Re: [ARSCLIST] appraisal

[Karl Miller <lyaa071@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Wed, 3 Mar 2004, Mike Richter wrote:

> When he was mustered out of the army in 1945, my friend joined the NBC
> Symphony and remained with them until they finally disbanded. He was also
> an audio engineer and, among other things, 'moonlighted' with RCA and
> maintained Toscanini's sound system. Following the Maestro's death, there
> was a memorial concert at Carnegie Hall on 3 February 1957 in which Charles
> Munch conducted "La Mer"; Pierre Monteux conducted "Enigma Variations"; and
> Bruno Walter led the Beethoven 3rd Symphony.

snip

> Nor does he plan to do anything with his other recordings - much of the
> RCA/NBC classical and jazz programming of the latter 40s and 50s, plus some
> of the non-broadcast material since he had come to know the musicians so well.
>
> At any rate, from the half dozen tapes he's digitized and sent me on CD, I
> know that the collection is priceless. Unfortunately, when his time comes,
> they are likely to be scrapped. His wife has long decried his wasting time
> on this sort of thing and I doubt that others could persuade her to do much
> with the assortment. My guess is that they won't be passed along to an
> institution, but even if they were to be, how could such material be evaluated?

snip

> Sorry for the anecdote, but I wanted to share my frustration. He hasn't
> even catalogued his tapes, let alone investigated questions of rights. And
> he's quite stubborn enough to refuse to do so right up to the end.

Thanks for sharing this story, not totally unlike scenarios I have
encountered.

Karl