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No I think it was RCA,they did both Leonard and The Saint Louis Symphony,and a couple of others ________________________________ From: Tom Fine <[log in to unmask]> To: [log in to unmask] Sent: Monday, November 5, 2012 2:32 PM Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Medinah Temple 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 > > --- 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] >