Month: May 2020

Just sold my copy of Dante Lys 397, Bruno Walter edition vol. 4 with Beethoven’s Symphony No. 1 and Violin Concerto with Joseph Szigeti and the “Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra of New York” as it was still called then, in 1947. I have these recordings in other and more convenient editions, on Sony and Music & Arts. The liner notes to the Dante edition are great, though, and I’ve scanned them. I took the opportunity to repost here my Amazon review. Can it be as old as 2009?! I don’t feel older… I feel as if it was last year…

Wow. Mission accomplished. I’ve just published my great CD-discography of French violinist Christian Ferras (1933-1982). I thought it would be a quick escapade from this other discography I’ve been working on, of the three labels of historical recordings from EMI-France, “Les Introuvables”, “Les Rarissimes” and “Les Pianistes français”. One of the installments in the “Introuvables” collection was a valuable Christian Ferras 4-CD set (2002), which I’ve reviewed, and, checking on previous and subsequent reissues, I decided to go ahead and order the two recent sets from DG, “L’Art de Christian Ferras”, 10 CDs DG 480 6655 (2012) (with almost all his DG recordings) and from Warner, “Christian Ferras The Complete HMV & Telefunken Recordings”, 13 CDs Warner Icon 9029576308 (2017). I already had most of the material gathered on these two sets, but scattered between numerous CDs and sets, plus, the two sets offered a few “firsts-on-CD” (like Serge Nigg’s Violin Concerto for the DG set – which I have on LP -, or a 1962 recording of Beethoven’s Violin Sonata No. 1 on the Warner set, plus the Telefunken recordings) that made them attractive to me. So, with (almost) all his DG recordings and all his EMI and Telefunken recordings in my collection, plus a number from Decca, I thought it’d be a good idea to do this discography. Moreover, foolish me, I thought I had most of the necessary information with me already, either from the CDs themselves, or from the Ferras discography compiled by French violin specialist Jean-Michel Molkhou and included in the DG set, and also available online on the website of Association Christian Ferras. But why – did I object to myself – make an online discography when there was one already, and pretty complete, it seemed? Well, first – did I reply to my self-objection – because I wanted to do it chronologically rather than alphabetically. I find that there is a special interest to chronologically-ordered discographies, as they give you a glimpse to the artist’s recording and artistic career. Second, because Molkhou’s discography provides only label numbers, not barcodes. I insist, again and again, that given the shambles that most of them are, it has become almost impossible to find a specific CD on your favorite online webstore if you don’t have the barcode. A discography without barcodes is no more than an abstract list of numbers; what’s the interest? What’s the use of a discography if it doesn’t enable you to find the damned CDs? Just make you drool with envy, without ever being able to actually locate the object of your desire? And there were other reasons still that, I thought (and still think) lent legitimacy to my own effort, which I detail in the discography’s introduction.

So there I went, on (what I thought would be) my quick discographic work. Well, it turned out that:

a. locating some of the CDs referenced by Molkhou and/or other online discographies was hell (and in one case, I failed – but in so many cases, I succeeded, against the odds). Pretty easy when the label number is part of the barcode: when you know the barcode’s syntax, it’s easy to guess it from the label number – although, even with that, I was never able to find that one reference mentioned by Molkhou and spent hours on it (I know what the barcode should be: 724347191923; and I’ve been able to locate CDs with adjacent barcode numbers; but hours of searches on both barcode and label number yielded nothing online, the eternal silence of infinite spaces). But sometimes there is no relation between label number and barcode. I shouted in triumph (and relief), very late at night, when finally I found EMI Eminence CD-EMX  2178, barcode 077776406527. I had the two adjacent label numbers, EMX 2177 (077776404622) and EMX 2179 (077776411422), because both are listed on Discogs.com,…

…but WHERE WAS THE DAMNED EMX 2178 hiding? And it’s not like they were just following each other in the barcode sequence, to make my life easy. From O4622 to 14222, you’ve got 96 barcodes to check. I was lucky in my decision to start from 046 and go forward, rather than 142 and go backwards…

(Addendum 12 June: And, since I found it, and it was cheap, I went ahead and bought it, so – breaking news from 1991 ! – I can now triumphantly provide the cover photos! And I’ve done my good deed of the day, and listed it on Discogs.)

 

 

Likewise, I decided that I was finally done and it was time to publish the disography, when I was able to find (another middle-of-the-night outburst) the barcode of Originals SH 846 (an Italian label, a 1995 publication with Ferras’ only extant performance of Prokofiev’s First Violin Concerto, under Dean Dixon). In truth, I had given up upon it, but that little indication in parantheses, “barcode not found”, itched. That’s when, the other night, I chanced on eBay on another release from the same label, SH 827, which at least gave me the general “syntax” of the barcode, 01166290XXXY. No relation with the label number, alas, but still, it seemed pretty easy, 846 minus 827, that’s 19 numbers, so relevant barcode should be 19 numbers up, right? Wrong, because that barcode is used for a number of different Italian labels that I usually categorize as junk, Gramofono, Radio Years, Entreprise, AS Disc, and usually terribly badly listed, with gaps that I didn’t know if they were truly gaps, or just my CD listed nowhere online and I was inadvertently skipping it. There again I was able to reduced the range of research by locating the adjacent label numbers, SH 844, 845, 847, 848… But still no Ferras (turned out that the actual barcode was not in incremental sequence…)! It didn’t help that most of these releases were listed on Amazon not under their proper barcode, but under the barcode of their distributor, Allegro Import (I’ve seen a backcover photo of one of them with the Allegro sticker covering the “legitimate” barcode). I did help however that many of the listings on Amazon offered a backcover photo with the legitimate barcode. That unfortunately did not seem to get me any closer to my Ferras CD, because that collection/barcode series is very elusive online,  quark-like, rarely there when you expect they should, possibly because only 3000 copies of each were pressed. I was going as far as Yahoo auctions Hong-Kong and finding nothing, it was getting late, I was getting exhausted, I was giving up, and in the last resort, before shutting down, I just typed “Ferras Prokofiev Dixon”. I could have done that to start with (in fact, I think I did, but it must have been “Beethoven Prokofiev Ferras”. And that yielded. Of all places, on Amazon.fr. Shout of triumph and relief. It’s like looking for something all around the world and it turns out it had always been under your bed…

Bottom line: discographers, give us the barcodes and spare our time!

b. …and it turned out also that Molkhou’s discography, although pretty abundant, is far from complete. There’s the additional info I have in my own lists of labels (like the erswhile Dutch Disky), the info I found on the Amazons, Discogs and various other websites. Moreover, searches on the Japanese websites, Amazon.co.jp and Tower.jp, yielded piles of CDs – even Western editions – that did not show up on the Western websites. Boy was I happy when I chanced on PECO SSCD 003 (a tricky one because, though published in 1998, came with no barcode)! Felt like the patient fisherman reeling in a monster carp…

So with all that, I can say without, I think, excessive bragging, that I’ve published the most complete and, I hope, useful Ferras discography so far. It was a lot of work: I began on May 6. Hope you enjoy, and benefit.

Now I need to complete my discography of Introuvables Rarissimes Pianistes français….

So, one of my last blog posts (link will open new tab) recounted how  the correct cover photos that I had uploaded when I had created some entries for CDs that I wanted to sell, and that had been duly posted at the time,  had suddenly disappeared from public view (although the submission remained present on my offer). One case in point was Anthony Davis’ opera “The Life and Times of Malcolm X” on Grammavision, but I’ve found many other cases – and not just on pages I had created, all over the place, there must be hundreds, if not thousands of them, apparently there’s been a Stalinist purge of photos at Amazon!

In my April 11 post I recounted my first attempt to notify Amazon and have them reinstate the correct images, and the gibberish I had received in response:

“We cannot modify the category tree node (noeud d’arborescence de catégorie) suggested for the product identifier: B000009JE4.  It seems that this product is out-of-stock in your inventory”. 

Well, I decided this would be my Sisyphus moment: roll that boulder up the hill, and when it rolls down on you, do it again, and again, “and yet persist”, until you get over the hill. Against bureaucracies, dogged persistence is your weapon. In the long run, sea and rain are stronger than stone….

Okay, so: step one: since they’re not going to act because “this product is out-of-stock” in my inventory (true: I’ve sold it. But then what kind of an excuse is that? What difference does it make to the integrity of the entry, that serves all sellers and buyers? That’s really the typical bureaucratic excuse for NOT acting when you should act), I marked the item as back in my inventory, at a sale price that ensured that nobody would buy it (and wouldn’t you know: a few days later I received a notification that they were de-activating my offer because there was an anomaly in the pricing. WHAT? By what right or rule does Amazon pronounce on the price set by a marketplace seller? I’ve seen CDs go on eBay at much steeper prices… if there’s a demand, no price is “anomalous”! For all my efforts, I was not able to reactivate the offer… Anyway THIS side-episode had no impact on the main thread of this story…)

Then, on May 4, I opened a new case (in, I confess, a moment of temporary discouragement, I had let the previous one lapse…), asking them again to reinstate my cover photos, for a product that they now could not claim was “not in my inventory” to dismiss the demand.

May 4, immediate response (at least, they are quick to find excuses not to act – translating from the French) : “we noted that you are the proprietor of the trademark recorded for this ASIN. You can solve the problem faster by directly modifying the detailed product page through the page “Inventory management” to change the ASIN. Once you’ve made the changes, allow for a maximum delay of 24 hours for this change to appear on the detailed page”.

WTF????

May 4, 15 minutes later, my response: “Excuse me, your response is incomprehensible, to put it politely. I am not ‘the proprietor’ of who knows what ‘trademark recorded for this ASIN’. I am a marketplace seller and I’ve created, back then, this page so that I could sell my CD. I have provided all the product information useful to the buyer, including back and cover photos, and these remain available in my offer, although Amazon has inexplicably suppressed them from the public page. WHY? What I’m requesting is very simple: I don’t want to modify the ASIN. Thank you for reinstating the two appropriate photos, front and back of the CD, in the public page. It doesn’t seem difficult, either to understand, or to do. Thanks in advance.”

May 5, a few hours later: “Hello. I understand that you wish to update the images of ASIN B000009JE4. In order to fulfill your request, we need you to provide to us one of the following valid documents:

– A link to the manufacturer’s website clearly presenting the suggested changes, accompanied by a visible product identifier (UPC, EAN, ISBN, etc.), if available.

– The manufacturer’s catalog (product manual), either as scan of the physcal catalog, or a PDF version, indicating the suggested modifications, accompanied by a visible product indentifier (UPC, EAN, ISBN, etc.), if available.

– High resolution product images clearly indicating the suggested modifications, together with a visible product identifier (UPC, EAN, ISBN, etc.).

– A high-resolution photo of the article in its original packaging, showing a product identifier code (UPC, EAN, ISBN, etc.) and the attribute or attributes that you wish to change.

Thank you for your understanding on this issue.

Thank you for selling on Amazon.”

The two last sentences in particular leave me breathless. My UNDERSTANDING on this issue ??? Close to nil, buddy! Selling on Amazon? Yeah, you may thank me, because guys you make it SO unwelcoming that I don’t even know why I’m doing it.

So, okay: persist.

May 5, a few hours later, my response: “Your demands are inoperative, in the case of used CDs, whose original publisher (Grammavision, USA) doesn’t exist anymore, and who even if it did would not have maintained this particular CD in its catalog. That’s not how the sale of CDs functions, and I am surprised that Amazon – after all the first online platform in this business -seems not to know. Your demands, if applied, would make impossible all activity of marketplace sellers of CDs, and I don’t think this is Amazon’s objective.

I’ve provided with my offer the front and back cover photos of the CD, on which appear VERY CLEARLY the requested information, in particular the barcode, which duly corresponds to the page’s barcode. Should it really be necessary, the CD is currently on sale on eBay, with back and front cover photos [link to eBay offer provided], and you can see that these photos are the same as those I have myself provided.

Thank you then for publicly displaying the product photos on the page”.

May 5, some hours later: “Thank you for your patience while we are examining your request.

Is this HAL 9000 losing his marbles or am I caught in an eternal time-warp?

Sisyphus. Boulder. Up hill.

May 7, couple of hours later: “!!!!! You’ve ALREADY given me this answer, and I’ve ALREADY responded that it was inoperative, in the case of used CDs whose publisher doesn’t exist any more. If the Amazon staff could spend less time doing all it can to NOT solve the problems, and spend just of fraction of that time solving these problems, it would be less irksome. The correct product images are with my offer; they were duly displayed until, for an unknown reason, Amazon decided to come and botch perfectly correct pages. REINSTATE THE PHOTOS PLEASE”.

May 8, 10 hours later. “Hello.

I am returning to you regarding the images.

We have duly updated the attribute so that they will correspond to the requested changes.

Note that the change may not occur immediately, but the process should be completed within 24 hours.

Do not hesitate to come back to us if you need more information. Thank you for sharing your experience. Are you satisfied with the support provided?”

I’ve checked this morning.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000009JE4

The cover photos have been reinstated.

Mission accomplished. Boulder up hill. Sisyphus beats implacable fate (and asinine bureaucracy).

That’s only ONE entry out of dozens, hundreds or thousands.

Since the Reagan-Thatcher era, we’ve been Pavlov-trained to believe that public bureaucracies are monstrosities of inefficiency. Friends, the bureaucracies of private, “free-entreprise” companies are FAR. WORSE.

I have two conflicting theories about this:

1. Incompetence. Those staffers – and who knows in what corner of the world they are located? – don’t know what the hell it’s about, they give stock responses to specific demands, because they don’t have the faintest idea how sales of used CDs function. So you really have to insist to drill through what your specific case is about and what measures it calls for.

2. Laziness. In fact they know perfectly well what it’s all about, only they simply don’t wanna bother, they’d rather sit snugly in their armchairs sipping those beers. So they’ve passed on the world among themselves, to make it a rite of passage of sorts: “hey, one of the boogers – you know, the damned ‘customers’ – pestering us with a new demand? Erect obstacles! Provide non-responses! Fend ’em off! Drive ’em crazy! Try and discourage them away! See how the rat overcomes the obstacles! (that should be fun). And if really they get through five of these hurdles, pronounce them the winner and give them their nibble of cheese as a reward!”

And all that for a CD that I’m not even selling anymore.

Just received Warner’s 65-CD set of André Cluytens The Complete Orchestral & Concerto Recordings (2017), barcode 0190295886691. Found it for cheap enough, less than 2 dollars per disc with shipment, and thought I was making a good deal.

 

 

 

 

 

 

First, the grudges. I resent Warner’s policy of erasing all signs and the glorious memory of EMI and its affiliate trademarks, His Master’s Voice, La Voix de son Maître or Pathé, by substituting the trademark “Warner”. And it’s not just limited to this set, it’s in all of Warner’s reissues, calling them “The Warner Recordings” and similar titles. No, those artists never recorded for “Warner” – when EMI was created, in 1931, from the merger of British Columbia and His Master’s Voice (whose history of course goes even further back, to 1901), Warner was still more than 50 years away! So why hide the name EMI? Has it become anathema? Was it once headed by Harvey Weinstein or Roman Polanski? Or is there a legality I’m not aware of, by which Warner is banned from using the label name “EMI”? Whatever that may be, who – what classical music lover –  cares about Warner , when they have the glorious heritage of EMI?

And it’s even worse with this box: why the hell did they decide to publish that set with the logo “Erato”? Unlike Munch or Martinon, Cluytens never recorded for Erato; the set’s liner notes even boast that he always remained faithful to EMI – but, since that little presentation is signed “The Catalogue Team of Erato and Warner Classics”, they have to use a twist of language, “a conductor… who was always loyal to this company”: yeah, guys, the company was EMI, with the labels La Voix de Son Maître and Pathé, never “Warner” or “Erato”. I think Warner’s policy is that, if its a French conductor (Martinon for instance) or affiliate (Cluytens, of course, was Belgian), publish it under the Erato logo, formerly a French label! Yet, the Charles Munch box was published – with the typically loathsome title “The complete recordings on Warner Clasics” – solely under the Warner logo. Go figure the logic of those non-governmental bureaucracies…

Okay, I needed to vent that out. I’ve been hard-working this past month on a discography of some of EMI’s past collections of historical reissues, “Les Introuvables”, “Les Rarissimes”, “Pianistes français”, “Artist Profile”, “Icon” and the likes, and have been regularly stumbling on those “misappropriations” by Warner of the EMI name, and they have irked me.

THAT SAID….

It’s a magnificent reissue, and kudos and genuflections to “The Catalogue Team of Erato and Warner Classics”. If erasing the trademark EMI is the price to pay to get such magnificent reissues, play on, give me excess of erasement!

65 CDs then, laudably presented in chronological order of recordings, with precise information on recording date and venue, and with all their cardboard slips nicely reproducing the cover art of the original releases – nice touch, proving that this was no slapdash reissue but a work of true care. Not ALL of Cluytens’ recordings are there – the box leaves out the opera recordings, and that’s fine with me, because I’d rather have these operas individually, with complete librettos. But, as the title says, all of his orchestral and concerto recordings are there – and that includes the masses and oratorios, Fauré’s Requiem, Berlioz’ L’Enfance du Christ, Debussy’s Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian and Stravinsky’s Persephone… but not the 1959 Berlioz Damnation of Faust with Rita Gorr and Nicolaï Gedda, although whether it is or not an opera is anybody’s guess.

But there’s more. A significant chunk of this material, especially the later, stereo recordings, had been, of course, previously reissued by EMI and other labels, usually in their mid-price (EMI Studio) or budget-price collections. His noted Ravel cycle with Orchestre de la Société des Concerts du Conservatoire (including the reference recording of the Piano Concertos with Samson François), and superb Beethoven Violin Concerto with David Oistrakh, were always available on CD. I have the Complete Beethoven symphonies with the Berlin Philharmonic – as the liner notes point out, the FIRST complete recording done by the orchestra, completed three years before the one they did with Karajan for DG – on a valuable reissue by a once serviceable and long defunct label from the Netherlands, Disky, HR-703732 (2001), barcode 0724357037327, but it was many times released by EMI, (1995) 724348341228, (2006) 094636753027, (2010) 5099964830322 and more. Some Cluytens rarities had been reissued by EMI France on their “Introuvables” series (“Cluytens as accompanist”, 1999, see my – soon to be published (I hope) – complete discography of “Introuvables” and “Rarissimes”) and “Rarissimes” (2004).  In the early 2000s, Testament had again been precious in bringing back rare Cluytens from the 1950s and mono era (Beethoven Concertos with Solomon, Concerto recordings with Gilels, his first and mono recording of Beethoven’s Pastoral symphony with the Berlin Philharmonic, which he later remade in stereo for his complete traversal, works of Berlioz, Saint-Saëns, Franck, Bizet, d’Indy, Debussy, Ravel) and 20th century repertoire in stereo (Shostakovich’s 11th Symphony, Roussel…). All of that is now gathered in this single box.

And what make’s the set even more invaluable to the collector, is that they’ve managed to include unpublished recordings – and not just trinkets! An early Beethoven Fourth Piano Concerto with Monique de la Bruchollerie from 1943 which had never been released – I mean, 75 years in the vaults (CD 1)! Excerpts from the rare and beautifully Ravelian ballet from Gabriel Pierné “Cydalise et le chèvre-pied”, recorded in November 1951 with the French National Radio Orchestra, “for which (say the liner notes) the editing of the original tapes was complete especially for this edition” (CD 6). Like… wow. Chabrier’s España which – and this is hard to believe – was discovered during the remastering sessions, at the end of a tape devoted to the recording of Beethoven’s piano concertos 2 and 4 with Solomon and the Philharmonia (CD 13) in November 1952. Or again, Handel’s Water Music (in Hamilton Harty’s arrangement), from October 1955 with Orchestre de la Société des Concerts du Conservatoire (CD 26), the stereo versions of Strauss and Smetana made with the Vienna Philharmonic in January and December 1958 (CD 36): they had been published on LP in mono only, and likewise, for the two Strauss pieces, Don Juan and the love scene from Feuersnot, on Testament’s CD reissue, SBT 1255 (2003) barcode 749677125523. Others were published on 78rmp or LP but, claim the liner notes (and I am inclined to trust them), never yet on CD: Haydn’s Symphony No. 94 with Orchestre de la Société des Concerts du Conservatoire (hereafter OSCC) from March 1950, as it had been “released only in Italy” (CD 4). On CDs 7 & 8, Cluytens’ first recording of Berlioz L’Enfance du Christ (June 1951) with the stalwart singers of the French radio Hélène Bouvier, Jean Giraudeau, Louis Noguéra, Michel Roux and OSCC (it is Cluytens’ stereo remake and his last completed recording, begun in September and October 1965 and completed in November 1966, with OSCC again and the international stars Victoria de Los Angeles, Nicolai Gedda and Roger Soyer, on CDs64 and 65, that envoyed the widest circulation, all but obliterating the memory of the earlier version – which I happen to have on LP, passed on to me by my father….). More: Debussy’s Martyre de Saint-Sébastien, a very-complete version with spoken text, recorded in April ’54 (CDs 22 & 23),

I haven’t yet checked in detail for previous CD reissues on labels devoted to historial reissues like Pearl, Music & Arts, Dante and the likes, but other even than those claimed “firsts on CD”, the set is precious for bringing back all the material from the 78rpm (Cluytens started his recording career in 1943) and mono-LP eras which, for all its efforts, Testament had only begun tapping. I’m especially happy to have on CD a recording which I had on a very-used and woefully-scratching LP, the rare incidental music to Massenet’s Les Erynnies from September 1952 (CD 20). Emmanuel Bondeville’s symphonic poeme Gaultier-Carguille and excerpts from the opera Madame Bovary (CD 15, October 1953) are true rarities, even for me. The fact that Cluytens remained ever faithful to EMI – unlike, say, Munch, or Martinon, or violinist Christian Ferras, who recorded for various labels that are not (yet) in the ownership of Warner, like RCA or DG – means, also, that what you get on those 65 CDs is, truly, his complete orchestral recordings.

The liner notes – other than the general presentation by the “Catalogue Team of Warner and Erato”, a chronological survey of Cluytens’ recording career by François Laurent – are serviceable and interesting, and I find Laurent laudable for not papering over, as might have been the temptation in this kind of tribute, the more troubling aspects of Cluytens’ early career, especially his apparent sympathies with the collaborationist Vichy regime and Germany (he was later acquitted of the charges). The booklet also contains a moving tribute from soprano Anja Silja, who had met Cluytens in 1964 through the auspices of Wieland Wagner. Silja, who was 24 then (and singing Salome! She had made here debut in Bayreuth as Senta from Fliegende Holländer in 1960), had a personnal relationship with Wagner’s grandson and intendant of the Bayreuth Festival, who suddently died, in October 1966, not yet 60. Then she had a relationship with Cluytens – who died in June 1967. I don’t know who dared to date her thereafter – well, conductor Christoph von Dohnanyi did (reminds me of the story of Boulez asking a libretto for an opera to Jean Genet – and then Genet died. Then asked young French playright Bernard-Marie Koltès – and Koltès died. Then aksed Heiner Müller – and Heiner Müller died. And Boulez never wrote an opera).

Okay now I need to listen to these 65+ hours of music. Either the “stay-at-home” order never ends, or I manage to do it in three days without sleeping.

 

I’ve been working on a discography of some collections of historical reissues from EMI France, “Les Introuvables”, “Les Rarissimes” and “Pianistes français”. I thought it would be a quick job, but – as I should have expected – it turned out to be quite a journey, because, for publication, with typical and self-destructing fastidousness, I decided to look at previous releases of the material contained in those sets, as well as subsequent reissues. Hope to finish before the end of the “stay-at-home” orders… but these are nearing!

Anyway, I took the opportunity to repost here my old review of “Les Introuvables de Christian Ferras“, a fine set from 2002, although a somewhat frustrating one, not for what it included but for what it omitted (like Berg’s Chamber Concerto and Chausson’s Concert for Violin, Piano and String Quartet), and now superseded by more complete reissues, namely EMI-become-Warner Icon “Christian Ferras The Complete HMV & Telefunken recordings”, barcode 190295763084.

And a post-script from May 26: all this led me to abandon for a couple of weeks my work on the label discography, and compile a huge Christian Ferras chronological CD-discography. How did I put it hereabove? “I thought it would be a quick job, but – as I should have expected – it turned out to be quite a journey”. But I’ve reached destination. Now I need to get back to “Introuvables”-“Rarissimes”-“Pianistes français”!