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Re: [ARSCLIST] Medtner playing his 3rd Piano Concerto]



Michael,

Many big thanks. I did read an earlier posting from that went into the situation about how soviet recordings were marketed, but I supposed I missed the relevant section and only saw the Melodiya/MK stuff which I DO understand (or think I understand). Your extensive elaboration pretty much tells me all I could hope to know about the disc. I have no doubt at this point that it is the British 1947, 78rpm recording that Don Cox wrote about:

The 1947 recording was made on 78s, and judging from the Testament
transfer had poor sound for its period. This CD was made 15 years ago,
and possibly a new transfer from the original parts (if they survive)
might improve on it slightly, but I doubt if there is much more to
extract.

So I would expect a Russian copy, whether made from 78s or from LP,
to be in very poor sound.

Apologies if my requests were unnecessarily redundant, but I'm glad to have all the information I can use in one place now and again thank you, Marcia, Don (and other helpful listers).

Peter Hirsch


Michael Biel wrote:
It seems like the ARSCList took a Christmas vacation!! So lets start up again.

Punto wrote:
I do want to follow up on this since I initiated the discussion by trying to decipher and decode a record in hand. From the start, I was able to transliterate enough to be certain that Medtner was the composer and soloist on the disc and I had tracked down the Testament CD of the Medtner/Philharmonia/Dobrowen recording. I could not read enough of the rest of the text to conclude that this was definitely the 1947 Mahrajah of Mysore sponsored recording and not some other one since the recording company and all other information beyond composer, work and performer, was undecipherable to me. I did hear from Marcia Segal who very helpfully deciphered a scan I sent them

Several days ago I had already given the translations of the trademarks on the label, but I'll go into more detail to explain a few of the words and then go into the history of the factory
.
If the rest of you want to follow along, here is a scan from the web of this label format of Peter's record --


http://www.collectable-records.ru/labels/RUSSIA/Moscow/vsg/2.htm


The black lettering at the top is translated to Ministry of Culture USSR. It reads Menesterstvo Kulturi SSSR (cyrillic lettering looking like CCCP is really SSSR which translates in English as USSR.)


The trademark lettering is BCG but would be pronounced VSG. What looks like a B is the cyrillic V. What looks like a C is the cyrillic S. This writing is in script, so the final letter looks to us like a T but it is a script G. (Very few dictionaries show the script alphabet chart -- you have to find a children's schoolbook or schoolroom wall chart which is what I have found to guide me. Another real challenge is the script T which looks like an M !!!!! Script lettering on album covers, posters, advertisements, trademarks, etc. are a real challenge even if you think you can read printed cyrillic.) These initials stand for what is in the next line in the black banner.

The words in the banner are Vsyesayuznaya Studya Gramzapisi This translates into All-Union Studio Phonorecords. All-union means it is for the entire Soviet Union rather than one region or republic. The middle word is NOT student which includes the letter n in the Russian word just like in the English word. (There are other words close to these in the dictionary that start studye . . . that mean cold, refrigerate, brawn, or jelly depending on what other letters follow to make up the word.) Gram is the part of the trademark word Gramophone which means writing (the whole word means writing of sound) and gram also has some forms like that in Russian as well, but it is used here much like it is used in the Russian word "gramplastinki" which means "gramophone plate" or disc record. Zapisi means document, record, inscription. Gramzapisi is really a coined word, just like Gramophone.
The curved line at the bottom is Dolgoigrayushaya 33 1/3 which means Long Playing 33 1/3. At the beginning some LPs were at 78.



VSG was the original name of the factory that was built inside the city limits of Moscow in the early 60s, and later in the Melodiya days became noted on the labels in Russian as the Moscow Experimental Factory Gramzapis. When the USSR was broken up, so was Melodiya. In Moscow it was a very complicated situation that was only understandable once the President of Melodiya explained it to me. This record factory became corporately independent and used the trade name Gramzapis. There are some records in the 1990s with this trademark. The executive office building is the only part of the company which legally retained the use of the trademark Melodiya, and was able to get financing as a joint venture with German BMG Bertlesman. The recording studio right next door to the executive office building was supposed to be part of that company, but the workers in that building took it over and made their own joint venture with another company and became known as Russian Disc. I have a couple of examples of records with a Russian Disc label but a Melodiya trademark on the sleeve, and the President explained that these probably left the factory at the time when the eventual outcome of the split was uncertain. But he explained unhappily that they are two separate companies. Here are a few of the many formats of Russian Disc records.
http://www.collectable-records.ru/labels/RUSSIA/Moscow/russian_disc/1.htm
http://www.collectable-records.ru/labels/RUSSIA/Moscow/russian_disc/9.htm
http://www.collectable-records.ru/labels/RUSSIA/Moscow/russian_disc/5.htm



BUT all of the separate companies were still tied together because of the manufacturing facilities. ALL raw vinyl for every plant in the entire country came from the Aprelvka factory which is about 30 miles SW of Moscow. Their joint-venture name was Aprelvka Sound, and you will see records from the 90s with that trademark. ALL the metal parts for masters and stampers for the entire country were made in Moscow, possibly in the recording studio. So there had to be SOME cooperation among all of the parts of the former Melodiya. The ownership of the masters, the metal parts, etc, were major contractual problems because if a factory had metal parts they would use them even if the Moscow office building company thought they had exclusive rights to them. And the master tapes were next door in the Russian Disc recording studio, and they used them even thought the office building company thought it improper. It is all very confusing.



The Riga plant was bought by one of the musicians of the rock group Time Machine and became known as RiTonis/Sintez.


http://www.collectable-records.ru/labels/RUSSIA/RIGA/26.htm
http://www.collectable-records.ru/labels/RUSSIA/RIGA/20.htm

Leningrad became a major source of Russian Beatles records with the trademark AnTrop (which can't be read properly by non-Russians, but stands for Andrey Tropillo, a major rock manager),

http://www.collectable-records.ru/labels/RUSSIA/NO%20LABEL/4.htm

Leningrad pressed other labels like Gala, and SNC for rock musician Stas Namin.

http://www.collectable-records.ru/labels/RUSSIA/PETERBOURG/gala/1.htm
http://www.collectable-records.ru/labels/RUSSIA/PETERBOURG/snc/1.htm

The Tiblisi plant became the source of pirated rock LPs with no visible trademark.

The VSG plant, which by then was known as the Moscow Experimental Factory Gramzapis, was in the midst of being converted to all-CD manufacturing before the split and was able to start pressing CDs with the Melodiya trademark. Those discs have a blue swirl on the label. When the split-off came, the factory took the trademark Gramzapis, and you will find CDs with that trademark. Within a year the Russian Mafia infiltrated that factory. I interviewed the man who was the manager of the plant during the LP era and oversaw the conversion to CDs. When I told him I had bought a Rolling Stones CD in Kentucky with a Melodiya trademark, he became visibly sad. He told me he tried to keep the factory honest, but Andrey Tropillo came to him with a forged license contract and had the CDs pressed. Then when he realized that there was no way to fight the mafia, he and his assistant quit, and the mafia took over the plant. At that point in 1995 the two of them were running a small company which made childrens cassettes. It was a VERY SMALL company. Their entire manufacturing plant was a four-well cassette duplicator in the room next to his office. He had to be VERY small to not interest the mafia. There still was a factory retail store in Gramzapis in 1995, and when the counter girls found out I was an American collector they gave me a copy of each LP they still had in stock which was about ten records. I also bought a few CDs. Alexander would not let me take any pictures there -- "It is not safe, Michael. Very criminal place." I got videotape of the factory only when were were across a very wide and busy street. All the time he was worried and fidgeting and looking all around and making us both look very suspicious!!! (We had almost been gunned down leaving another record company when photographing near a car with some suspicious characters, so he was right to be nervous.)
If you will send me the label scans I can explain the other numbers and letters on the label for the recording itself. Mike Biel mbiel@xxxxxxxxx ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++





Punto wrote:
I do want to follow up on this since I initiated the discussion by trying to decipher and decode a record in hand. From the start, I was able to transliterate enough to be certain that Medtner was the composer and soloist on the disc and I had tracked down the Testament CD of the Medtner/Philharmonia/Dobrowen recording. I could not read enough of the rest of the text to conclude that this was definitely the 1947 Mahrajah of Mysore sponsored recording and not some other one since the recording company and all other information beyond composer, work and performer, was undecipherable to me. I did hear from Marcia Segal who very helpfully deciphered a scan I sent them and I now know that it is just a dismally poor pressing of the Philharmonia Abbey Road LP. I have not asked for permission to quote, so I hope she won't mind my sharing a portion of the correspondence in hope that someone else is familiar with the issuing label and might have more information on it. Mike Biel and Steve Smolian have ventured a fair amount on clarification on the Melodiya/MK situation, but this does not appear have anything to do with them, but rather something close to what is below.

Very rough transliteration/phonetic rendering, enough that you may be able to search via Google:

From top to bottom:

1) The line at the top ending with CCCP

Ministyerstvo Cultyur CCCP (possibly)
Cultural Ministry of the Soviet Union

*>2) BCG and in the black ribbon beneaeth it

Vsyesoyuznaya Studiya Gramzapisi *(possibly) the second word means "study"

No it doesn't. It means "Studio." You are confused because of the closeness of this word to styudent
Anyone have more information or want a crack at the scan that I have made?

Thanks to Marcia and anyone with supplemental info.

Peter Hirsch







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