[78-L] Carol Symphony

[BURNHAM]

I just had an interesting Amazon experience!

I know it's not everyone's cup of eggnog but a piece I've always enjoyed is Hely-Hutchinson's "Carol Symphony". I occasionally have orchestra conductors asking me for suggestions for Christmas concerts and I unhesitatingly suggest this piece, but to date, nobody has taken my suggestion. They usually complain that the piece is too long but I've always felt that it's 24 minutes of shear Christmas warmth. It's not like it's unfamiliar repertoire, the whole thing is a holiday treatment of familiar Christmas music. 

But back to the Amazon experience; I tripped over this recording, which I knew nothing about, when I was looking for something else. I was surprised to see that every copy was priced in the mid US$30 range. So I decided to try Amazon.ca. I found 2 copies there priced at over $150.00!  I thought, "Boy, this must be one Cracker Jack recording!"  Down at the end of the list on .ca I found one copy at around C$22, so I ordered it. When I put it on, my heart fell when I heard the horrible sound coming at me; I checked the case and it was released in 1951, obviously copied from 78s. The mastering is very poor, using a low quality NR system with residual noise which sounds like it's underwater. At the end of a movement the noise is shut off like a switch to total silence. The last two sides, which should have been joined, aren't. It stops, there's a noise bridge and then the last side starts at the wrong pitch. 

The mastering engineer is a name familiar to ARSC, and I'm bewildered that he would produce a product like this!

db