General Classical Music Release Suggestions

[classicrecordings]

Here are a few, very personal suggestions as to Classical music releases.

• If possible, continue to stick with the Decca family of catalogues. Though these have been available in various 4 track releases, they have never been available in 2 track format. With their huge selection of over 1,000 titles; including the superb Argo ZRG-575, (already being mentioned in another post), they have many titles that would prove to be very popular and desirable releases in 2 track format, and may very well help win over some new customers to your project.

• Go for well recorded and highly regarded performances of accessible orchestral and concerto music recordings; similar to the ones you have already selected. Though I have thousands of chamber, solo piano, choral, operatic and mono recordings; I would not recommend releasing any of these at this time. I don't see these releases as ones that would help you build a larger customer base. But, by sticking to the orchestral repertoire, I think you would have a greater opportunity to build interest in your product and expand your market.

• Stay away from mixing down three channel catalogues like RCA and Mercury. (Unless of course you plan on releasing them on 1/2" 3 track tape along with rebuilt 3 track machines.) These two labels have been done to death with multiple vinyl, CD and SACD releases, as well as the fact that they released many of their titles on 1/2 track tapes and are always available in the used market.

• Choose titles that are the best examples of analogue recordings in sound reproduction with dynamics, impact and with a large and natural open sound stage.

I hope that even one of these suggestions is a bit helpful from a consumer's, as well as a reseller's perspective.

I am telling everyone that I know about this project, and I am very excited to see this grow!

This is great; keep it up!

David Stangret
http://www.classicrecordings.on.ca/

[jdcolombo]

I'd like to add my general agreement with this post, with one exception.

I know the RCA Living Stereo series has been reissued to death; I have almost all the current SACD releases, which almost uniformly sound terrific.  BUT . . . the idea of being able to hear these performances, many of which still rank as "best ever" (e.g., Reiner's Strauss; Munch's Ravel, Debussy, etc. - and the Saint-Saens Organ Symphony recording is unbelievable) on a 2d generation 15ips tape . . . well, maybe I wouldn't kill for that, but I might rob a store <grin>.  Remember that the reissues of these titles were not done using Tim DP's electronics; even the current SACD releases, which I think sound better than any of the previous tries, were done with a Studer deck using solid-state electronics.  Highly modded solid state, to be sure, but still . . .

Given how LP fans start drooling over mint-condition "shaded dogs," I wouldn't discount the audience appeal of having a close dub of the original master (mixed to two-channel, of course) - nor would I discount the market impact of having Stereophile or TAS review such a tape and talk endlessly about how much better they sound than ANY LP or reissue in any format.  Which they will!

John Colombo

[ironbut]

As much as I hate to say it, I agree that folks just can't get enough of the old war horses. The evidence lies in the "did not win" column of my "My EBay". Whether it's RCA/ Reiners/Munch, Mercury/Dorati/Paray, or Van Gelder Prestige/Blue Note/ Contemporary, the bidding for these is fierce! Sometimes I'll see some of these from a seller that's new to selling tapes. Sometimes you can tell by the assortment of things being sold that they probably belonged to a loved one who had passed away. Imagine their shock when those dusty old tapes bring in close to $100 a piece.
When it comes right down to it, this is one of the main reasons I started listening to tape. I just wasn't happy enough with vinyl reissues of large classical pieces. I'm happy with small combo jazz on lp but there's such an improvement with orchestral pieces that it would be hard to go back.

[tubesarecool]

Any chance of  getting any of Jacqueline du Pre EMI recordings of the Beethoven Trios? Or any of her cello concerto recordings (Haydn C+ or Elgar) on EMI. The LP's are great, but the master tapes must be spectacular.


Edward Pong

[classicrecordings]

Hi Ed,

A good choice. The duPre recordings were never available on any of the EMI 2 track releases. While I don't have any interest in the vocal recordings which are the flip side to her Elgar and Delius recordings, it would be great to have the concertos paired up; like EMI did when they re-released them in the 70's.

It would be nice to have a complete set of all her Cello concertos on Tape Project releases.

David