Forgotten CDs

Rolf, thanks for the link. Litton does a good job of encapsulating the work, IMO. I like its organic feel, it's just that it hasn't gripped me yet. It's briefly analysed by Harold Truscott in the old Penguin Symphony series, though he doesn't give any of the background that Litton says is fundamental to a complete understanding. I should listen again with that in mind. Also, it's time I sampled Reger. Could you recommend a starting point?

  Possibly the first classical lp I bought.   Decca Ace of Clubs.  Cost 10s 6d.(52 p) if my memory serves me right.

I'm fairly certain Ace of Clubs cost 21 shillings. Full price was £2, except for DGG at 41 shillings. What a bargain CDs are nowadays! Why was my first LP of the Beethoven 5th under Böhm? It was recommended by the shop manager - I only found out later that it was the most expensive version available.

You know I think you're right.  Now I've got it again on cd and it's nice to own it.  I really can't rememeber how the original sounded but the transfer is clean and not compressed.  I'm trolling through my memory to see what others I can get.

What I wouldnt give to have a debate with you about this.  You just say so many things that come from nowhere that Im pretty sure Id have a fair shot.  Your blog is great visually, I mean people wont be bored.  But others who can see past the videos and the layout wont be so impressed with your generic understanding of this topic.

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Interesting post 33lp. A few comments.

Mfp didn’t see off Saga. They were available concurrently. Saga tended to play more around the fringes of the catalogue but there were a few more mainstream issues. Both the Fine Arts Bartok Quartet cycle and the Newstone Brandeburgs were highly rated. Mfp had some very fine Ancerl/Czech PO issues – the Shostakovich 5th, Dvorak VC (with Suk) and a superb disc of selections from Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet. As you’ve quite rightly pointed out, Saga pressings were abysmal but there was nothing wrong with Mfp’s. At some point and for a reason that escapes me, Mfp morphed into Classics for Pleasure and continued to issue some fine, inexpensive recordings including a Kempe Brahms 1 that, to my ears, has still not been equaled. Incidentally, I stand to be corrected on this but I’m sure I’ve seen some of those old Sagas reappear on cd at various times.

There were many excellent budget labels back in the ‘60s. Decca’s Ace of Clubs put out many fine mono recordings, e.g. the Katchen Prokofiev and Bartock 3s, the Collins Sibelius cycle. Decca’s budget stereo label, Ace of Diamonds, gave us a steady diet of Ansermet and the SRO. Heliodor put out some excellent Bohm and Jochum, often in stereo transcription with decent sound and OK pressings. Pye’s Golden Guinea label issued some budget Barbirolli with the Halle, Turnabout had some very good Mozart PCs played mostly by Brendel, and the Phillips Festivo label offered a competitive Beethoven Symphony cycle with Masur conducting the Leipzig Gewandhaus. Pricing for most of these was around the 10-14 shillings mark.

Perhaps two of the most interesting budget labels came in kind of subscription series: World Record Club and the Great Musicians Series. You could find WRC in shops, but I believe members had their discs mailed to them. There were many top class recordings, including the Kempe/BPO/Tortelier Don Quixote. Great Musicians was available all over the place, including news kiosks. The series started with a bang in 1966, a new recording of Beethoven’s 6th with the RPO conducted by Groves. A booklet full of learned observations edited by Robert Simpson no less, was accompanied by an odd-sized disc that played at 33rpm. Recording and pressings were so-so at best and most of the subsequent issues were dust-offs from various old catalogues. They came out weekly at 13/11d each, 26 editions for just over 18 quid. 84 weekly parts were projected but I don’t know if they ever made it. Certainly, scads of issues were available later on at knock-down prices.

Interesting times for the budget-conscious. But with notable exceptions most of the worthwhile stuff from that era has since re-appeared in cleaned-up sound on labels like Testament.

Interesting post from you too, Tagalie, I'd forgotten about those Great Musicians magazines; wasn't it a 10 inch LP they included? I vaguely remember buying one or two but they must have disappeared long ago, unlike the MFP Shostakovich 5 you mentioned which still gets played as my favourite version. CFPs came, I seem to recall, with a price hike to 17s 6d but with many new recordings, rather than re-issues, sponsored by a cigarette company!   CFP was probably a 100 percent EMI venture whereas Paul Hamlyn's Eastern European connections and involvement no doubt brought in the MFP Supraphon reissues with his radical views for the time as to how classical records should be marketed.

World Record Club seemed to have become EMI's historic output for a time when they were available from normal outlets and I have Beecham's pre war Magic Flute, a box of Cortot's Schumann and a box of Beecham reissues on that label which also included a biographical book on the conductor. The 78 transfers were generally very good. I didn't get any Golden Guineas at the time but snapped all the Barbirolli Halles  that appeared in (EMI digital transfers) on Royal Classics Cds some years ago at around a fiver each, brilliantly spontaneous and generally exciting performances where one feels the orchestra is really pulling out all the stops for their much loved conductor.

Vox Turnabout was one of my favourite labels introducing me to many new composers of the baroque/classical period, particularly Hummel and although some, including the pianist himself, would not agree, I think that in many cases Brendel's Vox & Vanguard issues are not bettered by his later Philips re-recordings. The label's founder George Mendelssohn (he later added Bartholdy and claimed somewhat dubiously to be a descendant) was another of those trained musicians come entrepreneurs to whom I feel indebted. Not being an enthusiast of period instrument ensembles I still treasure many of Joerg Faerber's Wurtemburg recordings on that label and my favourite recording of the ubiquitous 4 seasons is still his stunningly recorded version with Suzanne Lautenbacher. I could go on.....

I agree totally – with you, 33lp, not Alf. Those early Brendels were superb and the other Mozart PCs on Turnabout weren’t too shabby either. The Fischer coupling of K175 and 271 remains one of my favourites to this day. There was a rawness and effervescence about them.

In fact Turnabout introduced me to two cycles that remain very dear to me – the Mozart Piano Concertos and the Holmboe Symphonies. Semkow’s recording of Holmboe’s 8th was the first work of his I encountered. It isn’t a patch on the later BIS Hughes recording but it lit the flame. 19/11d the label says on my copy, with its garish cover. Those Turnabout cover artists must have decorated fairgrounds in their spare time.