Interesting details on this. I have a copy of an internal memo from 2/6/69 written by 
Capitol/Angel/EMI engineer Carson Taylor to Brown Meggs, VP International Department of Capitol, 
detailing a trip that Taylor, Angel producer Dick Jones and two other Capitol folks took to 
Cleveland and Chicago, presumably sometime soon before February, 1969, to scout recording venues.

Bottom line of the memo was, Cleveland is fine, Severance Hall was everything expected. But, "in 
Chicago the scene was entirely different."

Taylor: "Orchestra Hall is a total disaster. I would not attempt, even electro-acoustically, to 
re-enforce this room. It requires major surgery of the most severe nature to fix the problems."

He continued, "We proceeded to the Medinah Temple. This is very good. The trouble in the low 
frequencies which is apparent in the RCA recordings, we all felt could have been avoided by careful 
use of the back drops (which were not used) and then proper microphone technique. However, the 
control room situation is far from ideal, and the availablility of the Temple would make the 
sessions extremely difficult and almost unworkable."

Taylor then assessed the Auditorium Theatre: "This is a 4000-seat room with a large stage. In this 
case, investigation disclosed that the stage contributes practically nothing to the sound but the 
room is absolutely marvelous. With extensions out over the pit we could place the orchestra so the 
building acoustics would enhance the pick-up, and in my opinion this is #1 choice in the city of 
Chicago. Control room areas are not good and logistics difficult to maneuver but it can be done with 
beautiful results."

Note Taylor's caveat "in the city of Chicago." He then goes on to name his favorite choice: "Then we 
heard about an auditorium at Wheaton College, 30 miles west of Chicago. Out in the country, this 
small-town religious college has a new auditorium that is the end of everything. It has the 
smoothest, most beautiful sound I ever heard (and) it has a perfect room for a control room - 
nothing else needed - easy acceess, etc."

Taylor: "NET RESULT OF TRIP: In Cleveland, we are o.k. in Severance Hall ... For Chicago Symphony we 
use Wheaton College if at all possible -- all technical problems will be greatly simplified. 
Auditorium Theatre is #2 choice. The sound can be beautiful but the logistics of execution will be 
much more difficult. Medinah Temple would be #3 only as a desperation move because of the bad 
scheduling situation. Orchestra Hall - NO at any time."

What ended up happening, was Medinah Temple, which was used by both EMI/Angel and Decca for years. 
Taylor's control room appeared to have been set up behind the orchestra, with heavy blankets and 
tall gobo's separating them. I might be wrong on that, but it's how I read the session photos I 
have. I'm not sure how Decca set up their control room.

-- Tom Fine

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Donald Tait" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Sunday, November 04, 2012 2:51 PM
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Medinah Temple


  Both the Dvorak Concerto and its discmate, his Silent Woods (Du Pre/Barenboim/CSO) -- recorded 
November 11, 1970, Medinah Temple.

  The first Capitol/EMI CSO session was June 25, 1969. Ozawa. Borodin: Prince Igor: Polovtsian 
Dances; Kodaly: Dances from Galanta. Recorded in Edman Chapel, Wheaton College, Wheaton, Illinois. 
Not issued, and no other CSO sessions seem to have been held there. The works were done successfully 
at the sessions of June 30 and July 1, 1969 in Medinah. The rest of the Capitol/EMI sessions took 
place there, through Giulini's Mahler Symphony 1on March 30, 1971.

  The CSO's recording venues after the autumn of 1966 are a sad and slightly complicated story, and 
this all reflects that. In the summer of 1966 the Orchestral Association undertook what they 
described as an "updating" of Orchestra Hall. Some things needed it, but the acoustics did not. 
Nonetheless, the acoustics were severely damaged and the resultant sound was completely dead. All 
resonance and reverberation were gone. As someone who heard the before-and-after, it was shocking. 
For everyone. Additionally, what had been one of the finest halls in the country for recording was 
rendered useless for it. RCA attempted three sessions there after the "renovation:" Nielsen Symphony 
no. 4 (October 10, 1966) and Helios Overture and Massenet Thais Intermezzo (December 3, 1966, all 
cond. Martinon) and March 8, 1967 (Schumann Piano Concerto -- Rubinstein/Giulini). The early issues, 
before artificial reverb was added, are acoustically as dead as the proverbial doornail. An almost 
shocking change from the formerly great acoustics and resonance of the empty hall. RCA clearly felt 
they could no longer record the CSO there and had to go elsewhere. The first attempt was at the 
historic Auditorium Theatre on February 15, 1967 with Morton Gould. All Ives: Orchestral Set no. 2; 
Three Places in New England; Robert Browning Overture. After that RCA moved to Medinah Temple, first 
on April 26, 1967 with Jean Martinon. The rest of their sessions were held there through May 16, 
1968. They reverted to Orchestra Hall for the Ozawa sessions of July 1 and 16 and August 9 -- the 
last ones under the RCA contract.

  Some of the recordings Carl cited were made in Orchestra Hall before the mid-1966 acoustical 
disaster, not in Medinah Temple. I'll include some he didn't cite as well:

  Morton Gould, Orchestra Hall --

  Ives: Symphony 1 -- November 6, 1965
  Ives: The Unanswered Question -- January 31, 1966
  Ives-Schuman: Variations on "America" -- ditto

  Orchestra Hall, all on June 18, 1966:

  Morton Gould/Benny Goodman, clarinet

  Nielsen: Symphony no. 2
  Nielsen: Clarinet Concerto
  Fred Fischer-Gould: "Chicago, that Toddlin' Town" (Goodman)

  The first Solti/CSO Decca sessions were held in Medinah Temple on March 26, 27, and April 6, 7, 8 
1970.

  Thanks are due to Mike Gray and Steve Smolian, who obtained this information and sent it to me for 
a CSO discography that I unfortunately had to abandon preparing.

  Don Tait









-----Original Message-----
From: Carl Pultz <[log in to unmask]>
To: ARSCLIST <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Sun, Nov 4, 2012 9:29 am
Subject: [ARSCLIST] Medinah Temple


Oh, yeah - I didn't know about that performance. If it has too much star,
I'd blame the producer or artist manager rather than Mr. Taylor. I admire
his work. Was he a contemporary of Frank Abbey? He - they - others? - were
early on really into purist stereo, using various coincident and M/S pickups
on Stokowski projects and the Cello Galaxy album.

I read years ago that an engineer discovered the trick for Medinah Temple of
micing way up in the ceiling to pick up a meaty reverberance. That must have
helped to blend together the many spot mics that are evident on most all
projects made there. IIRC, it was credited to a Decca guy working on the
first Solti records around 1969, and everybody else copied it. But, the
first crews in there were RCA, I think, and they also made it work (ie.
Nielsen 2&4, Ives 1, etc). The EMIs I've heard achieve a more homogeneous,
more distant sound, better to my taste than the others.

The Taylor/CSO session I'd most like to hear remastered is the Lutoslawski
Concerto for Orchestra. That is mind-blowing. The Angel LP (S-36045 c/w
Janacek Sinfonietta and a nice piece by R.C. Marsh about the sessions) gives
a hint, but a HMV Concert Classics DMM pressing gets us closer. Worth
seeking out ED 29 0134 1 if that music hasn't already been put out on silver
drink coasters. Gathering from that evidence, the first EMI dates were in
1969. What's the date on the Dvorak?

-----Original Message-----
From: Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Tom Fine
Sent: Sunday, November 04, 2012 7:02 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] CDJAPAN has remastered Barbirolli

I got the DuPre Dvorak recording from HDTracks:
https://www.hdtracks.com/index.php?file=catalogdetail&valbum_code=HD50999705
58852
(I bought it during one of their frequent 15% off sales)

It sounds marginally more clear and "weighty" vs. the CD reissue from the
90's. This recording was
done by Carson Taylor, who did many of the U.S. classical recordings for
EMI/Angel/Capitol in those
days. Taylor put a coicident stereo mic down at cello level and out in front
of it, so the cello is
very forward and on its own, to my ears. I think a cellist would love this
approach, but a listener
wanting to hear the whole musical product may prefer the cello better
blended with the orchestra.
This way, you hear the vibrating strings and wood very clearly, plus the bow
strokes. But that then
diverts your attention somewhat from what the orchestra is doing. In this
recording, it also sounds
like the cello is in a different sound-field from the rest of the orchestra,
because the Medinah
Temple is reverberant and Taylor put most of his orchestra mics at more
distance than the cello
mics. I know this because I have photos taken during the recording session.

-- Tom Fine