Re: [ARSCLIST] Telefunken & DGG

[David Lennick <dlennick@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Earl Mathewson, a now-deceased Toronto collector, had a number of Nazi-era discs
that I borrowed and taped (for research..also for use on an Intersound CD titled
"Never Again"). One was a twelve-inch brown-label Grammophon pressing containing
a speech by one of the Nazi biggies (Goering or Goebbels, don't have the tape
handy to check), cut center-start, and the flip side was Schubert's Marche
Militaire (might have been Melichar conducting..definitely late 1920s copyright
date).

dl

Steven Smolian wrote:

> More about RCA Oberstein:
>
> If memory serves, it was the Havana SO- my error.
>
> For years I thought Tele was the Nazi record label, making the official
> discs for their radio station libraries.  Recently I got some white label
> Polydor (I think- could be Grammophon- can't check at the moment) which were
> also from radio, posibly for radio use. The latter was 3.5 Serious Songs of
> Brahms sung by Louise Willer, an alto whom I like.  Side 5, which I lack,
> finished the cycle, s. 6 probably being blank.
>
> These records are among the great discographic mysteries. The German radio
> published catalogs of this stuff for their own internal use.  The disccs
> almost never turn up.  I remeber seing listed a Beethoven 9 with Rehkemper
> singing the bass part. Apparently they made 12 copies of each selected
> broadcast for later use, distributing one to each of the 12 (I think)
> regional stations.  This goes back to 1928 or so, pre Hitler.  I have what I
> believe to be one of them, an "Un bel di" or the like with Reining,
> incomplete on one side,
>
> Someone abroad with better German than mine might consider this as a
> research project.
>
> Steve Smolian
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "David Lennick" <dlennick@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
> To: <ARSCLIST@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Sent: Thursday, December 29, 2005 10:37 PM
> Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Pirated Mengelberg 78s
>
> > "eric@xxxxxxxxxx" wrote:
> >
> >> >Original Message:
> >> >-----------------
> >> >From: David Lennick dlennick@xxxxxxxxxxxx
> >> >Date: Thu, 29 Dec 2005 20:18:53 -0500
> >> >
> >> >Don Tait wrote:
> >> >
> >> >> Mengelberg's Concertgebouw recording of Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony
> >> >> (Telefunken SK 2424/9) was pirated on the "Music Appreciation
> >> >> Recordings
> >> of the
> >> >> World's Greatest Music" 78 series. The labels say "World's Greatest
> >> >> Symphonies," the disc numbers are X-40/44, and they are in a flimsy
> >> album with a leaflet
> >> >> of notes. The labels say "Copyright 1941 Music Appreciation Projects,
> >> Inc."
> >> >
> >> > I recently found the Beethoven Eroica on "World's Greatest Symphonies",
> >> in two 3-disc
> >> > albums, and I'd bet it's the Mengelberg although I haven't made a
> >> > direct
> >> comparison yet.
> >>
> >> The Eroica is Schuricht / Berlin Philharmonic (rec. September 1941).
> >>
> >> Up until this exchange I, and thus my website, confused "RCA" with "RCA
> >> Victor", and had further assumed this was a licensed issue. It's a relief
> >> to realize that they were pirated; the thought that someone in the states
> >> was licensing from Polydor in 1941 is a bit nauseating. Yes, I know much
> >> worse went on, but still.
> >>
> >> Regards,
> >> Eric Grunin
> >> www.grunin.com/eroica
> >
> > This is fascinating! I'd always assumed (and to assume is to make an ass
> > of u
> > and of me) that Obie stole nothing but Telefunkens..but there's a period
> > where
> > Telefunken and Polydor (DG) are sharing the same roof, maybe before the
> > Siemens
> > era. It still raises the question of how Obie got the discs to bootleg
> > while we
> > were at war with Germany, or were enemy phonograph records still being
> > exported
> > to the US? I find that hard to believe.
> >
> > As for "RCA", Obie wanted everyone to believe that the Record Corporation
> > of
> > America stood for just that.
> >
> > dl
> >
> >
> > --
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> >