Tchaikovsky: Symphony nr 5

https://www.discogs.com/release/1998129-Tschaikowsky-Das-Philharmonische-Orchester-Rom-Leitung-Walter-Goehr-Symphonie-Nr-5-In-E-moll

So these records come from two red coloured albums that after this I’m going to bring to the attic. All records are coming from the Music Masterpiece Society. A subscription service, you had to pay for a subscription and then you had to pay for at least a number of records per year.

These were much cheaper than regular records, so it was a good chance to build up a record collection. For the recordings, contracted musicians were used. In America those were usually non existing ensembles created for just that recording. In Europe existing orchestras were used, but sometimes under a different name.

MMS was a subsidiary of Concert Hall Society, a company that was founded by the brothers Josefowitz in New York. The money their father got from the government lease on a piece of land in Maine helped found the company. The land was used to conduct the first experiments in nuclear energy, incidentally.

I am quite amazed by the design of the covers for all these records. It is a pity that those are missing from my collection, as I have the records, but not the covers.

Some information on the design: http://www.soundfountain.org/rem/remcurtjohnwitt.html. A history of Concert Hall and MMS: http://www.soundfountain.com/concert-hall/concerthall.html

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