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Re: [ARSCLIST] Soviet Recordings - MK-Mike Biel

"Michael Biel m.biel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx" wrote: 
  ***In 1964 the Melodiya trademark was introduced
for all Soviet records, foreign and domestic, from
all pressing plants.
Quoting Karl Miller <karl.miller@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>: 
When was the name Melodiya first used? I have some
early, mono only LPs that have Melodiya on the label.
Were these repressings?

Absolutely. The Melodiya name was never used by any plant before 1964. Indeed, the new web site of Melodiya that I spotted last night says that the firm was FOUNDED in 1964!! http://www.melody.su/eng/work/about

Most Soviet records have a GOST number which in cyrillic looks like roct. These are not catalog numbers despite being on both sides of the record. This is a governmental industrial manufacturing standard, and is on most things manufactured in the Soviet Union. For all records it was number 5289, and would be followed by the year of update. So the earliest LPs would have roct 5289-50. The years of the updates were 50, 56, 61, 68, 73, 80, and finally 88. This would identify the era of the pressing you are holding. The prefix of LPs originally was D, which stands for a loooonnngggg Russian word which means long playing. In the mid-50s they "remastered" some of their early LPs and these have the prefix HD, which actually should be ND because the H is a cyrillic N for Novy or "new". For a while they put the speed before the letter, such as 33D. Then they changed the prefix to M for mono, C for stereo (syrillic "stepeo", and CM for compatible mono/stereo. The number showed the size, with a single leading zero for 12-inch, no leading zero for 10-inch, two leading zeros for 8-inch, and three leading zeros for 7-inch. Later in 1975 they changed the prefix to a letter (M, C, r which is cyrillic G for flexies, and eventually A for digital) and two numbers. The first digit was the musical category and the second digit was the size, 0 for 12-inch, 1 for 10-inch, and 2 for 7-inch. After the catalog number was a three digit number that was 001 thru 009. NOBODY KNOWS WHAT THOSE NUMBERS MEAN. I have asked the president of Melodiya, the former manager of the Moscow pressing plant Gramzapis, noted discographer and collector Valeri Safoshkin, and many other Russian collectors, and NOBODY knows !!!! They never change over the life of repressings. They are the same no matter which pressing plant is used. They have no relationship to the performer or musical type. Multi-record sets can have different numbers on each record. The only explanation I have is that anybody who discovered or knew the meaning was purged by the KGB and is probably still languishing in a Gulog or Lefortivo Prison.

***Does it have any Brussels Worlds Fair designation
on the label? Most Soviet labels say somewhere Ministry
of Culture USSR, but does it have the AZ torch logo or Akkord?

The disc is D 2847 and the label, in cyrillic is Ministry of Culture, and it does say Aprelevsky factory. The cover has a
logo for the 1958 World's Fair, with "USSR section at the
Universal and International Exhibition of Brussels 1958."

This was the era before general use of individually designed covers for each individual record. They would just have pretty picture or a pressing plant design, or a design for a special event. I have some for the 1957 International Youth Festival. So they did one for the 58 Brussels fair. But no special label like they did in 1939. So they could take home the leftovers and sell them there.

And since you are a treasure trove of knowledge about such things...a few questions...as to the demise of Olympia...the story I heard was that they were shut down over the unauthorized issue of the set of the Miaskovsky Symphonies...is this correct?

Are you talking about the American bargain label Olympia that was part of the Everest-Tradition-etc. group that we used to see in college bookstores?? The label that reissued acoustical records in electronic stereo and then converted those into SQ-quad??? If so, I had not heard about this. I would find it hard to believe that anybody could sue over Miakovsky symphonies. In the CD era there was a suit for the American versions of Russian Disc over Rostopovich concert recordings. That suit he won, I believe.

Also, there was a label...can't remember the name at the moment, that supposedly had access to some Russian radio archives and had started issuing recordings. Do you know if that collection was ever cataloged? I have wondered for years what might have survived. For example, there are many references to Prokofieff having performed his own music over Soviet radio, yet, I have never encountered any release of these performances. Would there be any way to find out if they exist?

The first group of these came out in England but were hard to find here in the U.S. Tower might have done their own importing of them for their stores, but that was all. There was a lot of bad feelings about this deal in Russia. They considered this guy a thief. This Ostankino broadcast recording archive was always available to Melodiya and had been occasionally used by it, but this deal went behind their back. Money talked in 1991 and 1992, and someone was bribed to make this deal. I think it was halted after only 100 tapes were dubbed and exported. The recording I was looking forward to was an unpublished Paul Robson concert that was mainly in Russian. I think that the one that got out was one that had already been issued. I've been trying to think of the guy's and the label's names. He had to always play up his family's Russian background. I think I have one of the CDs, but only one.

And yet another question...would you know of any source which lists what Soviet recordings were issued during the 78 rpm era. From time to time I have encountered some CD issues of items recorded in the 40s, some by Samuel Feinberg for example. Is there any Russian source for this material as it appears very little of it made its way to the west.

The discographies I've come across of 78s have been of popular records. Are Russian records listed in WORM? (I don't have a copy) That wouldn't be complete, but it would be a start. There is a beautiful 2002 book by P.N. Grunberg "History of the beginning of Recordings in Russia" with a vocal discograpy by V.L. Ynen, but although the history goes into the Soviet years and shows some beautiful color label pictures, the discography is completely pre-revolution. Reiner Lotz had a few copies to sell a few years ago, and it had practically no Western distribution. It is all in Russian, of course. It includes an appendix with what seems to be a complete series of matrix number dating charts that I have been promising the 78-L to post for several years from a prior source. When I have time to combine them and have a translation verified, I will do it.

And...as to the Bennett...is there a more complete
source of information on the LP era?

As I previously posted, not all in one place. Since all the records are in very few numerical series, it should eventually be easy to do. Into 1991 there are only four microgroove numerical series, mono, stereo, digital, and flexi, and one other series for standard groove 78s. But remember, MK publications will not list records that were not considered worthy of export. Post Soviet records from 1991-1995 will be more difficult, but there still was only one source for matrices, the Moscow Recording Studio, so if that info can be tapped, it can be done.

(By the way, the very LAST standard groove 78 master was 48206, issued in 1969. and the pressing of them was phased out in 1970. Info straight from the 1969 25th Anniv book "Melodiya: Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow" edited by V.A. Solomatin.)

Mike Biel mbiel@xxxxxxx m.biel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

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