Ace of Clubs/Eclipse/World of ... etc

[cloughie]

Decca trying to be trendy?

Rather retrospectively for a defunct label - one which gave many hours of joy!

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Rather retrospectively for a defunct label - one which gave many hours of joy!

Yes. It was my favourite budget label, with some outstanding performances.
Decca did start using lower case letters only in the 1980s, but I doubt whether a gimmick like this would have done the company any favours.

[Wychwood]

Yes. It was my favourite budget label, with some outstanding performances.
Decca did start using lower case letters only in the 1980s, but I doubt whether a gimmick like this would have done the company any favours.

If we are in cherry-picking mode, can I put in a word for ACL 7? Rossini-Resphigi: La Boutique Fantasque. LSO/Ansermet.

An absolute favourite that still sounds, after all these years, well -- fantastic.

[cloughie]

If we are in cherry-picking mode, can I put in a word for ACL 7? Rossini-Resphigi: La Boutique Fantasque. LSO/Ansermet.

An absolute favourite that still sounds, after all these years, well -- fantastic.

If I started I’d end up with a whacking great bowl of cherries! However ACL51 Chabrier: Suite Pastorale / Bizet: Jeux d’enfants and Fair Maid of Perth, was outstanding.

[mikealdren]

We're getting off topic now but I put in a bid for my first ever LP, ACL64 Campoli's Bruch and Saint-Saens with a violin lying in a puddle as the cover art!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

[cloughie]

Down memory Lane for those fondly-remembered bargain LPs and their covers.

That sets the Decca up! Many of them now live on as CDs on Australian Eloquence. I’ll head up my ACL likes with the Anthony Collins’ Sibelius Symphonies, which still stand as some of the best performances and the mono 50s recordings still sound good - Collins’ Delius, Elgar and Vaughan Williams are also very good!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Sometimes the Eclipse reissues had much better cover photos than the Ace of Clubs originals. The Fistoulari Nutcracker Suites originally had this appropriate but rather uninspiring cover:



... whilst on Eclipse it became this:



... which was how it was given to me as a christmas present in 1972 - a fond memory soured just slightly by the shock of realizing that that is nearly half-a-century ago.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I’ll head up my ACL likes with the Anthony Collins’ Sibelius Symphonies, which still stand as some of the best performances

- I learnt many of the works from those recordings (borrowed from the local Library - the surfaces of which were keenly inspected by the staff before issue and on return ... always with a infinitesimally slight smile of approval in my case. Good job they never checked the rude pictures I drew in the books, which were never subject to any such scrutiny!) They still sound marvellous in the DECCA Historic Sibelius recordings box, too.

... and the mono 50s recordings still sound good - Collins’ Delius, Elgar and Vaughan Williams are also very good!

- I first heard these recordings on cassette on my first Walkman when I went into Whipps Cross Hospital in 1984. Even in these circumstances, the Music-making sounded splendid.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

An early Ace of Clubs release was Ansermet's recording of Beethoven's 9th. But this was taken from the conductor's cycle that had been recorded in stereo, so it was odd that it should be reissued on a mono only label.
So when the stereo/mono Ace of Diamonds came along, the whole Ansermet cycle was reissued on that label, but with the 9th in stereo only, as the mono version was already out there.

There was also and Ace of Hearts label, but for popular music only,

[gurnemanz]

One of each label mentioned above.

Here's a classic:





I loved this:






One of the best Tchaikovsky Fourths with Szell in peak form - a recording which he initially suppressed but which eventually on appeared World of ...

[LMcD]

An early Ace of Clubs release was Ansermet's recording of Beethoven's 9th. But this was taken from the conductor's cycle that had been recorded in stereo, so it was odd that it should be reissued on a mono only label.
So when the stereo/mono Ace of Diamonds came along, the whole Ansermet cycle was reissued on that label, but with the 9th in stereo only, as the mono version was already out there.

There was also and Ace of Hearts label, but for popular music only,

Don't forget Ace of Diamonds!

[Pianorak]

Good job they never checked the rude pictures I drew in the books, which were never subject to any such scrutiny!)

Joe Orton would have approved!

[Master Jacques]

I learnt many of the works from those recordings (borrowed from the local Library - the surfaces of which were keenly inspected by the staff before issue and on return ... always with a infinitesimally slight smile of approval in my case ... They still sound marvellous in the DECCA Historic Sibelius recordings box, too. ... I first heard these recordings on cassette on my first Walkman when I went into Whipps Cross Hospital in 1984. Even in these circumstances, the Music-making sounded splendid.

I'm with all of you on the Anthony Collins Sibelius symphonies, and agree that the sound of the Eloquence remasterings is splendid. What is it which makes these ancient performances still shine? Something to do, perhaps, with the sense of adventure, the magnificent open-heartedness of the playing, and of course Collins's musical - and especially architectural - intelligence. They still have power to thrill, as do Collins's Elgar and Delius recordings. The recordings sound extremely well, too, all these years on.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

An early Ace of Clubs release was Ansermet's recording of Beethoven's 9th. But this was taken from the conductor's cycle that had been recorded in stereo, so it was odd that it should be reissued on a mono only label.
So when the stereo/mono Ace of Diamonds came along, the whole Ansermet cycle was reissued on that label, but with the 9th in stereo only, as the mono version was already out there.

Don't forget Ace of Diamonds!

He didn't.