Favourite record label past or present

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Re. the past, Pye Golden Guinea served me well where GJ was concerned.

Gabriel Jackson's Music was recorded by them?!

[ahinton]

Anyone for Altarus?

[Bryn]

Gabriel Jackson's Music was recorded by them?!

I would have used "Rubber Brolly", but that affectionate soubriquet seems to upset some of his fans.

[Bryn]

Anyone for Altarus?

Not as a favourite, more of an also ran.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Anyone for Altarus?

Never heard of 'em.

[slarty]

My favourite was Decca FFSS especially recorded in the sofiensaal Vienna now sadly gone and for today I look around for the great old Reader's Digest recordings that were supervised by Charles Gerhardt and engineered by the late, great Kenneth Wilkinson. These have taken on Iconic status now, and deservedly so, "Wilkie" was recording these from the early sixties on, and as recordings, they have never been surpassed. Barbirolli Sibelius 2 with the RPO and Tchaikovsky 5 with Horenstein stand out.

[vinteuil]

... erato, astree auvidis, oehms, winter & winter, l' oiseau-lyre, arcana, harmonia mundi, dhm, archiv,et'cetera, bis, hyperion, ricercar





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[mercia]

I used to have several Turnabout LPs of early(ish) music - or perhaps that wasn't a label but part of another company ????

[ahinton]

Never heard of 'em.

Then they must be a figment of what's left of my imagination...

[umslopogaas]

Sort of on topic, has everyone heard of the TAS list? For those who havent, The Absolute Sound was (maybe still is, I've never seen a copy) an American magazine featuring recordings with particularly spectacular sound. Not necessarily the best music or performance, its the ability to make your ears bleed that counts. Near the end of the LP era it published a list, sometimes called the HP list because it was compiled by someone called Harry Palmer. He drew up a list of 100 top audiophile classical LPs including a top ten all time greats. There were similar lists for other types of music - opera, pop etc. Among those who collect classical LPs, including me, TAS list items are highly sought after. Anyway, back to the thread, on the TAS list are a lot of (American) RCA and Mercury labels, some Decca and next to no HMV. I dont have it to hand, but I recall at least one Lyrita, the English and Scottish Dances by Malcolm Arnold.

I presume these would be American Decca, ie London, labels. There is much debate among collectors over whether the English RCA, Mercury and Decca issues are better than the American ones. Personally, I dont know, though its hard to get hold of the American ones to check on this side of the Atlantic because those companies had subsidiaries on both sides of the pond and obviously, what sold, and now turns up second-hand, in the UK was UK-made copies.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I used to have several Turnabout LPs of early(ish) music - or perhaps that wasn't a label but part of another company ????

Turnabout was the budget label of Vox

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

For a while, my favourite label was Saga, being the only one half decent one I could afford.

[Don Petter]

A toss up between Okeh and Paramount, I think.

[HighlandDougie]

As no-one has mentioned them so far, I'll lob in Zig-Zag Territoires among labels around at the moment (interesting roster of artists, good production values, well-annotated) and Supraphon in the past - all those great recordings by Karel Ancerl et al, at 17/6 a pop, courtesy of Paul Hamlyn.

[Radio64]

Virgin.