Thanks for the implicit vote of confidence, but I don't. Dennis Rooney and others know more than I.

  Don Tait

 

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Roger Kulp <[log in to unmask]>
To: ARSCLIST <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tue, Sep 25, 2012 7:57 pm
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] early stereophony


 I have the Music Appreciation Record in question myself,and at lea


 I have the Music Appreciation Record in question myself,and at least one
other.It is indeed stereo,or binaural.

Is it possible this was done with a different orchestra than Cleveland?

I bet Don Tait knows all about this.

Roger




________________________________
 From: Jon Samuels <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Tuesday, September 25, 2012 10:05 AM
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] early stereophony
 
The Szell MAR Brahms Haydn Variations was issued on CD, apparently in mono, on
United Archives UAR011. Their source material for all their CDs is purportedly
direct from Sony, the successors to Columbia. I don't own this CD, so I can't
check whether it's in stereo or mono. (They also issued a Schumann Symphony No.
4 with Szell and Cleveland on UAR012 that is supposed to be from the earlier
1947 recording, not the MAR one from 1955. Again, I don't own it, so I can't
verify the source.)

Jon Samuels

--- On Tue, 9/25/12, Jon Samuels <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

From: Jon Samuels <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] early stereophony
To: [log in to unmask]
Date: Tuesday, September 25, 2012, 11:36 AM

Tom,
You're most welcome.
Here's an oddity that might interest you. George Szell and the Cleveland
Orchestra (under the name Music Appreciation Orchestra and His Symphony
Orchestra) made a number of recordings for Music Appreciation Records between
1954 and 1955. As I understand it, they were actually recorded by Columbia
Records, due to a joint arrangement between Book-of-the-Month-Club and Columbia
House Record Club. Szell's first stereo recordings for MAR were made October
19, 20 and 21, 1955. He recorded Brahms Academic Festival Overture and Haydn
Variations, Mozart Symphony No. 39, Schumann Symphony No. 4 and Stravinsky
Firebird Suite. (I'm not certain the Brahms and Mozart were released in stereo
on LP, but the Schumann and Stravinsky were.) Yet he didn't record in stereo
for Epic/Columbia until February 22 and 23, 1957 for Columbia, making only mono
recordings for them in 1955 and 1956. (Columbia's first acknowledged stereo
recording was Leonard Bernstein
conducting the New York Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra in Handel's Messiah on
December 31, 1956.)
This raises some interesting questions. Did Columbia indeed record the MAR
Szell recordings? If so, why did they not use their stereo recording capability
again until December, 1956? If not, then who did?
By any chance, do you know, Dennis (Rooney)?
Jon Samuels

--- On Tue, 9/25/12, Tom Fine <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

From: Tom Fine <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] early stereophony
To: [log in to unmask]
Date: Tuesday, September 25, 2012, 6:37 AM

Jon, thanks for all this information. Fascinating and educational.

-- Tom Fine

----- Original Message ----- From: "Jon Samuels" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, September 25, 2012 12:39 AM
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] early stereophony


Ironically, the only surviving RCA document that mentions the existence of
binaural recording is the October 1953 Stokowski session I mentioned in an
earlier post, which is labelled "binaural experiment". Naturally, none of those
tapes have been located to date.

Jon Samuels