I happened to find evidence of this deal last week, after looking into the
status of Boult's stereo Vaughan Williams catalog. There are two Warner
boxes. One from 2012 uses the old EMI cover art design, with W logo, from
the British Composers series. The other, released this year, has a design
that relates to a new series of issues called Icon. This second box includes
some mono material. Both rely mostly on older digital transfers, many from
the 80s, which were not well received. This is so unfortunate.
OTOH, there is notice of a box set release that holds promise of better
treatment: the Kempe/Dresden Strauss cycle is said to be taken from new
remasters. Others, such as a Berglund box, indicate sources pulled off the
shelf from various periods. As proven by some Decca or the complete stereo
Reiner box, these hodge podge mixtures can be fine when the work is
consistently good. With those sub-standard 1980s EMI masterings in a mix,
however, these Warner boxes have less appeal. In fact, it is too much an
echo of how we got so much poor quality stuff in the first place: a quick
exploitation to get some cash flowing. At least that's how it looks. Maybe
they'll devote some resources as (if) things settle down, but now it might
take decades for poor Boult to get his proper due.
(Or, maybe not so long, as this ownership could be wiped out in a few years
anyway. It's a casino. They're all just cards in a deck, waiting for the
next dealer to shuffle them.)
-----Original Message-----
From: Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Tom Fine
Sent: Sunday, November 10, 2013 9:52 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] The EMI split
A final interesting thing to watch is what will happen with Concord Music
Group? They have been putting out a steady stream of good reissues in recent
years, and have collected a bunch of well-reviewed if not massive-selling
artists. They also scored Paul McCartney's solo catalog. I hope they are
able to remain standing, because I have definitely enjoyed the quality,
choices and packaging of their reissues lately. I have this fantasy where
Warner will need to raise some debt-service cash and will sell them the Stax
catalog from Atlantic at a workable price, and then the whole Stax history
gets reissues on par with what Concord has done with later-era Stax in
recent times.
-- Tom Fine
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