I recently came across one of my own old Schwann catalogs. I thought I had long since discarded them, but I still had one from July 1983. (I had started collecting them beginning in 1979). That we live in a golden age of recording is emphasized by what you could get in those days.
Do you like Raff? They were only three LPs available: Ponti's recording of the Piano Concerto, a competing one on the Genesis label, and Ruiz's recording of the Suite in D minor. That was it, nothing else. The Turnabout recording of the 3rd Symphony was out print by then.
Do you like Pfitzner? There was only one thing available, DG's recording of "Palestrina". Nothing else.
But even among mainstream composers there were many surprising gaps. For Robert Schumann there are no recordings of the third violin sonata, and of the other two there are only three: Zeitlin on Vox, the Laredos on Desto, Gorevic, long time principal violist of my local symphony, on Crystal.
What's interesting about these lonely three recordings is that not a one is on what were then the major labels of the day: RCA, Columbia/CBS, EMI/Angel, Decca/London, Phillips, and DG. Schumann, in 1983 treated like Bruch: a few favorites and little else.
And so it goes, composer after composer:the unsung composers we discuss here represented by one or two recordings or not at all, and even major composers represented by recordings of a limited number celebrated works, but the rest of their output ignored.
Do you like Raff? They were only three LPs available: Ponti's recording of the Piano Concerto, a competing one on the Genesis label, and Ruiz's recording of the Suite in D minor. That was it, nothing else. The Turnabout recording of the 3rd Symphony was out print by then.
Do you like Pfitzner? There was only one thing available, DG's recording of "Palestrina". Nothing else.
But even among mainstream composers there were many surprising gaps. For Robert Schumann there are no recordings of the third violin sonata, and of the other two there are only three: Zeitlin on Vox, the Laredos on Desto, Gorevic, long time principal violist of my local symphony, on Crystal.
What's interesting about these lonely three recordings is that not a one is on what were then the major labels of the day: RCA, Columbia/CBS, EMI/Angel, Decca/London, Phillips, and DG. Schumann, in 1983 treated like Bruch: a few favorites and little else.
And so it goes, composer after composer:the unsung composers we discuss here represented by one or two recordings or not at all, and even major composers represented by recordings of a limited number celebrated works, but the rest of their output ignored.