> I forget the fellow's name who owned SPA but he lived in Saratoga where I
> visited him many years ago and asked about this performance in particular
> and F. Charles in gerenral.
His name is Norman Fox, and, AFAIK, he's still alive! I spoke to him via
telephone two years ago in conjunction with a still-forthcoming collection
of F. Charles Adler Bruckner recordings to be published on CD. Norman
(assuming that he's still extant) still maintains his jewelry store located
at the same address as SPA. Norman was as ornery as reputed from other
sources, but gradually disclosed lots of good information. No, he doesn't
have any master tapes. They all allegedly disappeared years ago while being
transported from Columbia to RCA.
I say "allegedly", because I managed to located a few of the master tapes at
Iron Mountain: no Bruckner or Mahler, but they included some of the Antheil
recordings issued a few years back on a CD set. The CD set was produced
extraordinarily well from LP sources; still, it's a pity that the producers
didn't know about the master tapes. As for the vital Mahler and Bruckner
masters, they're still missing, but I bet they're misfiled at Iron Mountain
or some similar vault.
The Mahler 3rd on Chant du Monde as well as on Conifer was made from a
safety tape copy of the master. It apparently was used for LP pressings made
for the European market, and hence is, at present, the only Adler/Mahler/SPA
recording with a tape source, albeit second-generation. The Chant du Monde
release suffered from 50 Hz hum; the Conifer release was completely free of
it.
Aaron Z