Re: [ARSCLIST] Pirated Mengelberg 78s

[David Lennick <dlennick@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

"eric@xxxxxxxxxx" wrote:

> >Original Message:
> >-----------------
> >From: David Lennick dlennick@xxxxxxxxxxxx
> >Date: Thu, 29 Dec 2005 20:18:53 -0500
> >
> >Don Tait wrote:
> >
> >> Mengelberg's Concertgebouw recording of Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony
> >> (Telefunken SK 2424/9) was pirated on the "Music Appreciation Recordings
> of the
> >> World's Greatest Music" 78 series. The labels say "World's Greatest
> >> Symphonies," the disc numbers are X-40/44, and they are in a flimsy
> album with a leaflet
> >> of notes. The labels say "Copyright 1941 Music Appreciation Projects,
> Inc."
> >
> > I recently found the Beethoven Eroica on "World's Greatest Symphonies",
> in two 3-disc
> > albums, and I'd bet it's the Mengelberg although I haven't made a direct
> comparison yet.
>
> The Eroica is Schuricht / Berlin Philharmonic (rec. September 1941).
>
> Up until this exchange I, and thus my website, confused "RCA" with "RCA
> Victor", and had further assumed this was a licensed issue. It's a relief
> to realize that they were pirated; the thought that someone in the states
> was licensing from Polydor in 1941 is a bit nauseating. Yes, I know much
> worse went on, but still.
>
> Regards,
> Eric Grunin
> www.grunin.com/eroica

This is fascinating! I'd always assumed (and to assume is to make an ass of u
and of me) that Obie stole nothing but Telefunkens..but there's a period where
Telefunken and Polydor (DG) are sharing the same roof, maybe before the Siemens
era. It still raises the question of how Obie got the discs to bootleg while we
were at war with Germany, or were enemy phonograph records still being exported
to the US? I find that hard to believe.

As for "RCA", Obie wanted everyone to believe that the Record Corporation of
America stood for just that.

dl