I had been agonizing over this one for the last few days. "Moltto Allegro," indeed. It seems, though, that the Mozart 225 set got it right as its K550 of primary presentation. There are 4 symphony #40s in this set, but I could live happily with this one. Even the slightest nuance is not lost, and the period instruments don't sound like rats in a flaming bag, unlike the Hogwood rendition (I used to love that one, until I spread my wings). Franz Brugen A special shout out Mark Minkowski & Les Musiciens du Louvre, who a do magical version with clarinets, though most tend to romanticize either the first of second movement, or both! NOTE: I have nothing against Hogwood. His stuff is brilliant, most of the time. In fact, his K 297 "Paris" symphony is hard to beat, on any day, by anybody.
I do believe there is some reasoning behind it, but all people who had a say in this are probably already dead. What I could observe is that in the beginning they had separate covers for all languages. It is especially evident in the ‘50s, where even French and Spanish language covers existed, sometimes with completely different graphics. As DG consolidated their business and finally emerged out of the post-WWII chaos, and their Hanover pressing plant expanded, they started to press and print more discs there for export. DG’s main claim to fame during those days, or at least what set them apart from other labels at the time, was the pressing quality. So they probably thought it was a good idea to press as many records as possible in their own plant, and ship entire batches, rather than just sending over master tape copies to other countries. I imagine at that point it would have been impossible to do separate printing runs with different language labels, so they just kept the German ones. The covers, however, were still kept separate, so you have stuff like Karajan’s Brahms Symphonies box which only exists in English (since it was for export only in that configuration), but the tulip labels are all in German. Then I believe sometime in the 70s they realised they could print both languages on the cover and be done with it. That Planets cover is probably from around the transition time. I’m sure that for most of its heyday, DG’s graphics department always did their designs in multiple language versions, just like Hyperion still does today (even if only for their website). Another related thing I’ve noticed while going through my collection: have your seen how DG’s labels are always perfectly facing in the same direction if you turn the record over? (At least for those pressed in Germany). That means they always had to make sure in the plant that the labels are aligned, which was probably a pain to do, and on top of it pretty unnecessary, except for those with OCD. I don’t know of any other company who does that.
I wonder if there were completely-domestic version of Philips classical vinyl, i.e. ones with only Dutch language written all around.
I remember there were some DG vinyl titles pressed by UK polydor in the 70s and by US MGM in the 60s. In Japan, DG vinyl were pressed in Japan all the time while Arhive vinyl were imported from Germany up to a certain point. There were some exceptions for both.
Was the Japanese vinyl pressed from German plates (i.e. 320?). I don’t have any of those, but I have a Korean pressing from 1984 and it’s made from German metalwork.
As far as I remember, they were cut by Japanese Polydor but began to use the German plates in the 70s because the sound of the Japanese DG vinyl was criticized compared with the German counterpoints. (But much improvement was not seen at last. The reason was uncertain.)
Not Philips, but I have this Philips-pressed Decca vinyl. The liner notes on the back are also in Dutch, exclusively: Most of my Holland-pressed Philips vinyl has titles in German
BTW it is said that Alfred Lion did not allow the foreign manufacturing license of Blue Note vinyl because French Vogue has cheated the numbers of pressing report.
Did I say that most, if not all, Japanese really like the sound of DG and Philips and regard them as true audiophile sound?
Thanks for that history, Crispi. It wasn't until the 80's I saw EMI UK discs in anything other than English and suspect the logic would of similar to DG when there was a consolidation of pressing with a number being imported in their entirety requiring this.
Ugh. That is why?? I wondered all these years. And true, I forgot about their collaboration the 50s. I believe Blue Note pressed some Vogue productions as well as vice versa. A real pity, to be honest. That is why Blue Note vinyl is the rarest and most expensive of those labels, at least when it comes to the original era. After Lion retired, Liberty started pressing records in Europe, often from the same plates. There is now an Alfred Lion Bridge in Berlin, btw, around the place where he was born. I discovered it by accident two years ago. The house he was born in still stands.
It's okay that they do, in my opinion. At least this way they get to experience some excellent interpretations on the pretense of audiophile sound. I find it more regrettable when people dismiss entire labels based on the sound. But hey, that's fine, too, since they're probably not in it for the music anyway, just for the sound.
Stokowski’s Firebird on EMI is one of the handful of best recordings of Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. It sounds fantastically realistic and it happens to be the very first stereo recording of the ensemble.
(CD Deutsche Grammophon 429 765-2) 1990 .... recorded September 1989 .... beneath Dohnanyi/Cleveland Orchestra (IMO) the most successful Brahms cycle of the 1980`s and this outstanding Symphony 3 likely the highpoint of these enlightening Abbado/Berliner Philharmoniker Brahms performances ....
A few historical facts and historical context: Admiral De Ruyter wasn't following an invitation with his Raid on the Medway in 1667: Raid on the Medway - Wikipedia Dutch Stadholder Willem III, however, was indeed invited when he invaded England in 1688.
Looks like an ordinary storm to me, but local weather seems to think it's a catastrophe and no one's heading downtown-- so, some catastrophe music (the Berg op. 6).
True. The Dutch were not invited for the Battle of Medway. The Dutch attacked whilst King Charles had laid up his fleet and peace negotiations were in progress...... er hum.....
That's not the whole story, King Charles' fleet had been laid up due to expenditure restrictions and he also had a hidden agenda (his contacts with France, an adversary of the Dutch Republic). The Dutch seized the opportunity to strike first and end the war: Raid on the Medway - Wikipedia Let's go back to the music
