World Record Club
Encyclopedia
The World Record Club Ltd. was the name of a company in the United Kingdom
which issued long-playing records and reel to reel tapes, mainly of classical music
and jazz
, through a membership mail-order system during the 1950s and 1960s.
In addition to titles imported from recording companies like Everest Records
and Westminster Records
, which it obtained on franchise, it made a series of recordings of international artists using its own engineers. Although often of great musical interest and very acceptable technical quality, these recordings do not appear in shop catalogues of the time as they were not available new through record shops. In modern times, however (when most vinyl is second-hand), they are frequently found by collectors, to whom an outline of the company's history will be valuable.
The label was taken over by EMI
in 1965 but continued to be used as a sub-label for mail order, covering a wide range of musical genres, and distributing in South Africa
, Australia
and New Zealand
.
Membership was encouraged by such methods as using sleeve designs contributed by members and as these improved they obtained photographic services of Erich Auerbach
. By 1958 there was a membership of at least 150,000. In the Promenade Concerts season of July to September 1958, World Records had a full-page advertisement (offering monthly releases at between 22s 6d and 24s 9d per disc, only one needing to be chosen per year) on the inside front cover of all the individual concert programmes, facing the actual music listing for the evening - a competitive space, placing it on equal footing with Electric Audio Reproducers, EMI Records
, Decca Records
, Grundig
Tape Recorders, Ferguson
Radiograms and Olivier Tipped Cigarettes (3s 4d for 20) in the same programme. (A full-priced record then cost around 40 shillings, i.e. £2 sterling, equivalent to 12 packets of cigarettes.)
Key artists at the start were conductors Hans Swarowsky
and Muir Mathieson
, often with the Sinfonia of London
, or Viennese
orchestras. The pianist Joseph Cooper
's account of Rachmaninoff's second concerto was an early disappointment owing to poor balance (the piano was almost inaudible) but there were also great successes. The development of new recordings was a special interest, under the celebrated recording engineer Anthony C. Griffith (1915–2005), who became recording manager for WRC in 1958. The Brahms violin concerto (Endre Wolf
, violin, Sir Anthony Collins, conductor, WRC TP30) was a 1958 landmark for them, as technical details were published on the sleeve, recorded both in stereo
and mono using Ampex
equipment and Neumann
microphones. Griffith made recordings of Colin Davis
, Leon Goossens
, Arthur Bliss
, Reginald Jacques
, Imogen Holst
, the Melos Ensemble and Aeolian Quartet
.
The Mozart oboe concerto (Leon Goossens, oboe; Colin Davis, conductor, T59), issued c.1961, was a big technical and artistic success, the sleeve featuring photographs of studio sessions and playbacks. The Label also produced a strong hand in English music, especially in Vaughan Williams' 9th Symphony and Greensleeves and Thomas Tallis Fantasias, and in music by Elgar, conducted by Adrian Boult
and George Weldon
, and in works of Sir Arthur Bliss. Important solo records of Sviatoslav Richter
, Jorge Bolet
and Shura Cherkassky
were produced, and classical singers were not neglected.
By 1958 the company's business address had changed to Parkbridge House, Little Green, Richmond, Surrey
, where it remained thereafter. The 'Treasures' terminology was soon dropped, so that the title 'World Record Club' became the main label feature, written on ribbons wrapped about a globe. The WRC catalogue numbers were prefixed by the letter T (and sometimes ST to denote a stereo version, using the same number, and also TP), and ran from 1 to about 50 by 1962, to 500 by 1966 (and continued) to well over T1000. These were in red or green labels, with silver overprinting, and there was a later form in which the label edge was printed with many short radial lines so that the correct speed could be obtained by stroboscopic 'standstill' effect. There was also an OH series, with purple labels, for the WRC Opera Highlights series, often taken from interesting recordings or specially-made abridgements, and again presented in a uniform sleeve. From 1960 various recordings of musicals were made, and also three Gilbert and Sullivan
operas, recorded for copyright reasons in Hamburg in 1961 ahead of the ending of copyright in the works.
By this time the World Record Club was also releasing pre-recorded spool tapes of their LPs. These were mainly produced in mono half-track at 3 and 3/4 ips. The quality of the tapes was very high and the price reasonable. They appealed to enthusiasts who had tape recorder
s for making their own recordings, because at that time broadcast sound quality (for off-air recordings) was not very high. These tapes were released with the prefix TT. Although in mono, they are half-track, which gives a very high and gratifying signal to noise ratio. A number of 7.5 ips half track stereo tapes were also released under the WRC label, in plain white boxes with a historical sculpture in orange on the front. At least 8 were produced, one of which is of Scheherezade
with Eugene Goossens
.
was created, under a new logo with an eagle in a circle, with 'R.M.C.' above it and 'World Record Club. Recorded Music Circle' beneath. The labels were attractively printed in light blue, showing a classical scene of two musicians wearing toga
s beside a stone column or altar, with the text details overprinted in red. The sleevenotes of the RMC were also printed in red, and after some experiments with a more ornamental sleeve, a uniform style of red lettering on a background of simulated wood-grain became the uniform sleeve design.
Once again the series mixed in-house and franchised recordings. It included 'strong' material such as Ralph Kirkpatrick
playing the Mozart K570 sonata (CM30); Rudolf Schwarz
conducting Mahler's 5th Symphony (LSO - CM 39-40 (Everest)); Pierre Monteux
conducting Berlioz's Romeo and Juliet (CM 57-58 (Westminster)); Robert Gerle (violin) and Robert Zeller with the Delius
and Samuel Barber
violin concerti (CM 59 (Westminster)), Hermann Scherchen
's Mahler 7th Symphony (CM 63-64, Westminster), the Bruckner 8th of Hans Knappertsbusch
(CM 71-72, Westminster), and the Richard Strauss
memorial album with Clemens Krauss
and Kurt List (CM 73-74, Amadeo). This small but very interesting series had not reached 100 records by 1966. The pressings and presentation of this series was always good, usually with sleeve-notes by Malcolm Rayment, Stephen Dodgson
or Peter Gammond (now author of numerous musical books). One very famous recording that was released on WRC before any other label was the Finzi
Dies natalis
with Wilfred Brown
.
(piano) and George Szell
(conductor). Anthony C. Griffith remained with the company under the new ownership, and, since there were fewer new recording projects, he and Gadsby Toni began to explore and transfer to LP parts of the historical archives of EMI, producing some of the finest transfers ever achieved. In 1971 he joined the EMI International Classical Division to work on Karajan
recordings, but also expanded his work on historical transfers.
material and His Master's Voice material from the 1920s to 1940s. There were several major projects, including the reissue of the early Thomas Beecham
Delius
Society recordings, and welcome returns such as the Albert Sammons
/Henry Wood
Elgar concerto recording of 1929, or the Gerhard Hüsch
lieder recordings. However, the series was wide-ranging and included a large amount of show music and dance music of the 1920s and 1930s.
The record labels were a distinctive pale green with a lettered ribbon surround, and the prefix was SH. The technical quality of these transfers reflected a desire to preserve the tonal qualities of the originals even if it meant keeping a certain amount of shellac
surface-noise (though at HMV Len Petts and others were assiduous in finding masters and producing vinyl pressings for dubbing
).
The advent of digital recording
in the 1980s, and the wane of the 1970s Art Deco
revival, turned attention away from the Retrospect series, the sleeves of which were deliberately given some 'Deco' styling. At this time, for instance in the transfers of Alfred Cortot
's Chopin (e.g. SH 326, 327), the original WRC recording manager Anthony Griffith was still bringing his expertise to the high-quality transfers. He retired in 1979, but continued to act as consultant, notably for the CD transfers of the Elgar Edition.
symphonies, for instance, with London Symphony Orchestra
conducted by István Kertész, property of Decca records
, were issued there exclusively by WRC. The registered office was in Hartwell, a suburb of Melbourne
, Victoria
, with outlets in central Melbourne, Sydney
, Adelaide
and Perth
. Sleevenotes were supplied by Ray Minshull. These records have a mid blue-green label, with an 18th century image of a military trumpeter or fanfare-player in livery, as a background design to the overprinted label text.
magazine offering a choice of any three LPs for ten shillings to new members. Members received a magazine listing the upcoming monthly releases for that year, which had to be ordered in advance.
The magazine featured a classical music column "The Golden Road" by World Record Club editor-in-chief Harvey Blanks. This was published in book form in 1968 by Rigby in Australia and Angus and Robertson in the UK and was offered for sale through the magazine. Five years in the making, it remains a highly readable and informative handbook for classical music devotees.
The WRC had showrooms in Wellington
(in Farish Street) and Auckland
,with sound booths where it was possible to listen to LPs from the Club's catalogue. LPs were pressed at a factory in Lower Hutt
.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
which issued long-playing records and reel to reel tapes, mainly of classical music
Classical music
Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...
and jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
, through a membership mail-order system during the 1950s and 1960s.
In addition to titles imported from recording companies like Everest Records
Everest Records
Everest Records was a stereophonic record label based in Bayside, Long Island started by Harry D. Belock and Bert Whyte in May 1958. It was devoted mainly to classical music.-History:...
and Westminster Records
Westminster Records
Westminster Records was an American classical music record label, issuing original recordings from 1949 to 1965.It was founded in 1949 by Mischa Naida, the owner of the Westminster Record shop in New York City, businessman James Grayson, and conductor Henry Swoboda...
, which it obtained on franchise, it made a series of recordings of international artists using its own engineers. Although often of great musical interest and very acceptable technical quality, these recordings do not appear in shop catalogues of the time as they were not available new through record shops. In modern times, however (when most vinyl is second-hand), they are frequently found by collectors, to whom an outline of the company's history will be valuable.
The label was taken over by EMI
EMI
The EMI Group, also known as EMI Music or simply EMI, is a multinational music company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the fourth-largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry and one of the "big four" record companies. EMI Group also has a major...
in 1965 but continued to be used as a sub-label for mail order, covering a wide range of musical genres, and distributing in South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
and New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
.
Early days, c. 1955-1965
World Record issues were certainly in production by mid-1956. The World Record Treasures records were promoted as a series from which 'members' (membership was free) were required to select a given number of purchases per year. These were sold at lower prices than usual (21s 6d) and distributed in cheap wrappers (originally logo-printed Fablothene, and then card covers with stickers naming the selection). A monthly Club magazine (Record Review) was launched in late 1956, featuring the existing artists and recordings and announcing future selections. The company was first based at 125 Edgware Road, London, with a display centre at 49 Edgware Road. The main UK rival in similar business was the Concert Hall label.Membership was encouraged by such methods as using sleeve designs contributed by members and as these improved they obtained photographic services of Erich Auerbach
Erich Auerbach
Erich Auerbach was a philologist and comparative scholar and critic of literature. His best-known work is Mimesis: The Representation of Reality in Western Literature, a history of representation in Western literature from ancient to modern times.-Biography:Auerbach, who was Jewish, was born in...
. By 1958 there was a membership of at least 150,000. In the Promenade Concerts season of July to September 1958, World Records had a full-page advertisement (offering monthly releases at between 22s 6d and 24s 9d per disc, only one needing to be chosen per year) on the inside front cover of all the individual concert programmes, facing the actual music listing for the evening - a competitive space, placing it on equal footing with Electric Audio Reproducers, EMI Records
EMI Records
EMI Records is the flagship record label founded by the EMI company in 1972 and launched in January 1973 as the successor to its Columbia label. The EMI label was launched worldwide...
, Decca Records
Decca Records
Decca Records began as a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis. Its U.S. label was established in late 1934; however, owing to World War II, the link with the British company was broken for several decades....
, Grundig
Grundig
Grundig AG is a German manufacturer of consumer electronics for home entertainment which transferred to Turkish control in 2004-2007. Established in 1945 in Nuremberg by Max Grundig, the company changed hands several times before becoming part of the Turkish Koç Holding group...
Tape Recorders, Ferguson
Thorn EMI
Thorn EMI was a major British company involved in consumer electronics, music, defence and retail. Created in October 1979 when Thorn Electrical Industries merged with EMI, it was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index but it demerged again in...
Radiograms and Olivier Tipped Cigarettes (3s 4d for 20) in the same programme. (A full-priced record then cost around 40 shillings, i.e. £2 sterling, equivalent to 12 packets of cigarettes.)
Key artists at the start were conductors Hans Swarowsky
Hans Swarowsky
Hans Swarowsky was an Austrian conductor of Hungarian birth and Jewish descent.Swarowsky was born in Budapest, Hungary. He studied the art of conducting under Felix Weingartner and Richard Strauss...
and Muir Mathieson
Muir Mathieson
James Muir Mathieson was a Scottish conductor and composer. Mathieson was almost always described as a "Musical Director" on a large number of British films.-Career:...
, often with the Sinfonia of London
Sinfonia of London
The Sinfonia of London is a session orchestra based in London, England. Muir Mathieson, the director of music for Rank Films, founded the ensemble in 1955 specifically for the recording of film music...
, or Viennese
Music of Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of Austria, and has long been one of the major centers for cultural development in central Europe.Music organizations in Vienna include the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde, which has been promoting musical development in the city since 1812...
orchestras. The pianist Joseph Cooper
Joseph Cooper
Joseph Elliott Needham Cooper, OBE , pianist and broadcaster, best known as the chairman of the BBC's long-running television panel game Face the Music.- Early career :...
's account of Rachmaninoff's second concerto was an early disappointment owing to poor balance (the piano was almost inaudible) but there were also great successes. The development of new recordings was a special interest, under the celebrated recording engineer Anthony C. Griffith (1915–2005), who became recording manager for WRC in 1958. The Brahms violin concerto (Endre Wolf
Endre Wolf
Endre Wolf was a Hungarian classical violinist.-References:...
, violin, Sir Anthony Collins, conductor, WRC TP30) was a 1958 landmark for them, as technical details were published on the sleeve, recorded both in stereo
Stereophonic sound
The term Stereophonic, commonly called stereo, sound refers to any method of sound reproduction in which an attempt is made to create an illusion of directionality and audible perspective...
and mono using Ampex
Ampex
Ampex is an American electronics company founded in 1944 by Alexander M. Poniatoff. The name AMPEX is an acronym, created by its founder, which stands for Alexander M. Poniatoff Excellence...
equipment and Neumann
Georg Neumann
Georg Neumann GmbH , founded in 1928 and based in Berlin, Germany, is a prominent manufacturer of professional recording microphones. Their best-known products are condenser microphones for broadcast, live and music production purposes...
microphones. Griffith made recordings of Colin Davis
Colin Davis
Sir Colin Rex Davis, CH, CBE is an English conductor. His repertoire is broad, but among the composers with whom he is particularly associated are Mozart, Berlioz, Elgar, Sibelius, Stravinsky and Tippett....
, Leon Goossens
Léon Goossens
Léon Jean Goossens CBE, FRCM was a British oboist.He was born in Liverpool and studied at the Royal College of Music...
, Arthur Bliss
Arthur Bliss
Sir Arthur Edward Drummond Bliss, CH, KCVO was an English composer and conductor.Bliss's musical training was cut short by the First World War, in which he served with distinction in the army...
, Reginald Jacques
Reginald Jacques
Thomas Reginald Jacques was an English choral and orchestral conductor. His legacy includes various choral music arrangements, but he is not primarily remembered as a composer....
, Imogen Holst
Imogen Holst
Imogen Clare Holst, CBE was a British composer and conductor, and sole child of composer Gustav Holst.Imogen Holst was brought up in west London and educated at St Paul's Girls' School, where her father was director of music...
, the Melos Ensemble and Aeolian Quartet
Aeolian Quartet
The Aeolian Quartet was a highly reputed string quartet based in London , with a long international touring history and presence, an important recording and broadcasting profile. It was the successor of the pre-War Stratton Quartet...
.
The Mozart oboe concerto (Leon Goossens, oboe; Colin Davis, conductor, T59), issued c.1961, was a big technical and artistic success, the sleeve featuring photographs of studio sessions and playbacks. The Label also produced a strong hand in English music, especially in Vaughan Williams' 9th Symphony and Greensleeves and Thomas Tallis Fantasias, and in music by Elgar, conducted by Adrian Boult
Adrian Boult
Sir Adrian Cedric Boult CH was an English conductor. Brought up in a prosperous mercantile family he followed musical studies in England and at Leipzig, Germany, with early conducting work in London for the Royal Opera House and Sergei Diaghilev's ballet company. His first prominent post was...
and George Weldon
George Weldon
George Weldon was an English conductor.-Biography:Weldon was educated at Sherborne School and at the Royal College of Music. He studied conducting with Malcolm Sargent and Aylmer Buesst...
, and in works of Sir Arthur Bliss. Important solo records of Sviatoslav Richter
Sviatoslav Richter
Sviatoslav Teofilovich Richter was a Soviet pianist well known for the depth of his interpretations, virtuoso technique, and vast repertoire. He is widely considered one of the greatest pianists of the 20th century.-Childhood:...
, Jorge Bolet
Jorge Bolet
Jorge Bolet was a Cuban-born but mostly American-resident pianist and teacher.-Life:Bolet was born in Havana, and studied at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where he himself taught from 1939 to 1942...
and Shura Cherkassky
Shura Cherkassky
Shura Cherkassky was an American classical pianist known for his performances of the romantic repertoire. His playing was characterized by a virtuoso technique and singing piano tone...
were produced, and classical singers were not neglected.
By 1958 the company's business address had changed to Parkbridge House, Little Green, Richmond, Surrey
Surrey
Surrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of...
, where it remained thereafter. The 'Treasures' terminology was soon dropped, so that the title 'World Record Club' became the main label feature, written on ribbons wrapped about a globe. The WRC catalogue numbers were prefixed by the letter T (and sometimes ST to denote a stereo version, using the same number, and also TP), and ran from 1 to about 50 by 1962, to 500 by 1966 (and continued) to well over T1000. These were in red or green labels, with silver overprinting, and there was a later form in which the label edge was printed with many short radial lines so that the correct speed could be obtained by stroboscopic 'standstill' effect. There was also an OH series, with purple labels, for the WRC Opera Highlights series, often taken from interesting recordings or specially-made abridgements, and again presented in a uniform sleeve. From 1960 various recordings of musicals were made, and also three Gilbert and Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan refers to the Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the librettist W. S. Gilbert and the composer Arthur Sullivan . The two men collaborated on fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which H.M.S...
operas, recorded for copyright reasons in Hamburg in 1961 ahead of the ending of copyright in the works.
By this time the World Record Club was also releasing pre-recorded spool tapes of their LPs. These were mainly produced in mono half-track at 3 and 3/4 ips. The quality of the tapes was very high and the price reasonable. They appealed to enthusiasts who had tape recorder
Tape recorder
An audio tape recorder, tape deck, reel-to-reel tape deck, cassette deck or tape machine is an audio storage device that records and plays back sounds, including articulated voices, usually using magnetic tape, either wound on a reel or in a cassette, for storage...
s for making their own recordings, because at that time broadcast sound quality (for off-air recordings) was not very high. These tapes were released with the prefix TT. Although in mono, they are half-track, which gives a very high and gratifying signal to noise ratio. A number of 7.5 ips half track stereo tapes were also released under the WRC label, in plain white boxes with a historical sculpture in orange on the front. At least 8 were produced, one of which is of Scheherezade
Scheherazade (Rimsky-Korsakov)
Sheherazade , Op. 35, is a symphonic suite composed by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov in 1888. Based on One Thousand and One Nights, sometimes known as The Arabian Nights, this orchestral work combines two features common to Russian music and of Rimsky-Korsakov in particular: dazzling, colourful...
with Eugene Goossens
Eugène Goossens
Eugène Goossens was the name of three notable musicians . Listed chronologically:*Eugène Goossens, père , conductor *Eugène Goossens, fils , violinist and conductor...
.
Recorded Music Circle
About the start of 1959, a series devoted mainly to chamber musicChamber music
Chamber music is a form of classical music, written for a small group of instruments which traditionally could be accommodated in a palace chamber. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small number of performers with one performer to a part...
was created, under a new logo with an eagle in a circle, with 'R.M.C.' above it and 'World Record Club. Recorded Music Circle' beneath. The labels were attractively printed in light blue, showing a classical scene of two musicians wearing toga
Toga
The toga, a distinctive garment of Ancient Rome, was a cloth of perhaps 20 ft in length which was wrapped around the body and was generally worn over a tunic. The toga was made of wool, and the tunic under it often was made of linen. After the 2nd century BC, the toga was a garment worn...
s beside a stone column or altar, with the text details overprinted in red. The sleevenotes of the RMC were also printed in red, and after some experiments with a more ornamental sleeve, a uniform style of red lettering on a background of simulated wood-grain became the uniform sleeve design.
Once again the series mixed in-house and franchised recordings. It included 'strong' material such as Ralph Kirkpatrick
Ralph Kirkpatrick
Ralph Kirkpatrick was an American musician, musicologist and harpsichordist. He is most famous for his chronological catalog of Domenico Scarlatti's keyboard sonatas.-Life and work:...
playing the Mozart K570 sonata (CM30); Rudolf Schwarz
Rudolf Schwarz
Rudolf Schwarz may refer to:* Rudolf Schwarz , German architect* Rudolf Schwarz , Austrian-born British conductor...
conducting Mahler's 5th Symphony (LSO - CM 39-40 (Everest)); Pierre Monteux
Pierre Monteux
Pierre Monteux was an orchestra conductor. Born in Paris, France, Monteux later became an American citizen.-Life and career:Monteux was born in Paris in 1875. His family was descended from Sephardi Jews who came to France in the wake of the Spanish Inquisition. He studied violin from an early age,...
conducting Berlioz's Romeo and Juliet (CM 57-58 (Westminster)); Robert Gerle (violin) and Robert Zeller with the Delius
Delius
Delius is a surname. It may refer to:* Ernst von Delius - German racing car driver* Frederick Delius - English composer* Nicolaus Delius - German philologist* Tobias Delius Delius is a surname. It may refer to:* Ernst von Delius (1912–1937) - German racing car driver* Frederick Delius...
and Samuel Barber
Samuel Barber
Samuel Osborne Barber II was an American composer of orchestral, opera, choral, and piano music. His Adagio for Strings is his most popular composition and widely considered a masterpiece of modern classical music...
violin concerti (CM 59 (Westminster)), Hermann Scherchen
Hermann Scherchen
Hermann Scherchen was a German conductor.-Life:Scherchen was originally a violist and played among the violas of the Bluthner Orchestra of Berlin while still in his teens...
's Mahler 7th Symphony (CM 63-64, Westminster), the Bruckner 8th of Hans Knappertsbusch
Hans Knappertsbusch
Hans Knappertsbusch was a German conductor, best known for his performances of the music of Richard Wagner, Anton Bruckner and Richard Strauss....
(CM 71-72, Westminster), and the Richard Strauss
Richard Strauss
Richard Georg Strauss was a leading German composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras. He is known for his operas, which include Der Rosenkavalier and Salome; his Lieder, especially his Four Last Songs; and his tone poems and orchestral works, such as Death and Transfiguration, Till...
memorial album with Clemens Krauss
Clemens Krauss
Clemens Heinrich Krauss was an Austrian conductor and opera impresario, particularly associated with the music of Richard Strauss.-Biography:...
and Kurt List (CM 73-74, Amadeo). This small but very interesting series had not reached 100 records by 1966. The pressings and presentation of this series was always good, usually with sleeve-notes by Malcolm Rayment, Stephen Dodgson
Stephen Dodgson
Stephen Dodgson is a British composer and broadcaster.- Biography :During World War II, he served in the Royal Navy. From 1947 to 1949, Dodgson studied at the Royal College of Music, where he later taught composition. In 1950, he visited Italy on a travelling scholarship, after which he taught in...
or Peter Gammond (now author of numerous musical books). One very famous recording that was released on WRC before any other label was the Finzi
Gerald Finzi
Gerald Raphael Finzi was a British composer. Finzi is best known as a song-writer, but also wrote in other genres...
Dies natalis
Dies natalis
Dies natalis is a five-movement work by Gerald Finzi, setting texts by Thomas Traherne, for solo soprano or tenor and string orchestra.-History:Dies Natalis is a cantata for solo voice and string orchestra...
with Wilfred Brown
Wilfred Brown
Wilfred Brown was an accomplished English tenor.He was born in Horsham, Sussex and educated at Collyer's School, then at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, and Trinity College of Music. Brown was a lifelong member of the Religious Society of Friends...
.
EMI take control, 1965
From c.1965, when World Record Club was bought by EMI, the label lost its characteristic green or red design and acquired a completely new look, minimalist, with blocks of grey. An important early enterprise under the new management was the complete cycle of Beethoven piano concerti with Emil GilelsEmil Gilels
Emil Grigoryevich Gilels was a Soviet pianist, widely considered one of the greatest pianists of the 20th century.His last name is sometimes transliterated Hilels.-Biography:...
(piano) and George Szell
George Szell
George Szell , originally György Széll, György Endre Szél, or Georg Szell, was a Hungarian-born American conductor and composer...
(conductor). Anthony C. Griffith remained with the company under the new ownership, and, since there were fewer new recording projects, he and Gadsby Toni began to explore and transfer to LP parts of the historical archives of EMI, producing some of the finest transfers ever achieved. In 1971 he joined the EMI International Classical Division to work on Karajan
Karajan
Karajan, or Caragiani, Karagianni, Karayiannis, Karagianis, is a surname. Notable persons with that surname include:* Eftychia Karagianni, Greek water polo player* Georgios Karayiannis, Greek Army officer...
recordings, but also expanded his work on historical transfers.
Retrospect Series
It was during the mid to late 1970s that the Retrospect series came to prominence under the WRC label. These records, which were often pressed on rather thin, floppy vinyl, were dedicated to re-issues of material mostly from 78rpm records, mainly old Columbia RecordsColumbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...
material and His Master's Voice material from the 1920s to 1940s. There were several major projects, including the reissue of the early Thomas Beecham
Thomas Beecham
Sir Thomas Beecham, 2nd Baronet CH was an English conductor and impresario best known for his association with the London Philharmonic and the Royal Philharmonic orchestras. He was also closely associated with the Liverpool Philharmonic and Hallé orchestras...
Delius
Delius
Delius is a surname. It may refer to:* Ernst von Delius - German racing car driver* Frederick Delius - English composer* Nicolaus Delius - German philologist* Tobias Delius Delius is a surname. It may refer to:* Ernst von Delius (1912–1937) - German racing car driver* Frederick Delius...
Society recordings, and welcome returns such as the Albert Sammons
Albert Sammons
Albert Edward Sammons CBE was an English violinist, composer and later violin teacher. Almost self-taught on the violin, he had a wide repertoire as both chamber musician and soloist, although his reputation rests mainly on his association with British composers, especially Elgar...
/Henry Wood
Henry Wood
Henry Wood was a British conductor.Henry Wood may also refer to:* Henry C. Wood , American Civil War Medal of Honor recipient* Henry Wood , English cricketer...
Elgar concerto recording of 1929, or the Gerhard Hüsch
Gerhard Hüsch
Gerhard Heinrich Wilhelm Fritz Hüsch was one of the most important German singers of modern times. A lyric baritone, he specialized in Lieder but also sang, to a lesser extent, German and Italian opera.-Career:...
lieder recordings. However, the series was wide-ranging and included a large amount of show music and dance music of the 1920s and 1930s.
The record labels were a distinctive pale green with a lettered ribbon surround, and the prefix was SH. The technical quality of these transfers reflected a desire to preserve the tonal qualities of the originals even if it meant keeping a certain amount of shellac
Shellac
Shellac is a resin secreted by the female lac bug, on trees in the forests of India and Thailand. It is processed and sold as dry flakes , which are dissolved in ethyl alcohol to make liquid shellac, which is used as a brush-on colorant, food glaze and wood finish...
surface-noise (though at HMV Len Petts and others were assiduous in finding masters and producing vinyl pressings for dubbing
Dubbing (music)
In sound recording, dubbing is the transfer or copying of previously recorded audio material from one medium to another of the same or a different type. It may be done with a machine designed for this purpose, or by connecting two different machines: one to play back and one to record the signal...
).
The advent of digital recording
Digital recording
In digital recording, digital audio and digital video is directly recorded to a storage device as a stream of discrete numbers, representing the changes in air pressure for audio and chroma and luminance values for video through time, thus making an abstract template for the original sound or...
in the 1980s, and the wane of the 1970s Art Deco
Art Deco
Art deco , or deco, is an eclectic artistic and design style that began in Paris in the 1920s and flourished internationally throughout the 1930s, into the World War II era. The style influenced all areas of design, including architecture and interior design, industrial design, fashion and...
revival, turned attention away from the Retrospect series, the sleeves of which were deliberately given some 'Deco' styling. At this time, for instance in the transfers of Alfred Cortot
Alfred Cortot
Alfred Denis Cortot was a Franco-Swiss pianist and conductor. He is one of the most renowned 20th-century classical musicians, especially valued for his poetic insight in Romantic period piano works, particularly those of Chopin and Schumann.-Early life and education:Born in Nyon, Vaud, in the...
's Chopin (e.g. SH 326, 327), the original WRC recording manager Anthony Griffith was still bringing his expertise to the high-quality transfers. He retired in 1979, but continued to act as consultant, notably for the CD transfers of the Elgar Edition.
Australian World Record Club
Sleeves and pressings from the 1980s show that the WRC had a special franchise in Australia. The DvořákAntonín Dvorák
Antonín Leopold Dvořák was a Czech composer of late Romantic music, who employed the idioms of the folk music of Moravia and his native Bohemia. Dvořák’s own style is sometimes called "romantic-classicist synthesis". His works include symphonic, choral and chamber music, concerti, operas and many...
symphonies, for instance, with London Symphony Orchestra
London Symphony Orchestra
The London Symphony Orchestra is a major orchestra of the United Kingdom, as well as one of the best-known orchestras in the world. Since 1982, the LSO has been based in London's Barbican Centre.-History:...
conducted by István Kertész, property of Decca records
Decca Records
Decca Records began as a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis. Its U.S. label was established in late 1934; however, owing to World War II, the link with the British company was broken for several decades....
, were issued there exclusively by WRC. The registered office was in Hartwell, a suburb of Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
, Victoria
Victoria (Australia)
Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....
, with outlets in central Melbourne, Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
, Adelaide
Adelaide
Adelaide is the capital city of South Australia and the fifth-largest city in Australia. Adelaide has an estimated population of more than 1.2 million...
and Perth
Perth, Western Australia
Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia and the fourth most populous city in Australia. The Perth metropolitan area has an estimated population of almost 1,700,000....
. Sleevenotes were supplied by Ray Minshull. These records have a mid blue-green label, with an 18th century image of a military trumpeter or fanfare-player in livery, as a background design to the overprinted label text.
New Zealand World Record Club
The WRC operated in New Zealand between 1960 and the early 1970s and provided a valuable service to music lovers in provincial towns, which lacked the record shops and selections available to collectors in the main centres. The Club took full-page advertisements in the New Zealand ListenerNew Zealand Listener
The New Zealand Listener is a New Zealand magazine. First published in 1939 and edited by Oliver Duff and the Monte Holcroft it originally had a monopoly on the publication of of upcoming television and radio programmes. In the 1980s it lost its monopoly on the publication of upcoming television...
magazine offering a choice of any three LPs for ten shillings to new members. Members received a magazine listing the upcoming monthly releases for that year, which had to be ordered in advance.
The magazine featured a classical music column "The Golden Road" by World Record Club editor-in-chief Harvey Blanks. This was published in book form in 1968 by Rigby in Australia and Angus and Robertson in the UK and was offered for sale through the magazine. Five years in the making, it remains a highly readable and informative handbook for classical music devotees.
The WRC had showrooms in Wellington
Wellington
Wellington is the capital city and third most populous urban area of New Zealand, although it is likely to have surpassed Christchurch due to the exodus following the Canterbury Earthquake. It is at the southwestern tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Rimutaka Range...
(in Farish Street) and Auckland
Auckland
The Auckland metropolitan area , in the North Island of New Zealand, is the largest and most populous urban area in the country with residents, percent of the country's population. Auckland also has the largest Polynesian population of any city in the world...
,with sound booths where it was possible to listen to LPs from the Club's catalogue. LPs were pressed at a factory in Lower Hutt
Lower Hutt
Lower Hutt is a city in the Wellington region of New Zealand. Its council has adopted the name Hutt City Council, but neither the New Zealand Geographic Board nor the Local Government Act recognise the name Hutt City. This alternative name can lead to confusion, as there are two cities in the...
.
Sources
- Publications and recordings of World Record Club Records, 1956-1965 (London, and Richmond, Surrey).
- Membership terms: World Record Treasures sleevenote (early matt card format), 1956-58.
- Record Review, Magazine of the World Record Club (Monthly parts, vol 1 1956-57, etc).
- Advertisements detailing terms, artists and current releases, Concert Programmes, 64th Season of Henry Wood Promenade Concerts (Royal Albert Hall, London July–September 1958).
- "World Record Club News" (NZ) 1960-1970, "World Record Club Bulletin" (1970–1973). Held in National Library of New Zealand.
- Blanks, Harvey. Golden Road: A Record-Collector's Guide to Music Appreciation. London, Angus & Robertson, 1968. ISBN 0-207-95013-X
- Walker, Malcolm. 'Obituary: Anthony C. Griffith,' The Gramophone http://www.gramophone.co.uk/newsMainTemplate.asp?storyID=2451&newssectionID=1
External links
- World Records Club magazine features re Chris Barber http://www.chrisbarber.net/archives/wrc-article.htmhttp://www.chrisbarber.net/covers/cover-009.htm
- Album Cover Art.From the studio of The World Record Club, 1958–1976 is a book from Geoff Hocking. It includes a brief history of the WRC.
- http://geoffhocking.com/worldrecordclub.html