The least one can say is that this package devoted to the years "Mono" really goes beyond the usual highlighting versions long forgotten or never republished.
Certainly, there are also well-known recordings (such as Beethoven's 9th by Kleiber, 1st Brahms concerto for piano by Curzon / van Beinum the first stravinskyens jets Ansermet, Mozart quartets by Amadeus / Curzon. ..) but they include a minority share of the cabinet.
The cabinet is heavily soloists recordings and chamber music (great advance over the previous two Decca Sound too oriented symphonic music), which is well suited taken his Decca this period from the late 40 in the late 50s Overall, sound refunds are good, preserving the grain a little acid typical of the decade of the English firm.
Frankly, who would have bet on the return of the Quintetto Chigiano recordings on English music catches by Anthony Collins, the (exceptional) early Haydn symphonies recordings by Solti, catches the Vegh Quartet, the Vienna Octet .. .
A true cave of Ali Baba ... but at the risk of shocking, I would say that there are few records in this box that can be qualified reference (the Bloch quartets by Griller in part, wonderful music ( re) discover urgently ...).
Few failures in this compilation, with the notable exception of cafouilleux and quite ugly records Moura Lympany and Fauré excruciatingly sentimental and ectoplasmic Kathleen Long.
This box is much less public than the previous two, addressing primarily to fans of that period or music lovers in search of originality.
Unlike other collections containing the original LPs and durations (chick) that go with the CDs in this box are filled to the brim (several discs even exceed 80 minutes).
Finally two regrets that are purely personal to me: it is good to pay tribute to Anthony Collins (although shown) include in this compilation but one or two of his fabulous Sibelius recordings have been even better (fortunately, it announces its reissue complete symphonies for the coming months, remember that the series Eloquence Australia had already done there are more than 5 years ago ...).
It could also resume recording of the symphony Franck made for Decca in 1953 by Furtwängler with the Vienna Philharmonic, once published on CD in 1988 (when coupled with the 1st symphony of Schumann live well known and recovery since by Orfeo and DG).
But these are flats of little importance, given the quality of the whole.