Having spent some time producing CD reissues of analog classical recordings
for Sony Classical and UMG, I will suggest that from the first CD reissues,
the focus was on the "core catalogue" previously released on Lps. Those of
lesser artists or less familiar repertoire were often overlooked. Multi-CD
sets by the biggest names were being issued by 1987. Recordings that
originated in mono began to be reissued on CD in the nineties, with EMI and
DG leading the way. Sony began its artist series (Bruno Walter, Glen Gould,
Isaac Stern, Rudolf Serkin) by 1991. EMI's GROC, DG's Originals and Sony's
Masterworks Heritage were devoted to back-catalogue and historical
material. Polygram Group (Decca, Philips) had lines for historical
material, often crafted for local markets as well as ROW sales.
To answer Mr. Richardson's query, I think 20 per cent is a good number for
mono Lps, particularly as many small, independent labels, never even made
it to stereo. But the percentage increases to perhaps 40 per cent for
stereo analog recordings. It may, in fact, exceed that; however, I
personally am unaware of any effort to enumerate the conversion of
commercial classical recordings to CD.
DDR
On Wed, Aug 9, 2017 at 5:11 PM, Richard L. Hess <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:
> But that then raises the question that just because the von Karajan and
> Solti recordings of Beethoven's Fifth were (re)released on CD (and which
> one(s) by those two?) does that mean they are musically superior or more
> interesting that Furtwangler's (again, which one), for example (and
> Furtwangler's might actually have been released on CD, but I'm using it as
> an non-researched example).
>
>
>
>
> On 2017-08-09 4:16 PM, Gene Baron wrote:
>
>> Hi - I don't have answers but the question raises more questions. Are we
>> talking about all classical LPs issued from the lp's inception until its
>> mass production demise, a period of roughly forty years? If so, just
>> think
>> of all the recordings of Beethoven's 5th symphony, just to give one
>> example. If this is the scope then I would think the percentage of CD
>> issuance would be quite low. If on the other hand the question refers to
>> any recording of a given composition, then that's a very different thing.
>> Thanks.
>>
>> Gene
>>
>> On Wed, Aug 9, 2017 at 1:35 PM, Richardson, Jonathan Carrithers <
>> [log in to unmask]> wrote:
>>
>> Asking for a friend. Hoping someone can help settle an argument.
>>>
>>> Maybe this has been discussed in the past on the ARSC list, but does
>>> anyone know what percentage of classical music recordings on LP made it
>>> to
>>> CD or at least into the digital realm? Someone told me once that less
>>> than
>>> 20% of commercially available classical music on LP crossed over to CD. I
>>> don’t believe it. To me that sounds like an awful lot of music that will
>>> soon be lost even though I don’t think LPs are going away anytime soon.
>>>
>>> Of course this is probably a tough question to know the exact answer to
>>> but I thought maybe someone here might know a ballpark figure.
>>>
>>> thanks
>>>
>>> Jonathan Richardson
>>> Audio Visual Specialist
>>> Media Digitization and Preservation Initiative
>>> Indiana University
>>> 812-320-8485
>>> [log in to unmask]
>>> https://mdpi.iu.edu/
>>> https://mdpi.iu.edu/MDPI blog<blogs.iu.edu/mdpi/>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>> --
> Richard L. Hess email: [log in to unmask]
> Aurora, Ontario, Canada 647 479 2800
> http://www.richardhess.com/tape/contact.htm
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>
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