[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
Re: [ARSCLIST] Medtner playing his 3rd Piano Concerto]
It seems like the ARSCList took a Christmas vacation!! So lets start up
again.
Punto wrote:
I do want to follow up on this since I initiated the discussion by
trying to decipher and decode a record in hand. From the start, I was
able to transliterate enough to be certain that Medtner was the
composer and soloist on the disc and I had tracked down the Testament
CD of the Medtner/Philharmonia/Dobrowen recording. I could not read
enough of the rest of the text to conclude that this was definitely
the 1947 Mahrajah of Mysore sponsored recording and not some other one
since the recording company and all other information beyond composer,
work and performer, was undecipherable to me. I did hear from Marcia
Segal who very helpfully deciphered a scan I sent them
Several days ago I had already given the translations of the trademarks
on the label, but I'll go into more detail to explain a few of the words
and then go into the history of the factory
.
If the rest of you want to follow along, here is a scan from the web of
this label format of Peter's record --
http://www.collectable-records.ru/labels/RUSSIA/Moscow/vsg/2.htm
The black lettering at the top is translated to Ministry of Culture
USSR. It reads Menesterstvo Kulturi SSSR (cyrillic lettering looking
like CCCP is really SSSR which translates in English as USSR.)
The trademark lettering is BCG but would be pronounced VSG. What looks
like a B is the cyrillic V. What looks like a C is the cyrillic S. This
writing is in script, so the final letter looks to us like a T but it is
a script G. (Very few dictionaries show the script alphabet chart --
you have to find a children's schoolbook or schoolroom wall chart which
is what I have found to guide me. Another real challenge is the script
T which looks like an M !!!!! Script lettering on album covers,
posters, advertisements, trademarks, etc. are a real challenge even if
you think you can read printed cyrillic.) These initials stand for
what is in the next line in the black banner.
The words in the banner are Vsyesayuznaya Studya Gramzapisi This
translates into All-Union Studio Phonorecords. All-union means it is
for the entire Soviet Union rather than one region or republic. The
middle word is NOT student which includes the letter n in the Russian
word just like in the English word. (There are other words close to
these in the dictionary that start studye . . . that mean cold,
refrigerate, brawn, or jelly depending on what other letters follow to
make up the word.) Gram is the part of the trademark word Gramophone
which means writing (the whole word means writing of sound) and gram
also has some forms like that in Russian as well, but it is used here
much like it is used in the Russian word "gramplastinki" which means
"gramophone plate" or disc record. Zapisi means document, record,
inscription. Gramzapisi is really a coined word, just like Gramophone.
The curved line at the bottom is Dolgoigrayushaya 33 1/3 which means
Long Playing 33 1/3. At the beginning some LPs were at 78.
VSG was the original name of the factory that was built inside the city
limits of Moscow in the early 60s, and later in the Melodiya days became
noted on the labels in Russian as the Moscow Experimental Factory
Gramzapis. When the USSR was broken up, so was Melodiya. In Moscow it
was a very complicated situation that was only understandable once the
President of Melodiya explained it to me. This record factory became
corporately independent and used the trade name Gramzapis. There are
some records in the 1990s with this trademark. The executive office
building is the only part of the company which legally retained the use
of the trademark Melodiya, and was able to get financing as a joint
venture with German BMG Bertlesman. The recording studio right next
door to the executive office building was supposed to be part of that
company, but the workers in that building took it over and made their
own joint venture with another company and became known as Russian
Disc. I have a couple of examples of records with a Russian Disc label
but a Melodiya trademark on the sleeve, and the President explained that
these probably left the factory at the time when the eventual outcome of
the split was uncertain. But he explained unhappily that they are two
separate companies. Here are a few of the many formats of Russian Disc
records.
http://www.collectable-records.ru/labels/RUSSIA/Moscow/russian_disc/1.htm
http://www.collectable-records.ru/labels/RUSSIA/Moscow/russian_disc/9.htm
http://www.collectable-records.ru/labels/RUSSIA/Moscow/russian_disc/5.htm
BUT all of the separate companies were still tied together because of
the manufacturing facilities. ALL raw vinyl for every plant in the
entire country came from the Aprelvka factory which is about 30 miles SW
of Moscow. Their joint-venture name was Aprelvka Sound, and you will
see records from the 90s with that trademark. ALL the metal parts for
masters and stampers for the entire country were made in Moscow,
possibly in the recording studio. So there had to be SOME cooperation
among all of the parts of the former Melodiya. The ownership of the
masters, the metal parts, etc, were major contractual problems because
if a factory had metal parts they would use them even if the Moscow
office building company thought they had exclusive rights to them. And
the master tapes were next door in the Russian Disc recording studio,
and they used them even thought the office building company thought it
improper. It is all very confusing.
The Riga plant was bought by one of the musicians of the rock group Time
Machine and became known as RiTonis/Sintez.
http://www.collectable-records.ru/labels/RUSSIA/RIGA/26.htm
http://www.collectable-records.ru/labels/RUSSIA/RIGA/20.htm
Leningrad became a major source of Russian Beatles records with the
trademark AnTrop (which can't be read properly by non-Russians, but
stands for Andrey Tropillo, a major rock manager),
http://www.collectable-records.ru/labels/RUSSIA/NO%20LABEL/4.htm
Leningrad pressed other labels like Gala, and SNC for rock musician
Stas Namin.
http://www.collectable-records.ru/labels/RUSSIA/PETERBOURG/gala/1.htm
http://www.collectable-records.ru/labels/RUSSIA/PETERBOURG/snc/1.htm
The Tiblisi plant became the source of pirated rock LPs with no visible
trademark.
The VSG plant, which by then was known as the Moscow Experimental
Factory Gramzapis, was in the midst of being converted to all-CD
manufacturing before the split and was able to start pressing CDs with
the Melodiya trademark. Those discs have a blue swirl on the label.
When the split-off came, the factory took the trademark Gramzapis, and
you will find CDs with that trademark. Within a year the Russian Mafia
infiltrated that factory. I interviewed the man who was the manager of
the plant during the LP era and oversaw the conversion to CDs. When I
told him I had bought a Rolling Stones CD in Kentucky with a Melodiya
trademark, he became visibly sad. He told me he tried to keep the
factory honest, but Andrey Tropillo came to him with a forged license
contract and had the CDs pressed. Then when he realized that there was
no way to fight the mafia, he and his assistant quit, and the mafia took
over the plant. At that point in 1995 the two of them were running a
small company which made childrens cassettes. It was a VERY SMALL
company. Their entire manufacturing plant was a four-well cassette
duplicator in the room next to his office. He had to be VERY small to
not interest the mafia. There still was a factory retail store in
Gramzapis in 1995, and when the counter girls found out I was an
American collector they gave me a copy of each LP they still had in
stock which was about ten records. I also bought a few CDs. Alexander
would not let me take any pictures there -- "It is not safe, Michael.
Very criminal place." I got videotape of the factory only when were
were across a very wide and busy street. All the time he was worried
and fidgeting and looking all around and making us both look very
suspicious!!! (We had almost been gunned down leaving another record
company when photographing near a car with some suspicious characters,
so he was right to be nervous.)
If you will send me the label scans I can explain the other numbers and
letters on the label for the recording itself.
Mike Biel mbiel@xxxxxxxxx
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Punto wrote:
I do want to follow up on this since I initiated the discussion by
trying to decipher and decode a record in hand. From the start, I was
able to transliterate enough to be certain that Medtner was the
composer and soloist on the disc and I had tracked down the Testament
CD of the Medtner/Philharmonia/Dobrowen recording. I could not read
enough of the rest of the text to conclude that this was definitely
the 1947 Mahrajah of Mysore sponsored recording and not some other one
since the recording company and all other information beyond composer,
work and performer, was undecipherable to me. I did hear from Marcia
Segal who very helpfully deciphered a scan I sent them and I now know
that it is just a dismally poor pressing of the Philharmonia Abbey
Road LP. I have not asked for permission to quote, so I hope she won't
mind my sharing a portion of the correspondence in hope that someone
else is familiar with the issuing label and might have more
information on it. Mike Biel and Steve Smolian have ventured a fair
amount on clarification on the Melodiya/MK situation, but this does
not appear have anything to do with them, but rather something close
to what is below.
Very rough transliteration/phonetic rendering, enough that you may be
able to search via Google:
From top to bottom:
1) The line at the top ending with CCCP
Ministyerstvo Cultyur CCCP (possibly)
Cultural Ministry of the Soviet Union
*>2) BCG and in the black ribbon beneaeth it
Vsyesoyuznaya Studiya Gramzapisi *(possibly)
the second word means "study"
No it doesn't. It means "Studio." You are confused because of the
closeness of this word to styudent
Anyone have more information or want a crack at the scan that I have
made?
Thanks to Marcia and anyone with supplemental info.
Peter Hirsch