Stokowksi just missed going from acoustic to digital. One thing that kind of surprised me is that 
Denon did not approach him in the 70's, but he might have been out of their reach and thus off their 
radar. Its seems like Stoki would have loved making the first for-release digital recording of a 
symphony orchestra. Then again, Stoki might not have wanted anything to do with some of Denon's 
stranger recording methods in their early digital days, including putting an orchestra in an 
anecholic chamber and then creating a completely synthetic "air and space" using primative DSP.

-- Tom Fine

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Donald Tait" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, November 28, 2012 2:20 PM
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] truth or myth -- RCA claims about first digital recording


  Ormandy made acoustical records as a solo violinist. Some appeared on the Lincoln and (possibly) 
Cameo and Okeh labels. Somewhere I have the web address for a discography of Ormandy as a violinist, 
but I can't locate it now. Perhaps someone else here will post it. There were 1920s electrical 
records as a violinist too, plus electrical ones with "Dr. Eugene Ormandy's Salon Orchestra" 
featuring such titles as the "Let's Go To Bed Waltz."

  Incidentally, Arthur Fiedler also recorded from acoustical to digital, again beginning as an 
instrumentalist. He was a violinist in the Boston Symphony when they made their Victor records with 
Karl Muck in Camden in the summer of 1917. I found out because in 1961 I asked Fiedler if he was one 
of the musicians who played in them. In his usual brusque way he replied "yes, I did. It was HOT. 
Muck was b--chy!"

  Don Tait







-----Original Message-----
From: Tom Fine <[log in to unmask]>
To: ARSCLIST <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wed, Nov 28, 2012 12:39 pm
Subject: [ARSCLIST] truth or myth -- RCA claims about first digital recording


On the back cover of RCA's first for-release digital recording, Bartok's
"Concerto For Orchestra" by
Ormandy/Philly, producer Jay David Saks wrote that Ormandy's recording career
"has spanned over half
a century -- from 78rpms, both acoustical and electrical, through mono and
stereo LPs to
quadrophonic ..." Is it true that Ormandy recorded acoustic 78's? Can anyone
provide details on his
earliest recordings?

Saks further describes Ormandy as "the man who has made more records than any
other person in
history." Is that true? More than Karajan? More than Dorati?

-- Tom Fine