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Re: [ARSCLIST] Soviet Recordings - MK
Punto <punto@xxxxxxxx> wrote:
***Where in the scheme of things does MK (Mezhdurodnaya Kniga?) fit in? I have seen a number of discs on this label, but don't know if it is related in some way to Melodiya or not. I think I saw some that were MK - Artia and there was some western label or labels that licensed MK material.
Last night I pulled some MK's from the shelf. The address was that of Grenell's pressing plant in New Jersey, Abbey Record Manufacturing Corporation. Checking with David Bonner, he reminded me that later on, in the early 60s Grenell took over Urania and US distribution of Artia/Parliament.
Should anyone have the interest, from the Bennett, "It was the end of 1919 that the first Soviet records made their appearance...pressings were carried on in the former Pathe factory." Records pressed under the MK logo were for export. By 1964 the same label, Melodiya was used by all of the pressing plants. There were four main pressing plants: Moscow, Leningrad, Riga and Tashkent.
As for my World's Fair record, it was from 1958, the Brussels Fair, Andrei Shtogarenko's Suite in Memorium of Lesya Ukrainka. D2846-2847. The label is Ministry of Culture USSR.
Typing this I am reminded of all of those symphonies, concertos, etc. (some good, and some not so good) based on folk music and written at the behest of the government. I wonder if any of those will ever make it to CD.
Karl