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Re: [ARSCLIST] Long term in print recordings -was: Gould Golbergs
At 10:02 AM 3/16/2004 -0500, phirsch wrote:
I don't know the precise date of release of Dennis Brain's recording of the
Mozart horn concerti with von Karajan and the Philharmonia Orchestra, but I
believe that the sessions were in 1953 or 54 ( I have the exact date filed
away and could check if need be). These recordings have most certainly
never lapsed from being in print. A Caruso 78 that predates this by nearly
five decades may indeed be able to claim the same honor, but I imagine that
tracing it might be more of a complex task than the case of these horn
recordings. Furthermore, there is an inherent difference (in my opinion)
between a single opera aria and an extended work like the Goldbergs or 4
Mozart concerti and this may be more in line with what Mr. Levinson has in
mind.
That is a magnificent recording and certainly should never be out of the
catalogue, but at least in the U.S. it was a victim of "improvements" in
the recording process. I have a moderately extensive collection of Schwann
catalogues and thought I would check my memory: the recording had gone out
of print here as an Angel title and remained so until picked up on the
Seraphim label some years later. Sure enough, it was gone from the U.S.
shops by February 1974 and had not reappeared by July 1980. One of the
concerti - IIRC, No. 2 - had been picked up on a potpourri disc, but I
believe it, too, had been dropped in that period.
I suppose the playing field would need to be established to pursue the
question further: How long a work, in what catalogue(s), by how significant
a label, and so on. For example, the Krauss recording of "Der fliegende
Hollaender" may well hold the record for longevity of an opera in the
catalogue (recorded 1944) unless one of the Glyndebourne Mozart/da Ponte
operas made it through the transitions - assuming that even that would
count since the recitatives were abridged or deleted. The Beecham "Magic
Flute" would be another worth checking and the Walter recording of Act I of
"Die Walkuere" would be another.
Mike
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mrichter@xxxxxxx
http://www.mrichter.com/