[78-L] Toscanini in Stereo

[Michael Biel]

From: DAVID BURNHAM <burnhamd at rogers.com

> The 1939 "Eroica" as it was released in the Complete Toscanini CDs
> issued by Victor in the early 90s is certainly not the same recording
> as was used to make the famous 78 set, but it is the same performance,
> (the infamous cough gives it away). Combining these two recordings,
> however does not produce anything which sounds like stereo.

Most likely the CDs were produced from an NBC recording on a 16-inch
lacquer set, while the 78s were off the 78 waxes recorded at the same
time.  It is known that NBC and Victor were taking the same mic feed,
but Seth Winner and many others have said that usually the NBC
recordings were better than what RCA was doing.  RCA was checking all
available sources when they did that CD series.  There were several
arrays of mics at 8H so it is possible that different mics were used for
different feeds -- the Spanish language feeds for the Short-Wave station
are the main ones being conjectured as likely candidates -- but I have
always heard sad stories from anyone who had access to them and tried. 
I don't recall anyone making any positive claims.    

> There are two Stereo recordings of Toscanini - a Wagner program and
> a program including the Tchaikovsky Pathetique. I've heard two
> different versions of the Tchaikovsky concert, one, on an Italian CD,
> is the better of the two sonically but near the end of the third movement
> someone snipped out a couple of minutes of the tape for some reason and
> it was replaced with the mono version. 

John Pfeiffer put together a demo tape, cutting out sections from
several different orchestras.  He didn't have access to a second 2-track
recorder to do a dub instead, or else he wanted the full impact of the
original master to impress the RCA execs he was playing this to.  Before
he had a chance to restore the excerpts to the masters, some bastard
STOLE the tape!  For many years the likely culprit was thought to have
been identified, and I think either Seth Winner or Mike Gray said the
guy was being watched like a hawk, but the tape never turned up.  There
are a couple of other performances of Boston which Pfeiffer hoped to
actually release in stereo but couldn't without the missing segments.  I
think one of those did have a segment replaced in stereo from an
alternate take, but that the performance released in mono was more
fiery.     

> Other than that, the sound is clear and undistorted. The only flaw 
> is that it appears that the engineers boosted the top end in an
> attempt to extend the high frequencies producing a sometimes
> shrill sound. The other release, on Music and Arts suffers
> from excessive Noise Reduction muddying the sound and in the
> peaks there is overload and clipping distortion. This version,
> however, does not have the mono segment, proving that a complete
> copy of the concert must exist in stereo. It also includes the
> Barber of Seville overture.  db

I do know that the final concert, the Wagner, was released on M&A from a
7 1/2 IPS tape made off of a 15 IPS dub of the original 15 IPS master. I
believe RCA was still recording mono usually at 30 IPS but could only do
stereo at 15 IPS during this era because there was only one machine
while multiple mono machines could cover changeovers.  Mike Gray would
have info on the details.  I need to see if his articles are on-line.

Mike Biel  mbiel at mbiel.com



-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [78-L] Toscanini in Stereo
From: DAVID BURNHAM <burnhamd at rogers.com>
Date: Thu, July 09, 2009 4:25 am
To: 78-L at 78online.com

M. Biel wrote

MANY have claimed??????? Name ONE person who has made the claim to have
DONE it and found stereo. I have heard these stories for over 30 years
and have personally talked to the restoration engineers who have
actually worked with the various original masters of the Toscanini
recordings, and although they have tried a few, none of them have ever
come up with any stereo and never claimed to. I have heard NO CLAIMS
whatsoever. Tell me who you have actually heard say they have done it. 
Give me a name.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A name is irrelevant. When I say "many", I mean many personal friends
who are collectors like myself who have varying degrees of expertise in
these matters. The first person who mentioned it to me, (who, I believe,
was the president of the Canadian Arturo Toscanini Society), was Dave
Denny who has been dead for over 30 years so I can't check with him now.
But I've heard this claim several times and, like you, have expressed my
doubts that this was possible.