This has to do with Roger Kulp's partial reply to my post that referred to
the Reiner/CSO recording of Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony for RCA Victor
and the fact that the British Victrola release has repeats in the first and
third movements whereas no other published version of the recording does.
The idea that the British Victrola was prepared from an "unedited" tape
seems pretty unlikely. Especially because it seems extremely unlikely that
one engineer or producer after another over the years would have taken the
time and trouble to deliberately snip out repeats in the original tape. And
as I wrote before, I heard Reiner conduct this symphony in Orchestra Hall
just before the recording sessions, and he didn't play the repeats then,
either. The RCA Victor LPs reflected that.
I'll never forget the gorgeous sound of the CSO with Reiner in 1961
playing that symphony. The early RCA Victor LPs caught it. I once said to the
Chicago Tribune critic Thomas Willis that I thought that recording captured
the beauty, the real sound of the Reiner/CSO the best. He said "I agree.
Reiner is there."
Don Tait
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