Classics Club, Classical Collectors' Society and other LP groups

[Roslynmuse]

I'm not sure why this came into my mind the other day, but I recalled that around about 1979 I joined a group called the Classical Collectors' Society - they sent out a monthly magazine with a selection of LPs at slightly discounted prices, and occasionally sent one of those floppy 7'' discs with a few choice tracks from the selection. I think I must have been with them for about 5 years and picked up a few LPs from them along the way. I seem to remember that most of the discs were EMI/HMV and a few smaller labels like CRD. Anyone else on here subscribe?

That led me in turn to think about the Classics Club from the late 50s - my father joined that and we had a few discs from them - 7'' Eine Kleine Nachtmusik (conductor William Stellar?), 10" Brahms 2, Beethoven 6, Beethoven Appassionata and Moonlight Sonatas (Hans Kann), and La boutique fantasque with Rene Leibowitz conducting. Some of these were in blank sleeves of a distinctive shade of pink and one wrote the contents of the LP on them. Anyone have any memories of that? Some of the orchestras were pseudonymous as often happened with smaller and perhaps dodgier labels - Summit issued piano recordings of Sergio Fiorentino under the name Stepan Zawisza (including a rather good Chopin recital), and Society - mostly films and shows - issued a very odd highlights from The Pirates of Penzance with a cast including (allegedly) Martyn Green, but it has been suggested that the Major-General sounded more like Vincent Price! There must have been other labels like that.

[Petrushka]

The only such club I joined, and it's probably the same for many here, was Britannia. Punters were lured in by an incredibly cheap opening offer (the Solti Ring on CD for £20 in my case) and you had to choose a certain number of discs each month.

Before long, they were sending me numerous discs I'd never ordered and I had to threaten them with legal action unless they stopped. In the end I pulled the plug on them myself. They went bust some time after.

[hmvman]

The only such club I joined, and it's probably the same for many here, was Britannia. Punters were lured in by an incredibly cheap opening offer (the Solti Ring on CD for £20 in my case) and you had to choose a certain number of discs each month.

Before long, they were sending me numerous discs I'd never ordered and I had to threaten them with legal action unless they stopped. In the end I pulled the plug on them myself. They went bust some time after.

I got a Solti Ring in a similar way. I didn't experience same problems with Britannia afterwards but others I knew did.

[smittims]

Readers' Digest were active in this field for many years, commissioning popular recordings such as Earl Wild's Rachmaninov concertos and Sargent's stereo 'Messiah' . World Record Club flourished for years before being bought by EMI . They seem to have had different levels, such as the 'Recorded Music Circle' , which suggests an 'inner elite' of select members , though many of the recordings were British issues of Westminster and Everest tapes, but they did make some of their own recordings, among the most prized of which were Leon Goossens inthe Mozart oboe concerto and the Finzi/Holst disc conducted by Impgen Holsts and Christopher Finzi. I.H. made a few LPs for WRC , including one of her father's wind band music .

Then there was the Long Playing Record Library, run by Ivan March from premises on Squires Gate station approach near Blackpool . As I recall, you had to send your stylus to be inspected before they'd let you borrow records, and your turntable had to be ' physically-separate' from the amplifier and speakers . It was probably a good idea in the days when new records were expensive in real terms and one may have wanted to hear them only once; but I suspect it belonged to an age of assumed trust and honesty that has long gone. I wouldn't be surprised to hear they suffered from theft.

The Avgarde Gallery in Manchester ran a lending library for some years, but that was discontinued, perhaps for the same reason.

[gradus]

I looked forward to the monthly WRC selection arriving and still prize some of the recordings they issued especially the Stokowski Everest performances of Francesca da Rimini (never equalled imv)and Hamlet with the NYPO ('Stadium') orchestra and the Shostakovich 5th.

[cloughie]

I looked forward to the monthly WRC selection arriving and still prize some of the recordings they issued especially the Stokowski Everest performances of Francesca da Rimini (never equalled imv)and Hamlet with the NYPO ('Stadium') orchestra and the Shostakovich 5th.

Indeed there were some really good WRC issues - Anthony Collins Mozart 40/41 with the Sinfonia of London, and the same orchestra with Colin Davis with an orchestral selection inc Siegfried Idyll. Tauno Hannikainen Sibelius Sym 2, and anlther with Sym5 and Karelia, and yet another with Tapiola and the VC played by Tossy Spivakovsky - who also recorded a sparkling reading of the Tchaikovsky VC. If memory serves there was a Holberg Suite coupled wth Dvorak Serenade for strings.

[pastoralguy]

. As I recall, you had to send your stylus to be inspected before they'd let you borrow records, and your turntable had to be ' physically-separate' from the amplifier and speakers . .

I’ll never forget that as a 15 year old I borrowed three newly released DG lps from my local library that had been borrowed only once. All three were unplayable since the previous borrower had obviously used a broken stylus. I told the library staff and they admitted that this borrower had ruined many LPs.

[LMcD]

I’ll never forget that as a 15 year old I borrowed three newly released DG lps from my local library that had been borrowed only once. All three were unplayable since the previous borrower had obviously used a broken stylus. I told the library staff and they admitted that this borrower had ruined many LPs.

Suffolk Libraries stopped lending CDs and DVDs some time ago, and from January 1st there will no longer be any newspapers to read (other than online) while waiting for the bus . Apparently the cost of 135 daily papers across the county - that's 3 per library - is too great to bear.

[gradus]

Indeed there were some really good WRC issues - Anthony Collins Mozart 40/41 with the Sinfonia of London, and the same orchestra with Colin Davis with an orchestral selection inc Siegfried Idyll. Tauno Hannikainen Sibelius Sym 2, and anlther with Sym5 and Karelia, and yet another with Tapiola and the VC played by Tossy Spivakovsky - who also recorded a sparkling reading of the Tchaikovsky VC. If memory serves there was a Holberg Suite coupled wth Dvorak Serenade for strings.

I'd forgotten the Sibelius discs, some wonderful playing and recording of the lower strings that gave my Lowther speakers a real workout. (Apologies for the italics I have no idea why they have appeared).

[Roslynmuse]

It's been interesting to read all these responses. I think the Classical Collectors' Society became a part of Britannia in the 1980s but by then my 'membership' had lapsed.

Record libraries - so big a part of my adolescence; I remember too the annual stylus examination (did they really know what they were looking for?) I borrowed both LPs and CDs occasionally from Manchester library when I moved over here - firstly from the Precinct Centre, and then after it moved to the Central Library in St Peter's Square, I've no idea when they stopped.

Looking at the Classics Club listings on Discogs, they were certainly very prolific; some of the discs turn up on ebay from time to time.