PATHETIQUE EXPERIENCE

Muir Mathieson conducted Sinfonia of London for us in a number of classical recordings.  He was first and foremost a conductor of film scores, but had any number of concert appearances to his credit – and was well-known for conducting the allegro movement of Tchaikovsky’s 6th, the Pathetique, at an absolutely furious pace – testing himself, the orchestra and no doubt some sections of his audience!

We contracted Muir and the Sinfonia to record the symphony for the Club.  I wasn’t at the recording, but later listened to the tape, and especially the allegro,  with great interest – even awe.   Then just at the end, at the height of the excitement, one of the trumpets cracked a note – a really jolting one*.  I pointed it out later to Norman, and got a gloomy response.  Yes, they’d noticed it of course – how could you not?  But they were right at the end of the session, it would have been too costly to do it again, entailing the booking of another session of the recording venue, plus the orchestra.  And maybe our members wouldn’t notice – or wouldn’t mind too much.

Years later, in Australia, I was approached by a representative of a fairly obscure Continental label:  would we like to consider their repertoire for the Club?

He had some samples.  I chose a recording of the Pathetique by some conductor and orchestra I’d never heard of.  You’ve guessed it of course:  at the end of the Allegro came the familiar cracked trumpet note – London WRC had licensed the tape to the European company, and we were now being offered our own record! 

* A somewhat similar event occurred with our early recording of Tchaikovsky’s first piano concerto – an occasion when I was actually in the control room – though taking no part in proceedings.  The soloist was undoubtedly gifted, but played two false notes in the first series of crashing chords.  I suppose, apart perhaps from Beethoven’s fifth symphony, there are no more recognizable chords in classical music.  The soloist, listening to the play-back, was seemingly unperturbed.  False notes were inevitable in any performance were they not?  To re-record the sequence would rob the performance of its integrity and spontaneity.  You mean you actually insist?  Oh, very well then if I must.

It demonstrated to me that some artists at that early stage in L.P. recording were quite oblivious to the fact that their recordings were going to be played again and again – and that flaws in their performance were going to become more and more magnified in the ears of their listeners until eventually they became intolerable.

ON SLEEVES AND ADS AND THINGS

I occasionally see in print or electronic media tribute paid to Geoff Digby, the Club’s art director – and never was tribute more deserved.  I want to set the record (sic) straight, however, with reference to my involvement in the studio.  While Geoff strictly observed protocol in coming to my office each month with a bundle of sleeve designs under his arm and spreading them out for me to view, I never once rejected any of them – I wouldn’t have dared!  The story that Geoff produced covers under my supervision (however benign) is therefore quite mistaken.  The only supervision I exercised is in setting the number of full colour sleeves the studio was permitted to produce each month.

Rather similarly I have been congratulated from time to time on the Club’s promotional expertise.  I preen a bit at times, to be sure, but in fact the Club’s headline, used for many years: ‘You only have to take one a year’ was suggested to me by Roger Hudson who’d done some market research amongst Adelaide members when he was in charge of that city’s branch office.  Of all the headlines in all the ads I’d written over the years, this was consistently the most productive – and I knew this for certain, because every coupon in our ads was keyed, and every coupon we received was sorted and counted - a bit like tallying the number of hits received on the internet today.

About once a week for years and years I’d receive a letter from a member (or non-member for that matter) that the headline should read “You have to take only one a year.”  Such letters delighted me – they proved there were people out there as pedantic as I.  I never changed it though.

AND THE WINNERS ARE

Finally, I’ve sometimes been asked which were our most popular records in terms of initial sales   Here they are:

LIGHT MUSIC:   Music of the Incas   

OPERA:  Bizet’s Pearl Fishers

CLASSICAL:  Shchedrin’s version of Bizet’s Carmen Suite

MUSICAL:  The Sound of Music

POP, BLUES, C&W etc.:  Glen Campbell – By the Time I Get to Phoenix

Thank you to those who are following this World Record Club series on StereoNET – I hope you are finding it interesting and perhaps amusing.

Continue to Part 6