LSO Live?

[Petrushka]

I have just received the following interesting, if ultimately from my point if view, unsatisfactory e-mail from Chaz Jenkins, Head of LSO Live:

Thanks for your email regarding archive recordings.

LSO Live has always been focussed on releasing new recordings. Although we record live (and use the word live in the title of the label), we don’t as such release live recordings. Every LSO Live recording is edited from multiple performances to produce something a master that is as refined as a studio recording, but with the added vitality of a live performance. We also make every recording in high definition and musicians from the orchestra, as well as conductors and soloists, approve the editing.

Although the orchestra has given many fine performances in the past that have been recorded for radio broadcast, it would not be possible to master these to the standard we require for LSO Live. Around 10 years ago, I actually sourced recordings of a number of legendary LSO performances from the 60s and 70s for the orchestra to listen to. I wanted to see whether they would be happy with the recording and the playing standards. To be brutally honest, they were not! It probably goes to prove that as with most forms of human endeavour, whether it be sport, technology or musical performance, people get better at doing things.



I appreciate that there is demand for archive recordings, especially for the opportunity to be able to hear performances by the great conductors of the past. However they are already a number of labels who cater for this market and LSO Live remains focussed on making new recordings.



Very best wishes.



Chaz

PS. Please feel free to dismiss my comment about mankind getting better at doing things. I’m sure there are many things for which the opposite is true!


Chaz Jenkins, Head of LSO Live
London Symphony Orchestra


Would be interested in comments from anyone.

[amateur51]

Well done Petrushka! I think Chaz has rather played in your hands

I'd like to propose that you could reply to him thanking him for his honest assessments of the LSO recordings that he has heard and suggesting that there is certainly a market for these recordings albeit not under LSO Live but under a newer, possibly cheaper label, perhaps LSO Archive

Worth a go, I'd say

Do you want replies confirming the market? - I'm up for it certainly

[aeolium]

The bald comment about people getting better at doing things seems a strange one, though his PS indicates his misgivings about it. I'd be interested to see what knowledgeable people thought about that comment in relation to audio quality (e.g. the current LSO Live recordings with the best of the Decca SXL recordings) but as far as musical performance is concerned I would much rather hear a recording of a Kertesz or Horenstein LSO concert performance than, say, Gergiev's live Mahler. The LSO of that time was an extremely fine orchestra, imo.

[amateur51]

The bald comment about people getting better at doing things seems a strange one, though his PS indicates his misgivings about it. I'd be interested to see what knowledgeable people thought about that comment in relation to audio quality (e.g. the current LSO Live recordings with the best of the Decca SXL recordings) but as far as musical performance is concerned I would much rather hear a recording of a Kertesz or Horenstein LSO concert performance than, say, Gergiev's live Mahler. The LSO of that time was an extremely fine orchestra, imo.

Seconded, aeolium!

[Petrushka]

Well done Petrushka! I think Chaz has rather played in your hands

I'd like to propose that you could reply to him thanking him for his honest assessments of the LSO recordings that he has heard and suggesting that there is certainly a market for these recordings albeit not under LSO Live but under a newer, possibly cheaper label, perhaps LSO Archive

Worth a go, I'd say

In my original e-mail I did make the suggestion of issuing such recordings under an associated label within the LSO Live brand called something like LSO Archive. Like aeolium, I am surprised at the assessment of the LSO of the 1960's and 1970's and would agree that the sound that was offered in those Decca/EMI discs was light years ahead of what LSO Live have so far (mostly) given us. In any case, most collectors will readily accept imperfections in playing and sound when listening to archive renditions and do not expect digital polish.

I think there is a ready market for these performances which, from Mr Jenkin's comment, clearly exist.

[cloughie]

Well done Petrushka! I think Chaz has rather played in your hands

I'd like to propose that you could reply to him thanking him for his honest assessments of the LSO recordings that he has heard and suggesting that there is certainly a market for these recordings albeit not under LSO Live but under a newer, possibly cheaper label, perhaps LSO Archive

Worth a go, I'd say

Do you want replies confirming the market? - I'm up for it certainly

I like your thinking am. It's all very well to say the orchestra are not happy with issuing archive material, but I would think less than perfect recordings by late bosses Monteux, Dorati, Kertesz, Jochum, Krips and guests Solti, Bohm, Celibidache, Barbirolli, Boult and past bosses Previn and Abbado. Are the orchestra so well off they can afford not to take up this opportunity. Of course we have no idea what we are talking about in terms of scale - are there a handful or hundreds.
Good move Petrouchka. Let's let Chaz have our request.

[Petrushka]

I will respond back to Mr Jenkins after the weekend when there are hopefully a fair number of opinions on here.

The LPO have shown how it is possible to mix really interesting archive material with the best of today's music making and I believe that the LSO could tap into the archive market with equal success. The attitude that Mr Jenkins reveals is one that was widely prevalant 30 years ago when everyone thought that digital technology would consign ancient recordings to the dustbin.

[bluestateprommer]

Maybe one suggestion for CJ and LSO Live is to make worthwhile older performances download only, to avoid the issue of producing physical product that might potentially languish in a warehouse. There would obviously be an adjacent quick pdf of program notes to accompany the download with key details about conductor, soloist, and performance date. "LSO Vintage" might be another possible label name, although "LSO Archive" also sounds fine to me.

[Petrushka]

I don't do downloads myself but it is another option that can be explored. Most of the great orchestras of the world have issued copious archive material (look at those massive Concertgebouw boxes for example) and it is disappointing that the LSO doesn't want to know. I firmly believe that there is a market out there and that the orchestra needs to act to preserve its legacy of live performances (quite apart from any commercial consideration) before it disappears for good.

[LHC]

In 2004 Andante released a box set of historic LSO recordings to celebrate the Orchestra's centenary. I remember it was quite expensive, so I didn't buy it at the time, but wish I had done so now.

It is possible that it might still be found with a concentrated search. Anyway the cover was like this:

[Petrushka]

In 2004 Andante released a box set of historic LSO recordings to celebrate the Orchestra's centenary. I remember it was quite expensive, so I didn't buy it at the time, but wish I had done so now.

It is possible that it might still be found with a concentrated search. Anyway the cover was like this:

I didn't get it either, LHC, but I did get an Andante box in which Karl Bohm conducted the LSO at Salzburg in the 1970's. There is a truly superb performance of Strauss's Tod und Verklarung on this set which is said to have reduced some members of the LSO to tears. Material like this should be given wider currency and would be an asset to the orchestra under their own label which is where it surely belongs.

[mathias broucek]

Pro musicians (I'm married to one and know several others) have incredibly good ears. That, their training and their experience makes them far more aware of imperfections of execution than collectors or even professional record reviewers.

I'm therefore not surprised that the orchestra members reacted to the tapes the way they did. I am however dissapointed......

[BBMmk2]

The LSO is normally quite acute to the ideas of what is goiing on around them. I am very surprised that they havn't done a smilar venture, eg downloads of archive material and surveys of their work from the past?

[cloughie]

I didn't get it either, LHC, but I did get an Andante box in which Karl Bohm conducted the LSO at Salzburg in the 1970's. There is a truly superb performance of Strauss's Tod und Verklarung on this set which is said to have reduced some members of the LSO to tears. Material like this should be given wider currency and would be an asset to the orchestra under their own label which is where it surely belongs.

Details of box:

http://www.cduniverse.com/productinfo.asp?pid=6820554&style=music

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Pro musicians (I'm married to one and know several others) have incredibly good ears. That, their training and their experience makes them far more aware of imperfections of execution than collectors or even professional record reviewers.

I'm therefore not surprised that the orchestra members reacted to the tapes the way they did. I am however dissapointed......

Yes; especially when we remember that Szell prevented the release of one of my favourite of LSO recordings (the Tchaik #4) because it didn't come up to his exacting standards.