Word: lp
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...through the Beethoven sonatas-Schnabel would no more hurry a recording session than he would a Beethoven tempo-and each new disk was an event. The whole series ranked as a masterpiece. Schnabel died in 1951, and his old 78 r.p.m. records soon became obsolete in the LP age. Last week Victor brought him back in his finest reincarnation, a package containing all 32 sonatas on 13 LPs, plus Schnabel's own meticulous edition of the piano scores. It is an extraordinary fusion of free-swinging artistry and absolute faithfulness to Beethoven's intentions, written or implied...
Both psychologists and actors have praised the adaptation as a study in mass psychology and realistic theatre. A close reading of the script or a few minutes of the low quality LP record, however, will cast doubts on the dramatic worth of the broadcast. Corny lines, private jokes, impossible flashbacks, impossible occurrences, and hackneyed lines mar whatever dramatic value might underlie the plot. Yet the mediocrity and incredibility of the script makes the psychological aspects of the original version all the more interesting...
Mozart: Requiem (the New York Philharmonic-Symphony, Westminster Choir, conducted by Bruno Walter on a Columbia LP; Vienna Symphony and State Opera Chorus conducted by Eugen Jochum on Decca; Vienna State Opera Orchestra and Academy Chamber Choir conducted by Hermann Scherchen on London Ducretet-Thomson). The limpid choruses of Mozart's last work have always resisted the efforts of record makers, and are still a bit troublesome on these three latest versions. Conductor Walter's has a certain dramatic excitement but also a rather thick tone; Scherchen's (in the same performance recorded two years...
Nobody can explain Mantovani's sudden ascent from a better-than-average bandleader of average popularity, except that in 1951 he added a couple of dozen strings to sweeten up his orchestra, and recorded a schmalzy old waltz called Charmaine. It was a period when makers of LP records were discovering the possibilities of mood music. Mantovani's "new music" was apparently just what thousands of people wanted to hear when they were not really listening. It still is. Today, London Records claims, sales have topped...
...Cent Sole. The fast growth of the market has been nourished by new selling techniques. Columbia poured $1,000,000 into advertising its mail-order record club to attract a new group of buyers that now represents 15% to 20% of the LP market (TIME, Aug. 29, 1955). Other companies launched their own clubs, have about 1,500,000 members who will buy an expected $20 million through the mail. RCA, which originally shunned the club idea because its dealers feared the competition, announced instead this week a coupon plan to lure buyers into dealers' shops...