Kaufman's Saint-Saëns
In the September issue Shirley Fleming re viewed an Orion release of the Saint-Saëns Third Violin Concerto played by Louis Kaufman, with Maurits van den Berg con ducting the Netherlands Philharmonic. I have owned a ten- inch Musical Master piece Society disc (MMS 62) of this material by the same artists for over twenty years.
Since neither Mr. Kaufman nor Maurits van den Berg has been really active in recordings of late, it would be interesting to know if these are the same. The old MMS release was certainly pre-stereo by some years. It also contains some thirty-four minutes of music-very short shrift from a $6.98 LP, particularly if it is a reissue of the old performance.
Donald C. Birkby Stamford, Conn.
Orion confirms that its Saint-Saéns disc is indeed a reissue of the MMS performance. It insists, however, that the disc is not re channeled-and since some companies were already taping in stereo in 1955, when the recording first appeared (at a $1.65 list!) it could very well be real stereo.
Concert Broadcasts
Thank you for Robert Finn's "Taping Orchestras for Broadcast" (August). The broadcasts of our symphony orchestras are about the best offerings of our poorly programmed radio stations.
As a ship's officer away from home for many months a year, I have ha great pleasure from my small collection of Boston Symphony recordings. I prefer them to records, as the audience sounds make me feel more as though I were in attendance and very often a degree of excitement is generated in a concert that is seldom found on a disc. My recordings do not, however, adversely affect the revenues of record companies, as I often purchase records of the works that I have heard on these concerts.
It is a pity that Mr. Finn didn't expand his subject matter to include chamber music and the Library of Congress's broadcasts, performed by the best groups available on Stradivarius instruments. Because of several grants from foundations that sponsor the concerts and dissemination of the tapes, these are available to radio stations. Surely these concerts would win more friends for chamber music if they were better known.
Robert G. Munns; Woods Hole, Mass.
Your recent article on the transcription services of the major orchestras was extremely informative and points out the importance of these services in bringing sym phonic music to the FM-radio audience.
However, I would like to point out that the services you named are not unique.
Louis Kaufman Reissued. yes: rechanneled, no.
Glenwood Audio is a recently established company that produces transcriptions for broadcast. We offer a variety of material, including orchestral, choral, chamber, and organ concerts performed by American and European artists and ensembles. We will be happy to supply information about our service to any radio-station program director.
Gretchen Schroeder; Glenwood Audio
Box 297 Somerville, Mass. 02143
In "Taping Orchestras for Broadcast," Robert Finn has misquoted me and also cast an ugly and inaccurate light on the Inter national Conference of Symphony and Op era Musicians' association with the American Federation of Musicians.
Mr. Finn quoted me as saying that "if the tapes invariably were played without commercial sponsorship, ICSOM would have no objection" What I said was that we might look at taping differently if the local stations were not selling the time to sponsors and thereby making a profit on our services. This is very different from saying we would approve the broadcasts if they were not sponsored.
ICSOM's relationship with the AFM was described as "a kind of wary but brotherly relationship-most players in larger orchestras hold dual membership." ICSOM is purely and simply a conference of sym phony and opera musicians within the framework of the AFM. Many international unions have conferences within the larger organization. Some are based on geo graphic location, and some on various trades and other forms of groupings. We are all union musicians and have formed a conference within the framework and bylaws of the AFM, with its full support. to help each other meet and solve problems of our profession. The "wariness" and "duality of membership" simply do not exist.
ICSOM's position on broadcast taping of symphony concerts was properly stated: "What we would like is to be paid an established union price for the tapes." We want the tapes divorced from pension plans, and it is to this end that we are addressing our selves.
Irving Segall, Chairman, ICSOM, Philadelphia, Pa.
Broadcast Pioneer
One glaring omission in your August article, "Taping Orchestras for Broadcast": William Busiek has engineered the Sym phony Hall broadcasts of the Boston Sym phony since 1951, the year when the BSO and other Boston institutions gathered un der Ralph Lowell's leadership to found WGBH-FM (and later -TV). This certainly qualifies Bill as a pioneer of FM symphony broadcasts. And the BSO's interest in pub lic broadcasting has paid off on television as well, with the popular WGBH-produced Evenings, at Pops and at Symphony, on PBS. It is also perhaps worth noting that high speed duplication has yet to provide results rivaling live broadcasts. Busiek, who should know, says that these broadcasts had their greatest potential in the WGBH/ WBCN dual-FM broadcasts of about 1960, since the two mono signals gave total stereo separation and were permitted frequency response up to 20 kHz. Despite the present limit of 15 kHz, though, and the reduced separation of FM multiplex, current efforts with Dolby-A noise reduction from the Symphony Hall studio to our transmitter have given New England listeners some spectacularly clean and quiet broadcasts.
John H. Beck; Radio Manager, WGBH Boston, Mass.
Broadcast Quality (cont.)
In regard to Peter Hamilton's October letter concerning the dull sound of American con cert broadcasts, might it be that we have been so conditioned to the " live" sound of recorded orchestras taping in empty halls that we cannot recognize the much drier sound of an orchestra performing to a full house? When I first played in a community orchestra I was struck by the difference in sound and balances, a difference emphasized for me in my years as a member of the Cornell Symphony Orchestra, playing in an extremely " live" hall that, from an on-stage perspective, went absolutely "dead" at concerts.
I would certainly agree that the beautifully lush sound one hears on DG recordings of the Boston Symphony is far more colorful and enjoyable than the sound on BSO Transcription Trust tapes, but neither is a true representation of what one hears in Symphony Hall at a concert. Each acoustical setting emphasizes different elements of the music, and sometimes one hears interesting details in transcription tapes that are buried in the more reverberant ambience of empty-hall commercial recordings.
Speaking of transcription tapes, the re cent PBS broadcast performance of the Ives Fourth Symphony, with José Serebrier con ducting a Polish orchestra, had some of the best mono sound I have ever heard over a television concert broadcast. The performance revealed a tonally magnificent ensemble that outshone the London Philharmonic's recent RCA recording.
Arthur S. Leonard; Cambridge, Mass.
About the Vibraslap
Regarding Andrew Porter's October review of the Nonesuch recording of George Crumb's Music for a Summer Evening. I hope that I may be of some service to Mr.
Porter and to your readers concerning the vibra-slap (which, as Mr. Porter notes, the composer specifies "may be substituted for the quijada"), inasmuch as I believe it was I who first brought the instrument to the attention of Mr. Crumb a few years ago.
The quijada is indeed the jawbone of a donkey-the sound is produced by slapping the bone against the butt of the hand, thus causing the loosened teeth to rattle. How ever, not only is the quijada rather hard to come by, but it also possesses a marked propensity to break, as borne out once by my own bloodied and bone-splinter-riddled hand.
The vibraslap is a very recent invention (manufactured by the Latin Percussion Corporation), hence Mr. Porter's inability to find it in Sibyl Marcuse's dictionary of musical instruments. It was developed specifically to replace the all too fragile qui jada, and it basically consists of a thin wooden shell inside of which small cylindrical pieces of metal may be set in motion. While the vibraslap sound may not be a carbon copy of that of the authentic qui jada (the ass's teeth don't seem to rattle quite so much as the metallic teeth of the vibraslap), I have found that the sounds are quite similar. And it is indeed a vibraslap that is used in the Nonesuch recording of Music for a Summer Evening.
Christopher Rouse; Ithaca, N.Y.
Mussorgsky, Anyone?
I read with interest in the October "Behind the Scenes" that Philips may celebrate the 225th anniversary of Mozart's birth in 1981 by issuing his complete works on disc. I would like to point out that 1981 also marks the 100th anniversary of Mussorgsky's death. May we dare hope that Philips--or anyone--will take time out from the undeniable joys of, say, K. 28 to give us a recording of Boris Godunov in the composer's own scoring? Surely the enthusiasm ac corded last year's Metropolitan production provides some indication that the time is ripe for such a recording. How much longer will we have to wait?
--Robert W. Oldani
Ann Arbor, Mich.; Recycled Records
In these days of noisy pressings it would seem that there is one largely overlooked contributing factor that should be easily controllable: the practice of resealing and redistributing defective records.
A record-store-owning friend of mine recently received from a distributor a four record set (list price $31.92) shrink-wrapped and labeled "Direct Import-Factory Sealed." Under the wrap was penned the word "Defective." I received a three-record set (list price $23.94) in which, on one of the labels, the word "Defective" had been writ ten. Though these are the most flagrant cases I have encountered, there have been many suspiciously battered booklets, liners, and covers that would lead one to believe that the product is not as fresh as the company would have you think. (This worn packaging has inevitably contained one or more defective records.) I might add that all of the suspicious records I have received have been on high-priced ($7.98 list) imports distributed by independent distributors and not by the manufacturers them selves.
I would suggest that the consumer indicate on the label of any record returned that the disc is defective. This would serve notice to any subsequent purchaser that his "new" record has been found wanting by a fellow consumer.
Richard M. Tuckerman; Lenox, Mass.
One Swan, Hold the Orchestra
In response to R. D. Darrell's September re view of Christine Walevska's Philips disc of Saint-Saëns's " Complete Works for Cello and Orchestra": While Carnival of the Animals is for two pianos and orchestra, "The Swan" contained therein is for cello and two pianos, not cello and orchestra.
Douglas B. Moore (cellist); Williams College, Williamstown, Mass.
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(High Fidelity, Jan. 1976)
Also see:
The Complete Nielsen Symphonies (review, HF mag Apr. 1975)
The Tape Deck: R. D. Darrell Expensive reels, budget cassette packaging ... Zarathustra in St. Louis