For several years, the Australian branch of Universal has distinguished itself by publishing rare and forgotten recordings from the Deutsche Grammophon, Philips, Decca and Westminster catalogues. These last few months have brought us treasures whose relevance had not necessarily jumped to the eyes of the headquarters of the multinational.
In the 1990s, Eloquence was the name of an international collection of mid-priced reissues from Universal. From 1999, the Australian subsidiary began to publish more specialized reissues under this title, flattering both a broader quest for affordable repertoires and the interest of collectors.
Over time, the phonographic industry abandoned the release of mid-priced individual reissues, flooding the market with various box sets. Universal Australia, alone, continued to keep a collection alive, Eloquence, which then became a label in its own right, now controlling its content and graphics, a beige background now spotted by all discophiles…
A source for the planet
It was on Eloquence that we found the Decca recordings of Albert Wolff or Roger Désormière, the rarities of Zubin Mehta, Josef Krips or Karl Munchinger. Gradually, Australia addressed this niche market on a planetary scale, embracing the evolution of consumption patterns.
The disappearance of record stores in various countries, in correlation with the fall in sales of physical media, has indeed accustomed many music lovers to ordering their CDs online, sometimes abroad. The major international brands have therefore started to reference Eloquence products. Additionally, Universal Australia benefits from the efficiency and reliability of Australia’s leading online record store, Buywell.
The passionate mastermind behind this phenomenon is Cyrus Meher-Homji, Vice President Classical Jazz at Universal Music Australia. Before getting there, he was. from 1993 to 1998, the creator and publisher of Soundscapes, one of the most remarkable classical music magazines ever conceived and published. After two decades of single CD releases, over the past 3 or 4 years, Eloquence has evolved towards box set publishing, following market trends.
Meher-Homji has understood very well that it is not only rarity that moves the collector, but also nostalgia. One of the gems among its 2022 box sets is the collection of Haydn symphonies recorded by Neville Marriner. Not because these engravings were missing from the catalog (the “titled symphonies” have been available in box sets since 1996), but because the covers of the 1970s LPs, recognizable among a thousand, were entrusted to the illustrator Bab Siljée. The superb Eloquence box set, with all the recordings in their original sleeves, is already sold out in Australia, but still available from Presto in the UK and JPC in Germany.
Paul the Magnificent
Better than a nostalgia reminiscent of childhood record collections, there are the rarities. The artist who has long been expected to be served in this way is the French chef Paul Paray (1886-1979). The scenario is the same as for the long hidden engravings by George Szell and Eugène Ormandy, finally reissued by Sony. Paul Paray, who conducted the Detroit Symphony between 1953 and 1962, made legendary recordings there for Mercury. But when these engravings were transferred to CD, Wilma Cozart, widow of legendary sound engineer Bob Fine, judged that only stereophonic recordings deserved this honor.
However, musically, admirers of this energetic, even abrasive conductor, were waiting to rediscover his monophonic recordings. Eloquence publishes two boxes arranged chronologically: 1953-1957 and 1958-1962. The second includes the famous Fantasticthe French overtures, those of Suppé, the Ravels… Added to this are the Symphonies nbone 1 and 2 by Beethoven, Ravel’s concertos with Monique Haas (DG) and the very forgotten (rightly) Naked Carmenthat is Carmen in “ electric rock opera ”, with electronic sounds created by John Corigliano, a nanar of collection.
It is volume 1, 23 CDs, which focuses our attention. The stereo recordings start at CD 13, with the suites of Carmen. The box set reveals two stereo documents: a prelude to Act 1 of Parsifal and an 35e Symphony of Mozart. On the other hand, the first 12 CDs are the expected honey: the monophonic recordings 1953-1955; of Wagner, of Symphonies nbone 6 and 7 by Beethoven, an early version of the Symphony in D and Psyche by Frank, The preludes of Liszt, etc.
Reissues of these rarities were piloted at Abbey Road, from the original tapes, by Thomas Fine, son of Bob and Wilma. For discophiles, volume 1 is the blessed bread. For those who don’t know Paul Paray, Box 2, entirely stereophonic, is the lesson in French style that still inspires many conductors today. Note, however, the inflation on the number of CDs, because they resume the program of microgrooves and have a short timing.
missing link
In importance, it is necessary to rank immediately behind the integral Kubelik at Decca. The box of 12 CDs which contains The Merry Wives of Windsor and The Freischütz, engraved for Decca in Munich at the end of the 1970s, brings together 8 legendary CDs of engravings from the 1950s in Vienna which did not have much luck. Decca has focused in particular on My country, by Smetana, a stereo from 1958 which remains a reference version. The first great merit of this box is to bring everything together in a finally optimized sound, which had never been the case (symphoniesof Brahms or 1D Symphonyby Mahler) isolated reissues, even in Japan and Korea.
On the musical level, it is the missing link for anyone interested in the career of the great Czech conductor: the period of the mid-1950s following his flight from Czechoslovakia and his failure in Chicago. His warm personality, which stood out in Vienna, is symbolized by the 2e Symphony of Brahms. In June 1953, at the Musikverein, Carl Schricht recorded for Decca, with the Vienna Philharmonic, a recording monument, a steamroller of stifling tension. Three years later, for the same editor, you will hear here an opposite interpretation. Producer John Culshaw didn’t recognize the orchestra and even thought it was bad! With Rafael Kubelik, everything sang. Driven by an identical impetus, Vienne sounded more compact, humanized and without edges, not angry, but wounded: music as a reflection of life…
Third conductor: Igor Markevitch, musical director of the OSM from 1957 to 1961. Cyrus Meher-Homji puts a final order in the Universal legacy of Markevitch (who also recorded for EMI) by publishing two box sets: The Deutsche Grammophon Legacy (21 CDs) and The Philips Legacy (26 CDs). DG had above all preserved The Damnation of Faust with Richard Verreau and recordings of French music with the Orchester Lamoureux, reserving rarities (Beethoven and Brahms with the NBC Orchestra, Wagner and Schubert in Berlin) for a small DG album Masters of 9 CDs released 20 years ago. This complete set covers the period 1953-1962.
The Philips box surprises with the accumulation of covers from economic reissues rather than original editions. This stereophonic legacy (1960-1968) is best known, notably for the complete symphonies of Tchaikovsky, a phenomenal Symphony of Psalms and concertos recorded in Paris with Clara Haskil. We essentially rediscover the Beethovens with the Lamoureux Concerts formerly published by Universal France and a few Spanish pearls.
Finally, mention should be made of the tribute paid to the first great Chinese pianist, Fou Ts’ong, whose Westminster recordings (1960-1967) have been collected by Universal Australia. Infinitely respected by his peers, Fou Ts’ong, born in Shanghai in 1934, distinguished himself at the 1955 Chopin Competition by winning 3e prize and the Prize for the best mazurka. The pianist established in London from the end of the 1950s recorded mazurkasand the ballads of Chopin, Scarlatti, Handel, Bach, the Sonatas nbone 30 and 31 of Beethoven, the D.960 and 784 by Schubert and concertos by Schumann, Chopin (notoh 2) and Mozart (notbone 9, 12, 25 and 27).
The painful journey of the human being (his parents, persecuted during the cultural revolution, killed themselves in 1966) and of this pioneering musician, at the singing piano, deserves our respect and it is important to preserve it. Fou Ts’ong died of COVID-19 in London on December 28, 2020.