[78-L] classical stuff

[DAVID BURNHAM]

I have a particular affection for Columbia Viva~Tonal sets.  I am surprised that they generally demand a much higher price than their Victor counter-parts, for two reasons:  a)  Columbias are far more robust than the fragile Victors, hence they should have a higher survival rate and b) Victor had what were considered much more stellar artists than Columbia.  One interesting Viva~Tonal set which I came across is "Karma" by Charles Haubiel, conducted by the composer.  This piece was the winner of the Columbia Schubert centennial contest, I'm sure it hasn't been recorded since.  

In the acoustic and early electric era, Columbia seems to have been far more interested in Chamber music than Victor.  Victor had the Flonzaly and Hart House quartets but they mainly recorded short excerpts and novelties.  Columbia had an extensive catalog of complete chamber works by Beethoven, Brahms, Schubert etc. by such groups as the Lener Quartet and  the London Quartet.  I can't lay my hands on it at the moment but I have an acoustic "Trout" Quintet on Columbia.  One interesting Viva~Tonal experience was that I had one record of a two record set of Frank Bridge's "Three Idylls for String Quartet"  for many years - never being able to find the other disc.  On e-bay a couple of years ago, the other disc showed up, (in Alberta).  When I contacted the seller, she said she had had that disc for many years being unable to find the disc I have.  Since this set is so rare, I can assume that these two records were separated in childhood
 and were finally reunited.

Are there any sets in the Victor "M" catalog which are really rare?  One which I've only seen once is  Harl McDonald's Double Piano Concerto with Leopold Stokowski, (I mention this because it seems everything by Stokowski shows up regularly), but I'm sure there are many items which I've never seen.

db