Membran

[Conchis]

I'd be interested in hearing what people think of this label.

Membran releases are supposedly 'grey market' but they seem to have a good reputation for sound quality, even if their packaging is no frills to put mildly.

The Membran Furtwangler Turin Ring cycle is widely preferred by some to the official EMI release. And I was very satisfied with the recent Rudolf Schock 'Birthday Edition' box, which rounds up some valuable Wagner performances (the Kempe Meistersinger and Konwitschny Hollander, in particular).


I've just ordered a Membrane Annie Fischer box (mainly for the Klemperer Schumann and Liszt concertos): it effectively undercuts the rival EMI icon box by being cheaper and containing two extra discs (10 to EMI's 4).

I'd be interested in hearing about the true status of Membran recordings and how they are allowed into the European market if they are undercutting 'official' product.

[gurnemanz]

I have quite a few of their boxes which are great for accumulating historic recordings cheaply (in my case Lieder and opera, eg Heinrich Schlusnus, Lauritz Melchior, Elisabeth Grümmer, the huge Raucheisen wartime Lieder compendium, the Wagner's Vision box etc ...). They seem to be based in Hamburg and tend to be even cheaper in Germany than elsewhere. Eg at jpc . Recordings sometimes turn up under the label "documents", eg this very useful Kurt Weill box.

As for their "true status", I can't contribute much, except that I found a link at Discogs which refers to 'proxy "offshore" licensing'.