Hi Don:
Mercury didn't adhere to any "standard canon of classical music" except in that Paray and Dorati
both liked Beethoven and Dorati liked Brahms and Tchaikovsky so those composers were well
represented. Otherwise, Dorati made plenty of records of Hungarian, Russian, Czech and other Eastern
European composers, plus an on-going series of well-received American and European modern-classical
composers. Paray usually stuck to French music and Romantic era classical. Hanson was all about
modern American music, for the most part. Fennell was into a variety of things from marches to
"pops" to wind arrangements of symphonic music. None of this was "standard canon," and it was
Mercury's main point of difference (note that there is not a complete Beethoven cycle on Mercury
Living Presence, never a 9th recorded and no released stereo 4th or 8th; if I recall correctly one
of Dorati's Brahms symphonies was mono-only too). I would say the reason no Mahler was recorded was
that none of Mercury's conductors or orchestras performed or advocated Mahler, the exception being
Barbirolli (who was actually under contract with Pye). It's also worth noting that Walter and
Bernstein started making well-received Mahler recordings in the "golden era" (late mono/early stereo
LP era). No sane record producer would spend very many resources competing with Columbia's Bernstein
publicity machine. Columbia and RCA were much more obsessed with recording every note of every piece
from Beethoven to the 20th century, "standard canon" material, usually by multiple conductors and
orchestras. Finally, it's worth noting that Dorati brought forth a lot of new-to-recordings material
from Tchaikovsky like original scoring for the ballets, first recording of "1812" as it was
originally conceived, first recording of the complete Suites. Dorati also premiere-recorded several
modern pieces. Hanson's recording tally is full of premieres by the very nature of his American
Music Festivals. Fennell hunted down original band music never recorded and not heard since the
original bands, including Confederate sheet music found in attics for "The Civil War" albums. None
of this is "standard canon of classical music" by any stretch. Mercury buyers were not wanting the
Reader's Digest Guide To Great Music, but Mercury made sure not to get so out there on every release
that they couldn't sell records. This was part of what doomed Everest -- too much stuff that no one
had heard of, no matter how well recorded. The last thing they did, as they were in the midst of
shutting down, was a mediocre Beethoven cycle with Krips.
To part of your point, it's doubtful that Mahler symphonies were being performed out in places like
Minneapolis or Detroit in that period, or that audiences were demanding it. But, I think if you
checked concert repertoire around the US, they were being performed here and there through the
years.
-- Tom Fine
----- Original Message -----
From: "Don Cox" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, September 22, 2014 2:47 PM
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Records Ruin the Landscape
<snip>
> There are no Mercury recordings of any of these (or of Mahler), which
> shows they were not in the standard canon of classical music in the
> 1950s.
>
> Regards
> --
> Don Cox
> [log in to unmask]
>
>
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