[ARSCLIST] Fwd: [ARSCLIST] EMI-Columbia split, was Mercury co-founder Irving Green passes

[Don Tait <Dontaitchicago@xxxxxxx>]

  Thanks, David, for your comments about the US/UK Columbia split. I didn't 
know that EMI's refusal to issue LPs until 1952 might have been a factor in the 
division. It sounds logical, and I'm happy to learn about it.

  Yes, the Capitol "G" series was HMV-derived material: was the Beecham 
Figaro overture in Capitol's release of the "Beecham Memorial" set? His last 
recording of it was with the LPO in the thirties.

  Thanks too for your advice about possibly highlighting excerpts from 
messages. I'll try it. Nothing I've tried has worked so far. It gives me hope.

  Don

 

I believe one reason for the split was US Columbia's impatience with EMI taking until 1952 to get into long play records.

A lot of HMV Beechams appeared on Capitol in the G series..I have one with a great misprint, Mozart's Overture to "The Marriage of Fagaro".

(Don..you should be able to quote the entire previous message and then highlight the portions you want to delete..just left-click the mouse, hold it down and move the cursor over the unwanted passages, and then click "delete".)

dl

Don Tait wrote:

>   May I write something about the Columbia/EMI/Philips business in response
> to Roger's message -- after I say that this software for some reason doesn't
> permit me to select portions to which to reply? Thanks for your indulgence.
>
>   Some of what I am about to write is based upon recollection, which can be
> unreliable. Corrections will be welcome. However, here is the story as I know
> it.
>
>   Columbia USA and Columbia UK had exchange agreements from the first decade
> of the twentieth century. Ownership of the two companies changed in many ways
> until the 1940s, but the exchange agreement -- the ability to release each
> others' recordings in each others' territories -- was unchanged.
>
>   The connection between the two companies was dissolved in 1952, by which
> time UK Columbia was part of EMI (as it had been for decades). Columbia USA
> signed an agreement with Philips for release of Philips recordings in the USA
> (after a year or so, primarily the Epic label) and for Philips to arrange for the
> release of USA Columbia recordings in the UK and elsewhere. Also for Philips
> to make recordings for USA Columbia in other countries.
>
>   The most important factor in this, probably, was Sir Thomas Beecham. Until
> the dissolution of the Columbia agreement he and the RPO had been recorded by
> EMI (Columbia). The end of the contract meant that Philips engineers would do
> it from then on. They did, almost always in EMI's various venues. Those
> Beecham LPs were issued by USA Columbia and UK Philips until about 1955. In that
> year, Beecham re-signed with HMV (EMI). That meant another change for him.
>
>   To back up: when UK Columbia EMI lost its USA affiliate in 1952, it
> established Angel Records in 1953. Early Angels all derive from UK Columbia. Victor
> had its exchange agreement with HMV until early 1957.
>
>   Beecham's first HMV LPs -- Schubert 6, Handel's Solomon and so on --
> appeared on Angel in the USA in 1956/7, probably because the HMV agreement with
> Victor was about to expire. There were probably complicated issues, but I don't
> know anything about them. If someone does, I hope you will write. Regardless,
> USA Columbia went on issuing Beecham titles made earlier, including some of the
> late Mozart symphonies, through 1955 or '56. Years after they were recorded
> and when Angel was releasing new Beecham recordings.
>
>   Don Tait
>
>