NOTE: Many of the pre-entered album descriptions in the LP Archive Library include critical recommendations. In addition to indicating those recommendations with check marks, relevant comments by the critics mentioned below, where appropriate, are quoted.

Checks indicate this album is recommended by "Me!" (the Maestro user), is on TAS Super Disc List, and Mr. Moon/Gray recommend the album rating it a "9" in performance quality and a "10" in sonics.

Me!
"Me!" is the abbreviation for your name. You can modify this to display your actual initials.

TAS & TAS Top 12
The Absolute Sound, TAS, is a magazine that reports on audio equipment and recordings. Based on recommendations made by Harry Pearson, Founder and Chairman of The Absolute Sound, TAS occasionally prints a Super Disc list of recordings and a list of the Top 12 (Baker's Dozen) recordings. Contact TAS @ 800/922-7484 or www.avguide.com/channel/the-absolute-sound for subscription information and back issues.

Mr. Moon And Mr. Gray
Robert Moon and Michael Gray co-authored Full Frequency Stereophonic Sound. This book is a discography and history of London and Decca albums recorded between 1956 and 1963. They rate many recordings based on performance and how well the recording captured the performance (sound). Their ratings use a scale from 1 (poor) to 10 (excellent). Their excellent book is no longer in print.

Mr. Penndorf 
Ronald Penndorf is the author of Recollections Guide to Collectible LPs and was publisher of Recollections Quarterly which was a journal devoted to music and records. His website, www.ronpenndorf.com/contents.html, provides a wealth of information on various composers, conductors, classical compositions, labelographies, and recorded music primarily on LP. His reviews of classical recordings are enlightening. Contact Mr. Penndorf @ Ronald Penndorf; Recollections; 2743 Eight Street; Berkeley, CA 94710; 510/548-7786; RonPenndorf@earthlink.net.

Mr. Valin
Jonathan Valin is the Executive Editor of The Absolute Sound magazine. He authored The RCA Bible which described, in encyclopedic-like detail, RCA's famous shaded dog label. Of particular interest is the commentary describing each recording, the RCA labelography, and descriptions of various editions of many of these noted recordings. Currently, The RCA Bible is out of print.

Mr. Marks
Sid Marks is a reviewer of classical recordings and is renowned for his knowledge of albums on Mercury's Living Presence and RCA's shaded dog labels. Many of his in-depth critiques of classical recordings have been published in The Absolute Sound. In particular, articles in two TAS issues summarized his enlightened reviews of the top Mercury Living Presence albums. These reviews indicate his selections of the best albums recorded in each of Mercury's primary recording venues and list his rankings, indicated in numerical order, of the top 29 Mercury recordings. Articles in two issues of the no longer published Ultimate Audio magazine list Mr. Marks rankings, indicated in numerical order, of the top 52 RCA Living Stereo recordings and provides brief reviews of these LPs. Contact TAS (see above) for back issues or for additional information.

Mr. Mitchell
James Mitchell wrote a 37 page paper titled The Golden Era of RCA Records. This paper presents "a summary of the history of RCA recording with catalog and sound evaluations of RCA classical music recordings." The emphasis is on RCA's shaded dog series. His paper offers wonderful insight into how records are made and provides details on pressing and label variations and reviews the recordings. To acquire a copy, contact Irvington Music @ 503/985-7335 or by email at irvmusic@spiritone.com. Please note that Irvington Music is sole vendor authorized by Mrs. Jim Mitchell to sell this copyrighted material.

Mr. Salvatore
Arthur Salvatore is a music critic specializing in classical music LPs. He publishes a web audio magazine "dedicated to the serious reproduction of music in the home." A portion of Mr. Salvatore's website is devoted to his Super Disc list of the best sounding LPs of all-time called the Supreme LP Recordings. He ranks each recommended LP into one of four categories. Starting from the highest ranking these categories are The Divinity, The Demi-Gods, The Basic List, and The Honorable Mentions. See the web magazine at: www.high-endaudio.com and the Supreme LP Recordings at: www.high-endaudio.com/supreme.html.

Mr. Canfield
David Canfield is a composer, teacher of composition, musician, and was the owner of Ars Antiqua which at one time was the world's largest mail-order business devoted to classical music albums. While at Ars Antiqua, Mr. Canfield compiled a price guide for classical records called the Canfield Guide to Classical Recordings. The last edition of this guide contained almost 200,000 different records. Although the Canfield Guide to Classical Recordings is a treasure trove of details pertinent to LPs such as album content, catalog numbers, and value, Mr. Canfield rarely critiqued or commented about an album's quality. This infrequency of comments coupled with his wealth of knowledge magnify the importance of the critiques that he did make.