Too late for inclusion in our April mixed review of the state of the classical recording industry came confirmation of a significant new venture. James Frey and Scott Mampe, former heads of Deutsche Grammophon and Philips, are about to launch a new line, a classical wing of Clive Davis' Arista label. They will begin by importing and distributing the German Ariola/Eurodisc series, which Arista already owns, one of the larger European classical catalogs still without substantial American distribution. Subsequently, Frey/Mampe Associates will undertake original production, including a mid-priced digital line of basic repertory.
About now the British Unicorn label should be completing sessions on a major Delius project: a recording of works the blind and infirm composer dictated to his amanuensis Eric Fenby between 1928 and his 1934 death. Fenby himself, who turned seventy-five last month, leads the Ambrosian Singers and Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in the Songs of Farewell, A Song of Summer, Caprice and Elegy, Idyll, the 1rmelin Prelude, and two earlier works, Two Aqua relies and A Late Lark. Soprano Felicity Lott will be among the soloists. Two separate digital tapings are being made, one multimiked, the other with a single microphone; a later determination will he made as to which to release. The Delius Trust is providing a subsidy expected to run to some 30,000 pounds-the first time such aid is being extended to a small independent company. Unicorn director John Goldsmith has arranged with Faber and Faber a paperback republication of Fenby's 1936 book, Delius as 1 Knew Him, and plans are to include it as part of the two-disc package.
One of the hopes for the new Davies Hall has been that it will make the San Francisco Symphony's recording life easier and more abundant. All systems are go.
Next October, two weeks will be set aside from the young concert season exclusively for recording. Philips will tape performances of the Mahler Fourth Symphony, with soprano Margaret Price, and Respighi's Pines/Fountains, all led by Edo de Waart. And soprano Elly Ameling will join her compatriot in a third recording of works as yet undetermined.
Deutsche Grammophon is recording yet another Aida-though not exactly as planned. Leonard Bernstein was originally to have recorded the work, but that project apparently ran aground on the shoals of the video contract. Meanwhile, Claudio Abbado s scheduled Don Carlos developed serious hitches of its own, so what more natural than for Abbado to take over Aida? No sooner said than done. Ile conducts the La Scala Orchestra and Chorus and a cast that is yet another variant of the usual lineup with Katia Ricciarelli as Aida, Elena Obraztsova as Amneris, Placido Domingo as Radamés, and Leo Nucci as Amonasro.
Ruggeri) Raimondi, Ramfis in last year's Karajan version (Angel SZCX 3888), is the King here and Nicolai Ghiaurov becomes Ramfis.
Time-Life Records has inaugurated a new series, American Musicals. The first volume, a three-disc set devoted to music of Rodgers and Hammerstein, contains original-cast recordings of Oklahoma! (complete with three songs not previously transferred to LP), Carousel, and South Pacific in un-retouched monaural dubbings and is accompanied by Abe Laufé s hook Broadway's Greatest Musicals. ($24.95; Time-Life Records, 541 N. Fairbanks Ct., Chicago, Ill. 60611.) Future volumes will offer music of Cole Porter, Leonard Bernstein, and Stephen Sondheim.
"The audience ... is dumber than it used to be; modern Americans are better consumers of records than ever before, but they are poorer music-listeners." William Ivey's statement and others less provocative can be found in The Phonograph and Our Musical Life, the proceedings of a centennial conference (December 1977), edited by H. Wiley Hitchcock. Contributors include HF's David Hamilton. (Available through the Institute for Studies in American Music, Brooklyn College, Brooklyn, N.Y. 11210, for $7.50.) And the Beecham Society has announced the third printing of its George Szell discography, complete with a recent updating supplement. (Sir Thomas Beecham Society, P.O. Box 6361, Cleveland, Ohio 44101; $10.75.)
-HF
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(High Fidelity, USA print magazine)
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