Weird, rare, lousy "MFSL" CD (sort of)

I bought a very odd CD tonight at Half-Price Books.

As many of you know, MFSL exclusively remastered and distributed a number of classical titles from the Melodiya label, circa 1986. A few years after this, MFSL seemed to almost be in bed with (of all people) MCA Records. There was even a "Soviet/American Joint Venture" involving MCA, MFSL, and some Soviet interests (Melodiya??), a new classical label known as "Art and Electronics." These were new classical recordings, and to my knowledge, all were DDD and mastered by MFSL. I have some of these, and I have no complaints about them.

Apparently, around this same time (1989), MCA also reissued some actual Melodiya titles (reissues, not newly recorded items), using MFSL artwork styles as a template, and using MFSL mastering. My guess is that these were available for about a day or two and sold roughly 3 copies each. (I'm exaggerating, but you get the point!)

The disc I bought tonight is pictured below. Note the "Mastering by Original Masteringworks" credit on the back. A few more things:

1. NOWHERE on the exterior packaging does it mention that this is a live concert recording.
2. The recording is quite poor, and it's AAD from July of 1986, which seems a little odd to me.
3. The live recording is riddled with problems. Specifically, somebody apparently bumps a mic stand about 2 minutes into things, causing a series of "clunk" sounds. About 10:10 into the 2nd movement, there is very low frequency feedback (or at least that's what it sounds like), maybe coming from the PA system in the concert hall. The sound overall is bass-shy and sounds very unfocused. Also, there are moments where you expect the orchestra to really build and deliver a knockout punch, and either things were being heavily limited via electronic means, or the orchestra was very anemic.
4. The disc starts out with 9 seconds of ambient crowd noise prior to the downbeat. What the heck??
5. You know how on a typical CD, you can look at the "underside" and easily spot where the recorded section ends and the unused section begins? (I mean, where the "blank part" is.) On this disc, there is the recorded section and there's the unused section, but in between these two, there is a band of "something else" about a quarter-inch across.
6. On the final track, I am unable to scan forward or backward on my car stereo! It plays fine, but scanning just is not an option. On my laptop, it scans okay.

To clarify, this is not one of the Art & Electronics CDs. This is a MCA/Melodiya release, mastered by MFSL. Here are some photos.

 

No, it's 100% legit. It looks just like the Art and Electronics releases, except it's reissued material from Melodiya, not "new product."

Definitely not the crown jewel of the MoFi empire.

 

Here's a shot of the underside of the disc, showing the usual "program area" and "blank area," plus the aforementioned "mysterious nether region."

 

Standard MoFi citation for many years. I also remember reading about the formation of the ART AND ELECTRONICS label in ICE MAGAZINE at the time.