Re: [ARSCLIST] Vanguard Classics reappears in 2 cd sets

[Roderic G Stephens <savecal@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I'm another devotee of the Commands, especially the 
Pittsburgh/Steinberg recordings. Mine are all the reel
to reel releases that I've collected through the
years.  The string sound of the Rach #2 Symphony is
some of the sweetest I've ever heard.

Rod Stephens

--- Roger and Allison Kulp <thorenstd124@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

> I have a few of these Commands myself.They were
> pretty good.35mm film,George Piros mastering,etc. .I
> had thought they were pretty much forgotten,as
> nobody talks about them,the way they do Everest,or
> any other early stereo label.I would assume the
> original film is either long gone,or unusable.I
> guess you might talk someone like Classic Records,or
> Simply Vinyl,into pressing a batch up.Some
> interested,and well-heeled benefactor might have to
> help fund it,though.
>   Roger Kulp
> 
> Tom Fine <tflists@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>   Hi David:
> 
> This is great info, I'm certianly not going to
> berate you.
> 
> I can't understand what "last of its kind" machine
> Omega was claiming to use. I had heard they used 
> 3-track tapes played back on an Ampex 3200 transport
> with MR-70 heads and electronics. If their 
> "last of its kind" was indeed playing films, it was
> not near last of its kind. 3-track mag-film 
> machines are still in use all over the place. In NY,
> one need only go to Astoria to see masses of 
> mag-film machines in daily use.
> 
> Whatever those guys out in CA told you is probably
> closer to the truth than my 3rd-hand info.
> 
> Hey, if someone on this list has a viable reissue
> label, let's talk about Command Classics. I think 
> Universal wants a pretty hefty units commitment, so
> it's gotta be someone with some marketing and 
> distribution abilities. A 500 or 1000 unit release
> won't cut it with those guys.
> 
> -- Tom Fine
> 
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "David Lewis" 
> To: 
> Sent: Monday, June 05, 2006 2:38 PM
> Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Vanguard Classics reappears
> in 2 cd sets
> 
> 
> Then what did DCC use to make thier reissues,a few
> years back?
> 
> Tom Fine wrote: This is the key fact about
> Everest, from the Vanguard Classics website:
> 
> ------------------------------------
> WHAT ABOUT EVEREST?
> 
> That's the most asked question from consumers who
> visit our site. When
> Artemis Records purchased
> Vanguard Classics from the Omega Records Group in
> 2003, we declined to
> purchase the license to the
> Everest label held by Omega. We know that many of
> you are looking for the
> catalog of recordings
> available from Everest, but Vanguard Classics no
> longer distributes the
> Everest label.
> 
> ------------------------------------
> (Tom continues...)
> As I understand it, and I might be wrong ...
> 
> Everest is now owned by Universal, and Omega no
> longer exists as a working
> entity so they no longer
> have a license to release any Everest recordings.
> Universal also owns the
> libraries of the only two
> other labels to extensively use 35mm mag-film,
> Mercury (which Universal
> acquired as part of
> Polygram) and Command (which was owned by former MCA
> group that morphed into
> Universal, acquired by
> MCA as part of ABC Records).
> 
> As I understand it, and again I might be wrong,
> Omega made their 3ch SACD's
> from the backup 3-track
> tapes (or the original sessions were done on tape,
> not film), not from
> Everest's magnetic films,
> which I've been told are in terrible condition and
> many are not around
> anymore.
> ****
> 
> I remember speaking with Duane Martuge, who was
> working as a rep for
> Omega/Everest/Vanguard Classics when they first
> rolled out the Everest
> product line in about 1996 or so. I met him at the
> Allegro Conference. Duane
> said that they **did** work from the Everest films
> and utilized a machine at
> Sony that "was the last of its kind" to play back
> the films. Apparently,
> this machine was mothballed just as the Everest
> project reached completion.
> At one point Omega/Everest was including a little
> insert with photos within
> the Everest CD releases to show how they did it
> technically. But do note
> that the re-issue program was very limited - perhaps
> only 8-16 short CDs
> ever resulted from it. So Tom's assertion that "they
> are in terrible
> condition and may not be around anymore" might well
> be correct. The
> Northridge earthquake also damaged a great many of
> the Everest masters - a
> pity - many reels were bent in half.
> 
> Tom:
> Some of the Everest jazz stuff has turned up on a
> small label the name of
> which escapes me (Woody
> Herman, Tito Puente and some others). If I recall
> correctly, they noted that
> the material was
> licensed from Universal, which backs up my belief
> that Everest is now owned
> by Universal.
> 
> The DCC reissues of Everest Jazz material were
> supplied by Bernie Solomon,
> who was part of Everest initially and also had a
> share in DCC. These would
> have been taken from tapes, and I wish that there
> had been more of them done
> than the couple that appeared. At the time at which
> I met Bernie, in the
> late 1990s, he still owned a large part of the
> Everest catalogue, and had
> issued some of the classical items on a terrible,
> but persistent, label
> called Bescol (i.e. "Bernie E. Solomon Company
> Limited" or something like
> that) and had leased these and still more to
> LaserLight. Bernie hasn't been
> dead a very long time, and if Artemis/Vanguard
> decided to pass on the
> Everest classical catalogue, perhaps it has reverted
> to his, or someone
> else's, estate. Remember that Bernie Solomon
> (Everest) and Seymour Solomon
> (Vanguard) were brothers, so this might complicate
> matters of legacy
> considerably. If Universal purchased Everest, I have
> yet to hear of it, but
> they don't crow very loudly when they make such
> acquisitions.
> 
> Tom:
> 
> I wish there was enough interest
> in the Command orchestral stuff to license and
> reissue some of it. The
> Pittsburgh/Steinberg stuff
> was really good.
> 
> ***
> I am SO with you there, brother! I remember for my
> ninth Christmas I told my
> parents I wanted Stravinsky conducting his three big
> ballets. I got the Le
> Sacre and Firebird LPs but there was no Petrushka,
> so Mom and Dad persuaded
> me to settle for the $1.99 Pittsburgh/Steinberg
> performance on Westminister
> Gold. I grew to love it so much I never went back to
> look for a Petrushka
> with Stravinsky conducting. The Schubert symphony
> disc in that Command
> series was also just astounding.
> 
> Finally, I just wanted to say that I have discussed
> these topics before only
> to be berated on this list for repeating what guys
> like Martuge, Steve
> Hoffmann and Bernie Solomon said to me. Bear in mind
> that the office for DCC
> was not far from where I worked (as the classical
> guy at the Tower Records
> in Woodland Hills.) PLEASE - do not come on here and
> tell me I'm a bleeping
> liar and how could I stand to circulate such myths.
> I have no idea why these
> guys would say such things, but I was a good account
> for them and perhaps
> they put a little gloss on it. They did seem
> surprised that I seemed to know
> so much about their back catalogue and may have been
> a bit guarded about it.
> But I used to see Bernie in the store two and three
> times a week, and I made
> a point of remembering whatever he told me.
> 
> David N. Lewis
> Assistant Classical Editor, All Music Guide
> 
> My life is the clearest proof that if you have
> talent, determination and
> luck, you will make it in the end: Never Give Up. -
> Sir Georg Solti
> 
> 
> 		
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