Music lovers, record labels and reviewers' attitude to 'budget' labels.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Sadly the page turner wasn't credited!

[Edgy 2]

There was a short lived Gramophone spin off magazine (classics ? in the 90s ? ) that reviewed only bargain cds.
I think it featured some Pilz releases

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

As a teenager, I bought a number of Saga/Fidelity LPs at ridiculously low prices like 10/6 and 12/6. The quality of many off these was often very poor, so I later opted for a minimum of Decca Ace of Clubs quality.
Early Naxos CDs were well recorded, but featured performances that were often well below the best. Not so nowadays.
But yesterday, I bought some CDs at a charity shop for 25p (5/-) each, so who's complaining.

[Bryn]

As a teenager, I bought a number of Saga/Fidelity LPs at ridiculously low prices like 10/6 and 12/6. The quality of many off these was often very poor, so I later opted for a minimum of Decca Ace of Clubs quality.
Early Naxos CDs were well recorded, but featured performances that were often well below the best. Not so nowadays.
But yesterday, I bought some CDs at a charity shop for 25p (5/-) each, so who's complaining.

Some Saga, and most Fidelity, LPs were of poor quality performances but many Saga discs were very fine indeed. I think of the early Janet Baker issues and also an excellent John Shirley Quirk recital disc. Then there were the Concert Artist recordings they released here such as the Fine Arts Quartet's Bartok, Harry Newstone's Brandenburg's and Dumbarton Oaks Concerto, plus Herbert Zipper's Pierrot Lunaire. A real gem was Thomas Rajna's recording of the Vingt Regards:



I loved the saga LP of Louis Kentner playing the Hammerklavier Sonata which enabled a greater dynamic range by putting the final movement, followed by the first on side A and the second and third movements on side B.

[richardfinegold]

I had a Pilz disc in the 90s that was basically a Mozart’s Greatest Opera Hits, featuring Artists from behind the Iron Curtain. I loved It and would torture my children by attempting to sing along with it, and then they started inventing their own ribald lyrics . I miss that disc

[LMcD]

I had a Pilz disc in the 90s that was basically a Mozart’s Greatest Opera Hits, featuring Artists from behind the Iron Curtain. I loved It and would torture my children by attempting to sing along with it, and then they started inventing their own ribald lyrics . I miss that disc

Mozart would very probably have approved.

[mikealdren]

Yes Saga, not the highest fidelity but we had the Aeolian Schubert quintet, Starker's Kodaly, Leibowitz's Offenbach etc. etc.

Other labels doing reissues included Heliodor with some fabulous DG reissues including Tibor Varga's Nielsen violin concerto which I don't think has ever been reissued on CD. HMV's concert classics Beethoven concerto with Campoli similarly has yet to reach CD.

[Alain Maréchal]

Other labels doing reissues included Heliodor with some fabulous DG reissues including Tibor Varga's Nielsen violin concerto which I don't think has ever been reissued on CD.

Originally two DGG LPs were issued together. 139184 was the Violin Concerto c/w Helios c. Jerzy Semkow. 139185 was Symphony 4 and Saga-Drom c. Markevitch.

I'm not sure if the Markevitch was ever issued on CD either, but in any case I was so impressed I bought two copies of each LP. I still have them, they still sound superb. The excellent sleeve notes were by Robert Dearling. I learned a lot about music from sleeve notes.

[cloughie]

Originally two DGG LPs were issued together. 139184 was the Violin Concerto c/w Helios c. Jerzy Semkow. 139185 was Symphony 4 and Saga-Drom c. Markevitch.

I'm not sure if the Markevitch was ever issued on CD either, but in any case I was so impressed I bought two copies of each LP. I still have them, they still sound superb. The excellent sleeve notes were by Robert Dearling. I learned a lot about music from sleeve notes.

Markevitch must have liked Nielsen 4 as he also recorded it with the RDO and it was on Turnabout - another fascinating 69s bargain label - Rosbaud’s Bruckner 7 on one bargain LP, albeit the 2nd movement split over the sides but other versions were very expensive on 2 full price LPs.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Markevitch must have liked Nielsen 4 as he also recorded it with the RDO and it was on Turnabout

The Turnabout and DGG recordings are one and the same, cloughie - copyright agreements led to the recording appearing on two different labels simultaneously. (It is an excellent performance, and you're right about Vox/Turnabout: plenty of "away-from-the-mainstream" repertoire recorded on that label, as well as Brendel's earliest recordings ... and quite a bit of Horenstein, too.)

[Alain Maréchal]

The Turnabout and DGG recordings are one and the same, cloughie - copyright agreements led to the recording appearing on two different labels simultaneously. (It is an excellent performance, and you're right about Vox/Turnabout: plenty of "away-from-the-mainstream" repertoire recorded on that label, as well as Brendel's earliest recordings ... and quite a bit of Horenstein, too.)

Somewhere lodged in my memory is the information that it was originally a Danish recording.
Turnabout may have wanted to include Nielsen in their catalogue; I have a Turnabout LP of the Second Symphony with Garaguly conducting the Tivoli Orchestra. Turnabout pressings were usually very good - apparently Decca in the UK. They look and feel like ACL but in stereo.

Cloughie - I have that Rosbaud Bruckner 7, and considered playing it yesterday but settled for Sanderling in Copenhagen, also with a side break. One was accustomed to side breaks, and they do not really worry me - these are recordings, not live concerts.

[cloughie]

The Turnabout and DGG recordings are one and the same, cloughie - copyright agreements led to the recording appearing on two different labels simultaneously. (It is an excellent performance, and you're right about Vox/Turnabout: plenty of "away-from-the-mainstream" repertoire recorded on that label, as well as Brendel's earliest recordings ... and quite a bit of Horenstein, too.)

I think the Kubelik Stenhammar Serenade was subject to something similar as it appeared on Heliodor, but was not in the big DG box, but is on a Swedish Society’ label. Another good Turnabout was Nielsen 2 conducted by Garaguly. As well as Brendel, there were many W Klein piano recordings.

[Bryn]

I think the Kubelik Stenhammar Serenade was subject to something similar as it appeared on Heliodor, but was not in the big DG box, but is on a Swedish Society’ label. Another good Turnabout was Nielsen 2 conducted by Garaguly. As well as Brendel, there were many W Klein piano recordings.

It was the Turnabout LP of electronic music by Berio, Cage and Mimaroglu that first introduced me to the name Cornelius Cardew (he was referenced as an English critic and composer). I lent the LP and never got that copy back. However, while working as a street sweeper during a summer break from Middlesex Poly I came across a bunch of LPs stuffed into a street-side waste bin. Among them was a pristine copy of that very LP. Now that's what I call serendipity.

[HighlandDougie]

Somewhere lodged in my memory is the information that it was originally a Danish recording.
Turnabout may have wanted to include Nielsen in their catalogue; I have a Turnabout LP of the Second Symphony with Garaguly conducting the Tivoli Orchestra. Turnabout pressings were usually very good - apparently Decca in the UK. They look and feel like ACL but in stereo.

Cloughie - I have that Rosbaud Bruckner 7, and considered playing it yesterday but settled for Sanderling in Copenhagen, also with a side break. One was accustomed to side breaks, and they do not really worry me - these are recordings, not live concerts.

Fona Records issued licensed Vox recordings in Denmark but they embarked on a 'prestige' series of original recordings - Det-Kongelige-Kapel (The Royal Chapel) - in the mid 1960s, which included the Nielsen Violin Concerto etc and the Symphony No 4, plus works by Niels Gade, Holmboe etc. The Garaguly Nielsen recordings were not part of that series but were also issued by Fona. I've no idea whether they were originally recorded by Vox and then licensed to Fona or vice versa. I've no idea how DG got in on the act, license-wise. The Markevitch Nielsen is available on:

https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/8624689--igor-markevitch-vol-1

My suspicion would be that they might be CD transfers from LP originals, rather than from master tapes but I may well be wrong.

[Bryn]

Fona Records issued licensed Vox recordings in Denmark but they embarked on a 'prestige' series of original recordings - Det-Kongelige-Kapel (The Royal Chapel) - in the mid 1960s, which included the Nielsen Violin Concerto etc and the Symphony No 4, plus works by Niels Gade, Holmboe etc. The Garaguly Nielsen recordings were not part of that series but were also issued by Fona. I've no idea whether they were originally recorded by Vox and then licensed to Fona or vice versa. I've no idea how DG got in on the act, license-wise. The Markevitch Nielsen is available on:

https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/8624689--igor-markevitch-vol-1

My suspicion would be that they might be CD transfers from LP originals, rather than from master tapes but I may well be wrong.

Also to be found on QOBUZ. I will stream, later. A digital conversion of the Varga is long overdue, whether on CDor as lossless download only.