Hi Paul,
That was R.H. Hardie, and the company he ran on the side was called International Observatory Instruments. He mad truncated elliptical stylii for the Shure M44 cartridges. I have a copy of his Mengelberg discography, the first one ever done, I believe.
Best,
Gary
-----Original Message-----
From: Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Paul T. Jackson
Sent: Sunday, January 27, 2019 8:06 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Subject: Radio Netherlands Transcription Discs
OK, I'll chime in. Certainly those recordings need to be preserved.
My late wife and I attended a Concertgebouw concert on our European tour
1965, we heard the best exciting rendition of Bartok's Concerto for
Orchestra. Fabulous concert never forgotten. I'd really enjoy having a
recording of this particular performance if there is one.
The mention of Mengelberg brought back to mind, one of our first
members of ARSC was a Mengelberg collector. He was in charge of
Vanderbilt's observatory (actually lived next door to it) in Nashville.
We visited him during one of our conferences there in Nashville. We
found that he was manufacturing special needles for playback of old
recordings. Someone remembered that recently and the company doing this
on this list, but I've not saved that information. I'm wondering if
there are other collectors doing this work still?
Paul
On 1/27/2019 9:03 AM, Loftus Becker wrote:
> Just another voice chiming up to say that although I never heard any of the short-wave broadcasts, I greatly enjoyed the release of Mengelberg’s recordings with the Concertgebouw. Like Gary, my first two were the Mahler 4th and Schubert’s 9th, for me in that order. And I remain grateful for the many wonderful recordings preserved by Radio Netherlands.
>
> Lofty Becker
>
>> On Jan 26, 2019, at 6:02 PM, Gary A. Galo<[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>>
>> Hello Jonathan,
>>
>> I can't answer your question about that series of recordings, because I don't believe that I have any. I think I saw a few of them at Princeton Record Exchange a few years ago.
>>
>> Perhaps I can relate a few experiences with Radio Nederland. When I was in high school in the late 1960s I was an avid shortwave listener. Radio Nederland, as it was known then, was one of my favorite stations, and every Sunday night they would broadcast a concert with the Concertgebouw Orchestra. Although these were shortwave broadcasts, the reception in central Vermont was usually excellent, aided by the relay transmitter that Radio Nederland had in the Netherlands Antilles, and favorable sun-spot activity. The shortwave club I belonged to - the North American Shortwave Association - reported that Radio Nederland's programming was rated extremely high by their members.
>>
>> One Sunday evening Bernard Haitink conducted Bruckner's 3rd Symphony. It was my first exposure to Bruckner, and got me hooked on that composer. I soon bought Haitink's Philips recording of that work, with the Concertgebouw. I found the recording in a local record and audio store in Rutland, Vermont. The fact that a small store in a small central Vermont city would have that recording shows how much our culture has changed!
>>
>> I became more aware of the vast Dutch radio archive when Philips released two of Willem Mengelberg's live performances with the Concertgebouw, dating from 1939-1940. My first LP records in that series was Schubert's 9th Symphony, followed later by his Mahler 4th. Much more recently, I purchased several of the Q-Disc CD boxes of Dutch radio broadcasts with the Concertgebouw, including one each devoted to Mengelberg and Eduard van Beinum. These were authorized releases, and are excellent.
|