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ARSCLIST  November 2012

ARSCLIST November 2012

Subject:

Re: Medinah Temple

From:

David Lewis <[log in to unmask]>

Reply-To:

Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List <[log in to unmask]>

Date:

Mon, 5 Nov 2012 19:17:03 -0500

Content-Type:

text/plain

Parts/Attachments:

Parts/Attachments

text/plain (156 lines)

EMI did reissue the Toch, in their "Matrix" series in the 90s. No one paid
attention to those:

http://www.amazon.com/Symphony-3-Mathis-Der-Maler/dp/B00000DCLA/ref=cm_lmf_tit_23

UD

On Mon, Nov 5, 2012 at 4:32 PM, Tom Fine <[log in to unmask]>wrote:

> Those are the Capitol recordings, made before the Command contract.
> Capitol recorded in the Syria Mosque. They didn't do badly for early-era
> stereo. Frank Abbey and Irv Joel did most of the engineering for
> Pittsburgh. One really good recording they did early in the stereo era was
> the Toch 3rd Symphony. I don't know why EMI never reissued it on CD, but
> the 2-track duped tape is pricey to say the least.
>
> People sometimes don't associate Capitol and its engineering staff with
> classical recording, but they always had at least one foot in the business
> in the LP era. Steinberg/Pittsburgh and Stokowski/Houston recorded on the
> Capitol label. Capitol also did "sound spectacular" light-classical records
> in Hollywood with Erich Leinsdorf and Leonard Slatkin.
>
> By the late 60's, Capitol seemed to be acting more as the US agent of EMI,
> but note that Dick Jones was still overseeing those sessions even when
> Peter Andry was over here from England. Carson Taylor and his recording
> staff were working out of Capitol Tower, not England. And, Taylor seemed to
> have had free reign to record things his way, which was different from how
> EMI was working in England as far as I can tell. By the late 60's, I think
> EMI in England was using a larger number of mics and I'm not sure how many
> tracks they were recording to in a typical session. Also, I'm almost
> positive they weren't using the 3M Dynatrack system like Taylor was. Taylor
> typically brought along 4-track (8-electronics) 3M machines, but he later
> wrote that many recordings were to 2-track with a couple of spot mics or
> room mics doubled to the other tracks so the producer had some leeway about
> balance and ambiance when they cut a 2-track Dolby LP master back at the
> studio. Soloists, of course, got their own tracks. In the case of the Du
> Pre recording at Medinah, Taylor used a Neumann coincident stereo mic in
> front of Du Pre, likely sent to its own 2 tracks. The orchestra would then
> have been mixed to the other 2 tracks. Typical Taylor setup was a stereo
> mic up high and behind the conductor, a stereo mic over the middle of the
> orchestra, and a few spot mics on the sides. All Neumann and AKG condenser
> mics.
>
> I'm not sure what happened after the early 70's with Capitol and EMI
> regarding US classical recording. Carson Taylor retired in the mid-70's and
> I don't think anyone replaced him engineering for Capitol/Angel.
>
> I think the last of the last US labels recording US orchestras was Telarc.
>
> -- Tom Fine
>
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Roderic G Stephens" <
> [log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Monday, November 05, 2012 3:48 PM
>
> Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Medinah Temple
>
>
> Don,
>> A series of EMI releases of the Pittsburg/Steinberg recordings are
>> available at ArkivMusic:http://www.**arkivmusic.com/classical/**
>> Search?cx=**011477110254701862377%**3Abwrykxfy_di&cof=FORID%3A10&**
>> ie=UTF-8&google_search=1&**searchingPage=ABC456&**
>> searching=1&role_wanted=-1&q=**steinberg+pittsburgh+so<http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/Search?cx=011477110254701862377%3Abwrykxfy_di&cof=FORID%3A10&ie=UTF-8&google_search=1&searchingPage=ABC456&searching=1&role_wanted=-1&q=steinberg+pittsburgh+so>
>>
>> --- On Mon, 11/5/12, Don Cox <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>>
>> From: Don Cox <[log in to unmask]>
>> Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Medinah Temple
>> To: [log in to unmask]
>> Date: Monday, November 5, 2012, 11:59 AM
>>
>> On 05/11/2012, Tom Fine wrote:
>>
>> The whole issue with finding a suitable recording venue in Chicago,
>>> after Orchestra Hall was ruined, shows that logistics and local
>>> politics matter as much or more than acoustics and engineering
>>> preferences. It's interesting that, given how acclaimed RCA's Chicago
>>> recordings from the 50's and early 60's were, that the orchestra board
>>> could be convinced to butcher the acoustic space so much. To some
>>> classical music fans, those RCA records were the ultimate examples of
>>> the recording art with an American orchestra in an American venue.
>>>
>>> Mercury had similar problems in Detroit and Minneapolis, as much
>>> politics and logistics as acoustical and engineering decisions.
>>>
>>> Likewise Kingsway Hall, the best recording space in London for
>> orchestral music. It was demolished in 1984.
>>
>> In Detroit, the Edsel Ford Auditorium was built by and named after the
>>> Ford family, which was a primary or the primary sponsor of the Detroit
>>> Symphony. From the first time my father set foot in that room, he
>>> hated it acoustically. In the mono days, there were tricks that could
>>> deployed to make the single-mic technique work, but when stereo
>>> recording started, that venue became almost impossible (although there
>>> were a few stereo recordings made in the Ford auditorium in the early
>>> days of stereo). Old Orchestra Hall, known as the Paradise Theatre in
>>> those days, was a better space, but it was literally falling apart and
>>> was not in a good part of town. However, many Mercury sessions were
>>> done there, leaky roof and all. The room has a nice sound to it,
>>> although my father thought it sounded smaller than it was. Then, via
>>> several sources, word trickled down about the superb auditorium in
>>> Cass Technical High School. It ended up being an almost ideal
>>> recording venue. The auditorium was in the middle of the huge
>>> building, so it was well isolated. There were good and comfortable
>>> control-room facilities in the school. And the sound was superb. It's
>>> unfortunate that Cass was discovered rather late in the Mercury
>>> relationship with Paul Paray and Detroit. But, all or almost all of
>>> the 35mm magnetic-film recordings done in Detroit were done at Cass,
>>> to the benefit of the sound quality.
>>>
>>> In Minneapolis, the Northrop Auditorium was also non-ideal. It turned
>>> out to be less ideal for single-mic mono than for stereo. The reason
>>> was, it was so cavernous that sound got lost in the huge space. In the
>>> mono days, various setups were used, mainly moving the strings out
>>> onto the stage apron and, for a couple of sessions, using a tape-delay
>>> reverb fed to a big Altec speaker in the rear of the auditorium so as
>>> to make the room sound more live. What happened was that the sound
>>> dissipated so much that the rear of the omni-directional mic barely
>>> caught anything, so the recording sounded too dry. When the technique
>>> changed to three spaced omnis, more reverb and room tone was captured,
>>> so there was less of a problem. Switching to the Schoeps M201 mic for
>>> the single-mic mono also helped a bit because it's more sensitive than
>>> a Neumann U-47 and also has a different presence peak that tends to
>>> pick up low-level high-frequency information better in that setup.
>>> Very late in Mercury's relationship with the Minneapolis Symphony, the
>>> auditorium at Edison High School, which I think was out in the
>>> suburbs, was used. That room had a better sound, it was "warmer" and
>>> more detailed. Like Cass, it's a pity it wasn't "discovered" earlier.
>>>
>>> A similar search for a good venue took place when Command signed the
>>> Pittsburgh Symphony. My father and Enoch Light checked out the
>>> orchestra's performance venue, didn't like that. They also didn't like
>>> the Syria Mosque, where Capitol had made its Pittsburgh recordings.
>>> They found the Soliders and Sailors Hall, which had the unique
>>> property of the stage being out into the cavernous space, so the whole
>>> room had similar reverberant properties. This worked well for the
>>> 6-mic technique that they devised for Command Classics. The Pittsburgh
>>> Symphony went on to deliver a very good Beethoven cycle, and a good
>>> Brahms cycle, and some other interesting recordings. Alas, Command
>>> Classics never sold well, according to later interviews with Enoch
>>> Light and others. In the late 60's and early 70's, ABC/MCA kept
>>> cheapening the packaging and eventually let Pickwick put out
>>> supermarket-counter versions of some records. Later-era ABC re-cuts
>>> and pressings are far inferior to original-issues.
>>>
>>> Were these Pittsburgh recordings ever issued on CD ?
>>
>> Regards
>> --
>> Don Cox
>> [log in to unmask]
>>
>>

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