4 Comments

1. 

   Rob Cowan on November 22, 2025 at 2:53 pm

   World class Col, thanks so much!

   Reply
2. 

   Chris Howell on November 23, 2025 at 11:46 am

   Wallenstein conducted the very first professional orchestral concert I ever attended, with the RPO in Leas Cliff hall, Folkestone. Would have been around 1963 so I won’t pretend to remember much. The Dvorak New World was on the programme and we were all puzzled that it was called no. 9 when the Toscanini LP in the school cupboard called it no. 5. That dates me …

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3. 

   Edward Johnson on November 23, 2025 at 1:58 pm

   It’s interesting to see Wallenstein in the Column as it reminds those of us who can remember that far back of a series of expensive gate-fold LPs that popped up in the early 1960s. These were issued on the new “Audio Fidelity” label which was mysteriously sub-titled “1st Component Stereo Series,” whatever that meant. Wallenstein was its principal conductor and during a series of sessions in the summer of 1958, he recorded with what was called the Virtuoso Symphony of London. This was a specially-assembled orchestra of top players, whether freelance or from the main London orchestras, and with them he recorded the Berlioz “Fantastique,” the Brahms 4th, the Tchaikovsky 6th, the Mussorgsky-Ravel “Pictures,” a coupling of Ravel’s “Bolero” and Bizet’s “Carmen,” and Tchaikovsky’s “Romeo and Juliet” and “Nutcracker” Suite. What might be called ‘lighter fare’ on the label was handed to Arthur Winograd, who recorded “Marches for Children,” “Marches from Operas” and a couple of LPs devoted to “Popular Overtures.”

   What was odd about the “Audio Fidelity” advertising was a panel in which was enclosed a curious off-putting instruction. It read: “Due to the extremely high recording standard and tremendously increased dynamic range and level, we do not recommend that you purchase the 1st Component Stereo Series unless your equipment is of the first rank.” This meant that those unfortunates who were unable to possess the required first rank equipment found distortions on the LPs. Even William Mann’s ‘Gramophone’ review of the “Pathetique” Symphony referred to its “overloading.”

   However, Wallenstein’s Berlioz “Fantastique” fared better at the hands of Denis Stevens who claimed that the recording “outdoes all others in dynamic range and, I fear, in price.” His review amounted to a rave, both for the performance and the sound, which evidently didn’t overload, and one gets the flavour of both from this YouTube upload of the “Witches’ Sabbath” finale …

   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKAx8EXQspE

   It seems that some years ago Mike Dutton tried to locate the master-tapes, as he wanted to reissue the “Audio Fidelity” recordings on his own label but got nowhere. Evidently the company had gone bust and no-one knew where the masters were. However, if they’ve since been discovered and reissued on CD, I’m sure someone more knowledgeable than me about this topic will reveal all the details!

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4. 

   Chris Howell on November 24, 2025 at 11:43 am

   The CRQ magazine of Summer 2014 had an interesting and detailed article by David Patmore about the Audio Fidelity adventure – though he does not mention the whereabouts of the original tapes. Apparently, the company started off with “pops” and were so successful that they risked a huge tax bill, so deliberately lost some of their profits by recording classical repertoire. Wallenstein’s recordings for them (except “Pictures”) can be heard on Deezer. No information about where they got them from and there’s distortion, but you can get an idea of the performances there. By the way, Wallenstein’s Los Angeles recording of Rachmaninov 2 is impressive though, like all recordings back then, it uses the cut text.

   Reply

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