Re: [ARSCLIST] {ARSCLIST] Pirated Mengelberg 78s

[Don Tait <Dontaitchicago@xxxxxxx>]

  I can't still figure out how to quote anyone's messages in a reply, so --

  Regarding Steven C. Barr's message, Obie could have obtained Telefunkens or 
other non-USA records in the USA as imports before 12/11/41, when Hitler 
declared war on the USA, or found imported copies after that. They probably 
remained on sale. In the case of Mengelberg's Beethoven 6, recorded 12/22/37, 
Telefunken sets had surely been imported to New York and other places before the war 
began. The same for his 1937 Tchaikovsky Pathetique. 

  David touched on that matter too, plus whether Obie pirated DGG and other 
companies' records as well as Telefunken. I don't know, but since he wasn't the 
most scrupulous type perhaps he pirated anything he could get his hands on as 
long as the source had good sound? Telefunkens certainly did. I've had a 
number of those 78s over the years, but given the fairly restricted number of 78 
issues of individual titles it usually wasn't hard to identify the source that 
had been used and except for the Mengelberg Pastoral, which I retained for 
curiosity's sake after I got a Telefunken set, I didn't keep them because I owned 
the originals. Except the New World, which I never did identify -- but I have 
all of the pre-war sets Obie could have used.

  I do remember a few Montgomery Ward or other bootlegs that credited Leo 
Blech and Erich Kleiber, as I think David said. However, not only were the 
credited orchestras fictitious, such as "Hungarian State Philharmonic" (I think), 
but I seem to recall that they might have been conducted by others such as Hans 
Schmidt-Isserstedt, who made a considerable number of Telefunken 78s. And I 
also recall one credited to Schneevoigt, but not perhaps not George. More Obie 
and others' duplicity. Sorry I can't remember more. I guess I should have kept 
the records after all to explore it. We should get Ernst Lumpe interested in 
this!

  Finally, did Telefunken and DGG have any connection before the end of the 
war? I've always thought they were separate companies until at least the 1950s, 
but I'd like to know if I'm wrong.

  Don Tait