Longest LP side

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Don't know if it employed Dynagroove technology but an 'early' long side, around 36-37 minutes was Munch's Beethoven 9.

Yep. That's the one I mentioned in message 4. The downside to this is the low dynamic level of the very long side 1. Side 2 does sound more impressive.

[barber olly]

Yep. That's the one I mentioned in message 4. The downside to this is the low dynamic level of the very long side 1. Side 2 does sound more impressive.

Indeed you did EA, you also mentioned Solti Beethoven 9, but I think that was a later transfer, the original went to the opposite extreme of a 2 disc boxed set with one movement per side. That Solti set of the Symphonies was Sir Georg in uncharacteristically slow performances observing every possible repeat.

[Dave2002]

gradus,
Looking back, it's interesting that the main reason given for the failure to market quad was that people did not want to fill their rooms with extra speakers, but nowadays we are happy to do so.

Mrs Rumpole (!!!) doesn't seem to think so.

[Dave2002]

Other examples of long sides are Beethoven 9 with the 3rd & 4th movements on side 2 (Solti & Klemperer) around 38 minutes each) and the same work under Munch with movements 1-3 on side 1 (also 38 min.).
A Klemperer/Vox recording of Beethoven's Missa Solemnis also had sides around the 38 minute mark.
Then there was a Furtwangler Ring cycle boasting up to 43 minutes per side.

A few 16 r.p.m. vinyl discs were issued. I wonder how long these lasted for?

Schmidt-Isserstedt's Beethoven 9 on Decca was also a long one, IIR. Very good. I still have it, though also a CD replacement.

At another extreme was Stokowski's Ives Symphony 4 on CBS, which has the widest groove spacing I ever saw. Almost looks like a 78!

[barber olly]

Schmidt-Isserstedt's Beethoven 9 on Decca was also a long one, IIR. Very good. I still have it, though also a CD replacement.

The original SXL used the annoying habit of the time of breaking part way through Movt3, a ploy also often used in Berlioz SF half way through Scenes du Champs and Bruckner 7 Movt2. CDs may have a down side, but thankfully no flip-side!

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

The original SXL used the annoying habit of the time of breaking part way through Movt3, a ploy also often used in Berlioz SF half way through Scenes du Champs and Bruckner 7 Movt2. CDs may have a down side, but thankfully no flip-side!

Does anyone know which was the first single disc version of Beethoven's 9th? There were many with the split 3rd movement, and both the Schmidt-Isserstedt and Ansermet CD versions still have a mini-break at the point where the side changeover was. I don't know whether this is for reasons of nostalgia, or just the transfer engineer(s) not knowing the work well enough.

[barber olly]

Does anyone know which was the first single disc version of Beethoven's 9th? There were many with the split 3rd movement, and both the Schmidt-Isserstedt and Ansermet CD versions still have a mini-break at the point where the side changeover was. I don't know whether this is for reasons of nostalgia, or just the transfer engineer(s) not knowing the work well enough.

Don't really know but I would guess probably either Horenstein on Vox or Otterloo on Philips.

[Colonel Danby]

My recording of Vaughan-Williams' Fantasia (with Peter Katin) and the Piano Concerto (Vronsky/Babin/Boult) on EMI Greensleeve clocks up at an amazing 40.05 minutes on one side (as it says proudly on the sleeve notes), with no real trouble with the sound.

That's the best I can muster, although I believe that Sir Thomas Beecham's 'Faust Symphony' had about the same sort of time limit per side.

[umslopogaas]

Post 23 Col. Danby. Yes, the Beecham 'Faust' is a 2 LP set, ASD 317-8. Side 1 is 'Faust', Side 2 is 'Gretchen', Side 3 is 'Mephistopheles' and the Final Chorus. Side 4 has Symphonic Poem 'Orpheus'.

My LP of the V.W. Two Piano Concerto is the earlier issue, ASD 2469, with Symphony 8 on the other side. No side timings, unfortunately.

I also have the Vox LP of Beethoven's 9th, conducted by Horenstein, STPL 510.000. This is an American issue and is "remastered for stereo" "Stereo, can also be played mono". No date, but it seems to have been made in mono, so probably before 1958, then processed in some mysterious way to make it (sort of) stereo. There is a tiny scratching on the run-out groove of side 2 which is very difficult to read, but might be Pete Helbbiel, or something similar. No idea who he might have been, but perhaps the engineer to made the tape-to-disc transfer; Mercury LPs have a similar set of scratchings, including a P for George Piros, who did the transferring for Mercury.

The Schmidt-Isserstedt recording of the ninth is on a single Decca disc (SXL 6233), but at the price of a side break halfway through the Adagio.

[Don Petter]

Don't really know but I would guess probably either Horenstein on Vox or Otterloo on Philips.

In the UK the first single LP version was Horenstein's 9th on VOX (PL10000), in April 1957. (Dates here are those of review in The Gramophone, usually at that time reliably about a month after issue.)

Otterloo's 9th was in April 1955, but on two LPs coupled with the 8th. It wasn't released on a single LP until the reissue of September 1958.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

The Schmidt-Isserstedt recording of the ninth is on a single Decca disc (SXL 6233), but at the price of a side break halfway through the Adagio.

As far as I'm aware, all single LP versions of the 9th had this problem, apart from the final versions of the Solti, Klemperer & Munch recordings. (The Klemperer even had a fill-up overture)
The first 9th I had in my possession was Erich Kleiber's on 4 sides, rather like the first pressing of Solti's. 3 sides was fair enough, but 4 was overdoing it a little.

[verismissimo]

the Beecham 'Faust' is a 2 LP set, ASD 317-8. Side 1 is 'Faust', Side 2 is 'Gretchen', Side 3 is 'Mephistopheles' and the Final Chorus. Side 4 has Symphonic Poem 'Orpheus'.

I have Beecham's Faust as a later (1987) single LP issue on HMV Greensleeve. The second side is 43' 33".

[verismissimo]

I just checked - there are several sides over 40 minutes in the Furtwangler La Scala Ring, the longest being the finale to Gotterdammerung, weighing in at 43 minutes exactly.

So the Beecham Faust has it, for now...

[hafod]

Offered without comment:

http://www.audioasylum.com/cgi/t.mpl?f=vinyl&m=224878

[Norfolk Born]

Offered without comment:

http://www.audioasylum.com/cgi/t.mpl?f=vinyl&m=224878