Two further search threads.
Concert Hall was owned by fitst name? Josefowitz. Their European branch issued two Seefried LPs which I own- I'm a very big fan. I believe the violinist Lila Josefowicz (various spellings) is related.
Some years ago I was involved in a reissue project involving the Period label and similar- Stradavarius, Oxford, etc., though much of it never came out. This was through a connection to the late Bernie Solomon of excruciating Everest fame who claimed he had permission to issue this stuff but on a non-exclusive basis and had the paper work to back up this claim. In the course of this project, I had conversations with a representative of the Canadian company, Madacy (?) who claimed the Period and Remington tapes were in their possession, as were masters of lots of the other early classical mono LP labels, including Everest. They reissued a group of Everest items though some were for deluxe download only, as I recall. At some point in the proceedings, contact between this company and myself ceased from their end-- no more phone calls or emails from them and no response to any from my side. It felt as if lawyers had stepped in but I couldn't confirm this. The Florida company for which I had worked went on to other things.
Madacy is related to record company in Hamburg that recorded and owns or owned the 101 strings (25-1/4 instruments?) catalog and thus presumably these masters. I forget the German company name at the moment. Anyway, this is a rabbit hole thatneeds exploring.
Steve Smolian
----Original Message-----
From: Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of John Haley
Sent: Thursday, August 10, 2017 10:51 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] FW: [ARSCLIST] classical music LPs to CDs
Gary is right about MHS. They licensed any number of distinguished European recordings, but I believe that they also made some of their own recordings early on. As I recall, the company was founded by a cellist named something like Naida, who appears as a player on some of the earlier chamber music recordings. I had a lot of MHS recordings in my youth (still have them) and loved many of them. It was an education in baroque music, with the likes of Kurt Redel, Marie-Claire Alain, Jean Pierre Rampal, Karl Ristenpart (fantastic conductor!), I solisti Veneti, and many more very great musicians. I bought the MHS Goberman Vivaldi recordings, which I still have somewhere, but too many of them are clearly rough sight-reading. The quality of the pressings was almost always excellent. I know someone who is a friend of one of the descendants of the owner of the label, and this thread reminds me to follow up about what happened to the MHS master tapes.
As for Remington and related labels, I have followed that trail some years ago. With a few exceptions, the masters are lost. The owner of the label died and his widow sold everything to a guy who was indicted and convicted for fraud. The Feds seized all the assets, including the Remington masters, and they were never seen again, undoubtedly destroyed (one cannot find that out). A few of them survived because they were loaned out and not returned, and about a dozen of those were later reissued in fine pressings on Varese Sarabande. I don't know where those masters are now--the guy who did the reissues, with whom I spoke, won't say and won't let anyone access them. .
Dave, don't you think that the Concert Hall label and assets were simply bought by someone in the UK? It would be wonderful to find out where those master tapes went.
Best,
John Haley
On Thu, Aug 10, 2017 at 9:46 AM, Gary A. Galo <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Everything MHS issued was legitimate and under license. They never
> used pseudonyms.
>
> Gary
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List [mailto:
> [log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Nick Morgan
> Sent: Thursday, August 10, 2017 9:42 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: [ARSCLIST] FW: [ARSCLIST] classical music LPs to CDs
>
> Living in the UK, we don't see as many MHS LPs (or CDs) as you, but I
> have seen many of the European discs they originated from, and I've
> never seen any name changes beyond those deemed necessary to make
> maybe unfamiliar European ensemble names more transparent to US buyers.
>
> I'm no expert on the history of MHS - I wish I was - but I don't
> believe they would have needed to use pseudonyms, as they didn't (to
> my knowledge) issue European radio tapes which might have fallen off
> the back of a lorry, but licensed commercial European originations on
> a totally legit (and always
> acknowledged) basis. I'd welcome any correction.
>
> I believe MHS also originated material itself, or at least co-produced.
> One example is the Bach Cello Suites recorded by Nikolaus Harnoncourt;
> another is his Marin Marais LP. Both were licensed by Harmonia Mundi
> France, and are often assumed to be HM originations - but I don't
> think that's right. Seems odd, I know, that MHS should have a hand in
> these but in fact it had issued some of his earlier recordings made in
> Europe by Metronome and Amadeo. I'd love to know more but I fear that
> MHS's paper archive, if there was one, may already have bitten the dust.
>
> In fact, I'd love it if ARSC could look into the feasibility of a
> register of record company archives, not to mention master tapes -
> which would also include a register of known losses and destructions.
> But I realise that's a very big, erm... ask.
>
> Nick
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List [mailto:
> [log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Richard L. Hess
> Sent: 10 August 2017 13:53
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] classical music LPs to CDs
>
> On 2017-08-10 12:55 AM, Paul Stamler wrote:
> >
> > Tracing what became of the 1950s labels (and their master tapes)
> > might make a nice article for the ARSC Journal.
> >
>
>
> And that brings to my mind, what happened to Musical Heritage Society?
> I lost track of them when I left NYC in 1981 (if not before), but I
> understand that they moved from their over-stuffed Broadway office to
> some place in New Jersey. I have a bunch of their LPs. They offered an
> interesting way to explore music at reduced cost. Of course you always
> had to send that blasted coupon back every month or you got something
> you didn't want!
>
> My understanding was that many of their recordings were repurposed
> European recordings. Were they guilty of changing the names of the
> players/ensembles like some others?
>
> Cheers,
>
> Richard
> --
> Richard L. Hess email: [log in to unmask]
> Aurora, Ontario, Canada 647 479 2800
> http://www.richardhess.com/tape/contact.htm
> Quality tape transfers -- even from hard-to-play tapes.
>
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