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Tom Null's Varèse-Sarabande The Remington Series
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Tom Null's Varèse-Sarabande The Remington Series
| Before Tom Null officially became a producer of records, he had met Donald H. Gabor of Remington Records Inc. already in 1966. It was from Don Gabor that Tom Null learned much about the record industry and its business. Several years later he started his own record label named Sarabande. It must have been a small label as it was not discovered in the listings of labels on the last pages of the catalogs. | There was another record label which was added to the list in Schwann Long Playing Record Catalog, issue August 1973, for the first time. Its name was Varèse. It was a wise decision of both companies to merge in 1977. The new label name was Varèse-Sarabande. | |
| Tom Null, Artist & Repertoire Director of the California based yet internationally very active Varèse-Sarabande label, never lost contact with Donald H. Gabor in New York. Null knew about the early Remington recordings Don Gabor had told him about. Gabor gave him permission to search the boxes with tapes of Remington recordings made in the nineteen fifties in the US, France, Austria and Germany. It was not an easy task and not every tape could be used. Many had been badly stored and were deteriorated. Null searched and evaluated for hours on end. |
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His idea was to issue recordings in a series of special editions named "Remington Series". There were real finds like an unissued Dohnanyi Sonata, the First Symphony of Sibelius conducted by Jussi Jalas which had never been released on Remington before, and the stereo recordings made with the Cincinnati Symphony in the fall of 1953. Of the latter recordings only the Sibelius and Dvorak performances were in tact. | The
recordings of Prokofiev's Second Concerto with Jorge Bolet, Gerswin's Concerto
in F with Alec Templeton and Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 2, all conducted
by Thor Johnson, were either not found or were in bad shape and the tapes
could not be used. The recordings eligible for a reissue had to be equalized in accordance with the latest RIAA frequency characteristic adopted by the record industry in the nineteen seventies. |
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The first record was released in February 1978. And there were many to follow. One issue was of the performances by the Helsinki University Chorus, the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, baritone Sulo Saarits and conductor Thor Johnson, of the cantata The Origin Of Fire, the symphonic poem Pohjola's Daughter (both works by Jean Sibelius), and of songs performed a capella by the Helsinki University Chorus. |
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These
performances of the Cincinnati Symphony and the
Helsinki University Male Choir were originally
made in stereo in November 1953. The recordings were supervised by
Don Gabor and
Laszlo Halasz. The technician was Robert
Blake. In 1955 the performances were released in mono on Remington R-199-167
and R-199-191 respectively. Tom Null issued these recordings for the first
time in stereo on Varèse-Sarabande VC 81941. |
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Another
recording was of Dvorak's Symphony No. 8 (at the time numbered as No. 4),
again with the Cincinnati Symphony conducted by
Thor Johnson and originally released
on R-199-168. The Varèse-Sarabande release has reference number VC
81044. This also was a recording done in stereo. Sound engineer was
Robert Blake. Producers were Don Gabor and Laszlo Halasz. There is a clip
of the Second Movement on the Thor Johnson page. |
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Legendary
Simon Barere can be found on VC 81045.
Some of the live performances were taped in Carnegie Hall by Simon Barere's
son Boris and show the disadvantage of not being able to splice. The studio
performances for Remington Records bear all the technical benefits. There
were recordings of two Etudes from Scriabin's Op. 8 (Nos. 10 and 12) which
had never been released on record before. |
VC
81045 is in fact an original Don Gabor Production prepared for release
by Tom Null, Dub Taylor, and Chris Kuchler. Remastered by Bruce Leek.
Duplication engineer: John Arici. Regrettably
Barere's most famous interpretation of the Sonata of Franz Liszt did not
find a place in The Remington Series. It was later issued by APR.
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Simon Barere often emphasized the virtuosity
of the compositions, and it is obvious that speed is generally a major ingredient
of his interpretations and to opt for speed means at times a restriction
resulting in untidy playing. Nevertheless there have been outstanding renderings
recorded, for example Chopin's Scherzo No. 3 and Blumenfeld's Etude for
the Left Hand. |
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Varèse-Sarabande
issued VC 81040 with the tapes from which the very early, original
Masterseal MW 46 was cut. It is likely that the recordings of the
Masterseal LP were produced for the Austrian Broadcasting Services (ORF)
by
Marcel Prawy together with Erich Wolfgang
von Korngold himself as the luxurious Masterseal bears the emblem "A
Marcel Prawy Production", and copyright remained with Korngold. |
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Three
compositions by
Georges Enesco conducted by the maestro
himself: Rumanian Rhapsodies Nos. 1 and 2, and Dixtuor recorded in 1951
with the Colonne Orchestra from Paris. Varèse-Sarabande VC 81042. The recordings of the two Romanian Rhapsodies and of Dixtuor are the only taped Remington recordings of George Enesco as a conductor. |
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Georges Enesco is accompanied by pianist
Céliny Chaillez-Richez (should read Chailley-Richez) while performing
his Sonata No. 2, the famous recording originally pressed on R-149-42. Violinist
Albert Spalding is accompanied by
Ernst von Dohnanyi in Dohnanyi's Sonata Op.
1, a recording which never was issued on a Remington disc before, now issued
on Varèse-Sarabande VC 81048. |
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From
1950 on
Albert Spalding was contracted by Don
Gabor starting with the recordings made with Ernst von Dohnanyi and culminating
in the recordings of the Beethoven en Brahms Violin Concertos. The Brahms was originally issued on Remington R-199-145 and now had found its release on VC 81059. Spalding recorded this Concerto with the Austrian Symphony Orchestra,
Wilhelm Loibner conducting. The tape of
the Beethoven concerto could obviously not be used. It is mising in the
Series. |
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In
July 1950
H. Arthur Brown, conductor of the Tulsa
Philharmonic, traveled to Vienna to make recordings of works by Tchaikovsky,
Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, Brahms, and Rimsky-Korsakov. He also recorded a
work by American composer Don Gillis entitled Tulsa, A Portrait
In Oil which was originally pressed on R-149-13 and re-released by Null
on VC 81046. |
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On
the same disk Three Gymnopedies (Peggy Glanville-Hicks) and Sinfonietta
(Dane Rudhyar) performed by the RIAS Symphony conducted by |
| Brant's Concerto was recorded in December 1953 in Cincinnati. Recording engineer was Robert Blake. The Lockwood Concerto was recorded in 1953 in Saint Paul's Chapel at Columbia University. The Kay Concerto was recorded in Venice in July 1953. The Brant and Lockwood pieces were remastered straight from the original Remington tapes. The Kay Concerto was copied from a Near Mint LP pressing. VC 81047. |
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Concerto for Orchestra (Ulysses Kay) by 'Orchestra Sinfonica del Teatro la Fenice', conducted by Jonel Perlea. Concerto for Alto Saxophone and Orchestra (Henry Brant), with Sigurd Rascher and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra conducted by Thor Johnson. Concerto for Organ and Brasses (Normand Lockwood) performed by Marilyn Mason and members of the New York Philharmonic: John Ware and Nathan Prager (Trumpets) and Gordon Pulis and Lewis Hancy (Trombones). |
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Jussi
Jalas, son in law of Jean Sibelius, conducted Symphony No. 5 of Sibelius
on R-199-201. He also recorded Symphony No. 1 but this recording never was
released by Donald Gabor as the contract with Bertelsmann had prematurely
ended. Violinist Anja Ignatius is the soloist in Five Humoresques. The label
and cover of VC 81043 mention Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra instead
of
RIAS Symphony as the release in Germany
by Bertelsmann did. |
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recording of R-199-183, Music by Offenbach, "Offenbachiana" arranged
and conducted by Manuel Rosenthal, was originally a stereo recording as
well. R-199-183 was availablke in the Spring of 1955 but mentioned in Schwann
in September of 1955. (See the Dutch
Advertisement) The reissue is on Varèse-Sarabande VC-81088. The cover says Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra. But at the time of the recording the orchestra was still the RIAS Symphony. |
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Another Varèse-Sarabande release is of Symphony No.1 in C Sharp Minor (Hans Pfitzner) performed by the German Opera House Orchestra conducted by Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt and issued on Varèse-Sarabande stereo LP VC-81094, issued together with Hans Pfitzner conducting the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra in his Overture to Das Katchen Von Heilbronn. |
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This page will be expanded. |
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Except
for the releases of the Brahms Violin Concerto and Dvorak's 4th (8th)
Symphony, all covers were adorned with work by modern painters: |
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Page first published on 14 November 14, 2009
Copyright 1995-2010 by Rudolf A. Bruil
