[78-L] columbia classical

[David Lennick]

Just listening to Arthur Fiedler's 1946 Victor platter of "Fancy Free: 3 
Dances" before sending out a master, and it sounds fabulous. And the disc used 
was the one my parents owned and played on the CBC many times in the early 50s. 
Victor COULD make a good record once in a while..no sign of the compression or 
brassy sound typical of other recordings from this period.

Either Hall or Irving Kolodin also predicted the LP but thought it would be on 
16-inch discs (can't find the reference right now).

dl

DAVID BURNHAM wrote:
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> I do not have the resources to find out what recordings all of these reviews refer to.  But don't forget, the vast majority Columbia's classical recordings in the 20s and 30s were from British and European sources and there's a world of difference between the sounds on these recordings and the American recordings.  Also, as David Lennick has pointed out many times, wartime and postwar classical recordings from both Victor and Columbia were harsh and wooden sounding.  Perhaps the engineers had lost their touch during the long Petrillo strike or maybe the old engineers had moved on to other vocations and there was a new batch of engineers after the strike who weren't really up to speed yet.  Also, as dl pointed out, the recording characteristics from each company were kept a secret and one company's records didn't sound their best on the other company's playback equipment.  I mentioned earlier that an American recording from the 40s or the late
>  30s would sound stridently brilliant on a British gramophone, well I don't know how aware David Hall was of the different recording characteristics, he often comments that British and European recordings sound muddy compared to their American counterparts, which, of course, they would if one isn't taking the recording curves into consideration, (and this is no disrespect for David Hall, I have a profound admiration for DH and as I read his 1947 record book - the most recent one I have - I'm always amazed at how ahead of his time he was.  He already forsaw the arrival of stereo and he constantly shows an appreciation for period performance 10 to 15 years before anyone else did.).
> 
> Another observation about David Hall and his feelings towards domestic Columbia recordings.  When he was commenting on recordings by Stokowski's All-American Youth Orchestra, he is always, commendably, very gentle if he has any criticism about the performance, (and usually blames the conductor if there's a problem).  This was obviously a brilliant assembly of young musicians and I'm sure if I could see a list of players, I would recognize many names who went on to very successful careers.  But when it came to the recordings themselves, he dropped his restraint and roundly criticized  the poor quality with which they were recorded.  When I was a child, the only recording I knew of the Pathetique Symphony was by this group.  David Hall's comments about this recording, comparing it to the same conductor's recording with the Hollywood Bowl, (Victor): 
> 
> "Both Stokowski readings are individualistic, to say the least, but the Hollywood Bowl Symphony is at least richly recorded as compared with the muffled and ill-balanced sounds that emerge from the All-American Orchestra discs."
> 
> Once again, when I heard another recording of this work in the 50s, (this time it was Hermann Abendroth with the  Music Treasures of the World orchestra, whoever they were), I was overwhelmed by the improvement in sound.
> 
> db