 Lp's. The six Lp sets--previous pressings-- went for big bucks, though I'm not sure this is still the case. The immediacy is amazing, some "hardening of the arteries" notwithstanding in the thicker writing. Later pressings are good, but lack the last dollop of warmth of the Black label pressings.

As far as *stunning* sounding mono goes, generally-speaking, Westminster Lp's of Chamber music can sound almost palpable. Surfaces can be noisy though. Orchestral music on Westminster or elsewhere...I can't say it's "about the sound." It's about performance: Currently, I'm a big fan of Scherchen's Beethoven. I'm also a big fan of Furtwangler.

So since I'm only familiar with Classical Mono, I could only say comfortably that most Chamber music on Westminster could be used for sound demonstrations, (but damn good performances too), and I'd only recommend going out of your way for large-scale Classical and/or Opera on mono when you've become tired of modern recordings of said performances, a lifetime's pursuit. I learned my Wagner through Nilsson, but only recently discovered Flagstad, who has Nilsson's clarion top but can also soften and feminize her voice as well. Now it's hard to go back to Nilsson, even though she's recorded better.

So you're probably asking a difficult question!

Thanks Almarg, IMHO Toscanini's Saint Saens Organ Symphony is my favorite of them all, sonics notwithstanding. (Though sonics far from horrible!) The fleet Scherzo is for once captivating, (Paray gets the Scherzo right, too) and the finale has just the perfect blend of excitement and grandeur; others IMHO are either too grand (lumbering) or too exciting, (texture/polyphony gets "flattened").

I got out some mono Jazz today after this thread. Two that have absolutely gorgeous "buttery" but immediate sound is "Miles" on early yellow label Riverside and "Monk's Music". The originals really have a special sound.