Unforeseen musical preferences

[Ein Heldenleben]

An old lady I occasionally visit often has Mrs Mills playing.

Her roaring twenties disc is foot tapping stuff.

I wish John Lill had released a pub piano album. I believe he once judged the parallel pub pianist competition at Leeds once.

[Ein Heldenleben]

Thanks for the vintage Ace of Clubs cover, Bryn. It was a Decca speciality to have a black-and-white photo with a coloured banner. One could quote many examples.

Since we've seen Winifred Atwell mentioned as well, I wonder how many know that she once recorded the Grieg Concerto and it too was on an Ace of Clubs disc.

I didn’t know that but I did know that Dudley Moore also recorded the Grieg (with Solti ?)
Bill Evans also recorded Beethoven 3

[Bryn]

I didn’t know that but I did know that Dudley Moore also recorded the Grieg (with Solti ?)
Bill Evans also recorded Beethoven 3

Also, Dudley Moore was the pianist in the Dankworth Band's recording of Stravinsky's Ebony Concerto (Gervase de Peyer being the soloist).

[smittims]

These are revelations indeed, but one should not be too surprised. Multi-talented people have often been famous for one attribute while possessing others: Jonathan Miller, Alvar Liddell, etc.

[cloughie]

No, bargain, in fact the first bargain label in the Uk, retailing at 21shillings or just over half the price of a full-price classical Lp (38 shillings in1967). It had a good run and many of the recordings later turned up on 'Eclipse' an eevn cheaper Decca reissue label launched in 1971 I think.

It was called Ace of Clubs to compete with World Record Club which were I think at the time about 25 bob each.

[groovydavidii]

Preferences include some memorable Motown, Bee Gees, 10cc, The Axidentals, Classical Indian ragas, African (mainly Mali) music, lots of film music, Doris Day, Mario Lanza, Steve Reich…

[Serial_Apologist]

It was called Ace of Clubs to compete with World Record Club which were I think at the time about 25 bob each.

My first two LPs were, as happpens, from the World Record Club: Shostakovitch 1 coupled with Prokofiev's Classical - Efrem Kurtz conducting I can't now remember which orchestra; and Brahms 4. The Brahms was not what I had ordered, and I can remember the 14-year old me (in bed with flu) being disgusted at it being boring old Brahms, to my teenage thinking!

[gradus]

My first two LPs were, as happpens, from the World Record Club: Shostakovitch 1 coupled with Prokofiev's Classical - Efrem Kurtz conducting I can't now remember which orchestra; and Brahms 4. The Brahms was not what I had ordered, and I can remember the 14-year old me (in bed with flu) being disgusted at it being boring old Brahms, to my teenage thinking!

Exactly the same reaction to Brahms in my youth.

[cloughie]

My first two LPs were, as happpens, from the World Record Club: Shostakovitch 1 coupled with Prokofiev's Classical - Efrem Kurtz conducting I can't now remember which orchestra; and Brahms 4. The Brahms was not what I had ordered, and I can remember the 14-year old me (in bed with flu) being disgusted at it being boring old Brahms, to my teenage thinking!

If it was the Steinberg Brahms or perhaps the later Kempe, bot( of which appeared on WRC - I guess you probably quickly got over your disappointment - that’s not boring Brahms!

[Alison]

So World Record Club LPs were available in shops?

Sounds a bit like some sort of subscription service. Or was that Readers Digest?

[Bryn]

Wasn't WRC owned by EMI? Though principally a subscription service like Concert Hall Record Club, I can remember occasionally buying WRC LPs in HMV sales.

[smittims]

The World Record club was originally independent, and bought by EMI in the early 'sixties I think. After that it was run by Anthony Griffith, who gardually transformed it into a reissue label for long-lost EMI recordings. A lot of Karajan/Philharmonia and Beecham were moved onto WRC, as well as reissues of the famous 'COLH' series.

WRC labels are interesting, as they fell into different categories. Ther waas, for instance, the 'Recorded Music Circle' I suppose a sort of inner elite (maybe you paid more). Griffith continued this with his 'Retrospect series', featuring a lovely ornate pale green label. The first I recall was SHB 20, Beechams' 1930s Mozart Symphony recordings.

[RichardB]

Here is an unusual thing I just remembered about which I hadn't listened to for maybe 40 years!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6rjluqLSLo

- the 1976 album Vimana by Nova, a mostly Italian group which played at one of the the first rock gigs I ever went to, in that year I think. Leader Corrado Rustici's guitar playing is highly derivative of McLaughlin but he can certainly play all those notes, and the stylistic world of the music is suspended somewhere between jazz-rock fusion and the British progressive scene of that time, but with prominent (and sometimes electronically processed) flute. I'm not sure I'm going to want to listen to it again for another 40 years although it's unlikely I'll be in a position to listen to anything by then, but it was a pleasant enough memory-jogger, and I thought I'd mention it in case my description might tempt anyone here.

[gradus]

WRC were based in Richmond Surrey and operated as a mail order business issuing a list of releases each month. The usual way in was to respond to their special offers and thus sign up for membership. They offered several ranges of releases that included some first rate Everest recordings, including the renowned Stokowski/NYPO Francesca da Rimini, still the finest I've ever heard. Another favourite from WRC was the Wilfred Brown recording of Dies Natalis which, I think, first appeared on their RMC label.

[Joseph K]

Here is an unusual thing I just remembered about which I hadn't listened to for maybe 40 years!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6rjluqLSLo

- the 1976 album Vimana by Nova, a mostly Italian group which played at one of the the first rock gigs I ever went to, in that year I think. Leader Corrado Rustici's guitar playing is highly derivative of McLaughlin but he can certainly play all those notes, and the stylistic world of the music is suspended somewhere between jazz-rock fusion and the British progressive scene of that time, but with prominent (and sometimes electronically processed) flute. I'm not sure I'm going to want to listen to it again for another 40 years although it's unlikely I'll be in a position to listen to anything by then, but it was a pleasant enough memory-jogger, and I thought I'd mention it in case my description might tempt anyone here.

You've got me curious. Listening now.