Re: [ARSCLIST] Piston Symphony #2-now ARS recordings

[Karl Miller <karl.miller@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Speaking for my label...I wanted to reissue some of those ARS recordings from the original tapes. One of our list members kindly mentioned their whereabouts and gave me a contact, who, after several attempts, never responded. The recordings were owned, as I recall, by the Ditson Foundation which had financed them. When Grenell (of ARS and other ventures) was done with them, he gave the tapes to Columbia University(home of the Foundation). So, as to why work with the discs...often times you can't get at the original tapes...and if you want to reissue based upon the more liberal terms of copyright outside the US, it is unlikely anyone is going to offer the loan of anything.
   
  I have wanted to re release some of the old MGM classical stuff...assuming the tapes are sitting somewhere...I think someone suggested they might be in Germany.
   
  Some of the ARS recordings were reissued on Desto and Bay Cities. I don't know if they borrowed the tapes, but the Bay Cities issues had problems, with at least one recording sounding like it suffered from phasing problems.
   
  And, on the subject of Grenell, David Bonner's book on Young People's Records et al. is now available at:
   
  http://www.scarecrowpress.com/Catalog/SingleBook.shtml?command=Search&db=^DB/CATALOG.db&eqSKUdata=081085919X
   
  Karl
   
   
   
   
  As to the mention of the pressings...I would agree with David that some of them are quite fine. I also think a few of the performances were excellent, but indeed, most were not. 

Don Cox <doncox@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
  On 18/12/07, David Lennick wrote:
> Thanks! And info from another source had confirmed my suspicion that
> it's in A Minor. Amazing how far off pitch some early LPs were..also
> amazing how some were issued from master tapes that seemed to come
> into close proximity with the playback head about 50% of the time.
> 
Early LPs were mostly very poor, like early CDs.

I don't understand the current fashion for making CD transfers from LP
pressings, except in cases where the studio master tapes are truly lost.
For example, why would anyone want a Callas opera recording transferred
from an early EMI LP, when the same performance is available transferred
from the tapes?

Regards
-- 
Don Cox
doncox@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx