Re: [ARSCLIST] OK - Does Anyone Know More About This?

[David Lewis <davlew@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Tom,

Thanks for this very helpful answer. That basically answers my question,
although in this case:

I'm not sure how much tape Bert ran that day but one would think that if a
tape of the piece you cite existed it would have been issued on that CD.

There may be hope. "Tabor" is tagged on to the end of a disc that otherwise
consists of a Stokowski concert in stereo from Detroit, 11/20/1952,
consisting of Jacob Avshalomov's The Taking of T'ung Kuan with the
Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 5. It was included, in part, as the recording was
at one time mis-marked as being by Stokowski, but was matched to the Kubelik
performance through comparison. Certainly if there are other bits and pieces
of Ma vlast in stereo, they would not have fit on the 65 minute CD.  

Not that I would throw away my Mercury of "From Bohemia's Woods and Fields;"
it's still great. But it would be interesting to hear Whyte's recording if
anything survives of it.

David N. Lewis
Assistant Classical Editor, All Music Guide

"To collect [folksongs] without a phonograph - until there's something
better - is mad and criminal." - Percy Grainger, 1907

-----Original Message-----
From: Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List
[mailto:ARSCLIST@xxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Tom Fine
Sent: Thursday, June 14, 2007 6:07 PM
To: ARSCLIST@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] OK - Does Anyone Know More About This?

Hi David:

As widely written about through the years by Bert Whyte, my father took him
along on some of the 
early Mercury single-mic sessions and Bert was allowed and indeed encouraged
by those present to 
make experimental binaural (what 2-mic recordings were called back then
although the definition of 
binaural has been refined to mean something else now) recordings on his
Magnacorder staggered-head 
machine. I think Bert used a pair of U-47's but I might be wrong. Apparently
the copyright owner of 
these sessions, Universal and/or the CSO, is OK with the CD release of some
of Bert's tapes (at 
least I haven't read about any copyright-infringement actions). The
Stokowski recordings are the 
Bell Labs disk recordings from the 1930's, which I believe are PD but might
not be because an 
elaborate agreement was made between Bell Labs and the Stokowski family and
the Philadephia 
Orchestra when Bell Labs issued their LPs in the late 70's (this according
to the original mastering 
engineer; I did some investigating about reissuing a CD from those master
tapes under AES auspices 
but too many rights issues involved). Again, I would assume the issuer of
the current CD cleared all 
these rights or they would have been sued.

I'm not sure how much tape Bert ran that day but one would think that if a
tape of the piece you 
cite existed it would have been issued on that CD.

-- Tom Fine

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "David Lewis" <davlew@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <ARSCLIST@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thursday, June 14, 2007 5:00 PM
Subject: [ARSCLIST] OK - Does Anyone Know More About This?


> According to Music & Arts' "Stokowski and Kubelik conduct Experimental
> Stereo Recordings from 1952" (MUA 1190) contains an experimental stereo
> recording, made by Bert Whyte, during the sessions for Rafael Kubelik's
> Mercury recording of Ma vlast. The piece is "Tabor," and annotator Edward
> Johnson writes "Other such experiments from THAT and later Kubelik/CSO
> sessions are known to exist but this is the first to be released..."
>
> What "other such experiments" from this session "[is] known to exist?" I'm
> particularly - strongly, in fact - interested in any stereo takes of the
> movement "From Bohemia's Woods and Fields" from this December 1952
session.
> Even in mono, this performance is positively electrifying.
>
> David N. Lewis
> Assistant Classical Editor, All Music Guide
>
> "To collect [folksongs] without a phonograph - until there's something
> better - is mad and criminal." - Percy Grainger, 1907
>