Pseudonymous Performers on Early LP Records: An Update

The author presents the results of his continuing research in the field of pseudonymously published recordings on various labels of the "Record Corporation of America". An overview of some facts about the nature of this company's business and sources preceeds a list of definite identifications, followed by items of probable identification still open to discussion.

When the author had his original article published in the ARSC Journal, in which he attempted to shed light on the intriguing matter of pseudonymous performers on early American LP records, he met with considerable response from fellow-collectors, who shared with him information and views, supplying additional material and support. After four more years of collecting and evaluating recordings of this kind the author would like to present the results in the form of an updated list of identified performances, nearly all issued under fake names by the Record Corporation of America ("RCA") on their labels Royale, Gramophone, Varsity, Allegro/Elite, Halo and Concertone. Each of the identified items is listed in detail and with additional comments where necessary. Research in the last few years has brought to light more facts and this has also resulted in the need to correct some information published in the earlier article. Some basic facets of this business were described in the aforementioned and additional information on this topic forms the first part of this update.

Remarks on the Business

The "LP era" started with Columbia's first records of this kind, and a market for classical and other recordings in the new format was soon realised. Apart from the large and financially powerful companies, there were smaller ones which aimed to supply the music-loving public with affordable long play records generally not sold in established record stores. These companies often employed a less careful method of production, resulting in poorish technical quality in most of the cases. Hence, their reputation was never great enough to arouse the interest of serious music reviewers and their musical value largely went unnoticed. Judging from the variety and volume of their catalogue, "RCA" apparently was one of the major players in this segment of the record business, issuing material of general interest but doubtful origin.

It seems that from the beginning speculation about the source of these recordings circulated. It was an episode in 1954, when an LP set with Wagner's complete Ring was published on the Allegro/Elite label (3125-3143), naming an altogether unknown cast, that attention was focused on these recordings. In April of that year, it became known that this 19-record-set had been pressed from amateur tapes of a live performance in Bayreuth in 1953 and broadcast in Germany that year. One of the singers, Regina Resnik, sued the owner of "Record Corporation of America", Eli Oberstein ("Obie"), for having unlawfully used tapes on which her voice was clearly to be heard. Other singers' voices from that Bayreuth performance, such as Ramon Vinay, Hans Hotter, et al., could also be identified. The set was immediately withdrawn from the market. In defending himself against the reproach of having consciously used unlicensed material, Oberstein disclosed an unidentified "Berlin source" from which material worth over $700,000(!!) had been purchased during the preceeding three years. None of this had ever been disputed, it was asserted. This seems to be the only time a source has been mentioned publicly. Research proves the information to be correct as far as the location is concerned. But it was not the complete truth. Oberstein also had other "sources" of a great variety at his disposal. With few exceptions, however, they had one thing in common: they were gathered in Germany and had been able to supply "RCA" with recordings made originally by commercial companies, or by German Radio during the war and in post-war times. A few times it also occured that Oberstein's "source" had supplied him with what was a broadcast of, or probably even a dub from, regular commercial recordings by major recording companies - the English Decca and the Deutsche Grammophon, in these instances.

In this respect, the dealings of the American record company Mercury are of interest. Early in 1950 this company signed a contract with Herbert Rosen who was the American representative of the Bayerischer Werbefunk, the commercial branch of post-war Bavarian Radio in Munich. Rosen offered material for issue on LPs, recorded by this radio station during the preceeding five years. Collectors of early Mercury discs of the MG 10000 etc., series will know that a lot of records in the classical repertoire were issued by that company, in most cases offering performances under conductors with only limited exposure to the American public. David Hall recalls that Mercury received tapes from Rosen, which were on German hubs and had to be transferred to American hubs before the mastering could be started. From this he concludes that, indeed, the original German tapes or first generation copies had been in Rosen's hands. This is of interest insofar as these tapes were returned to Rosen, but probably never found their way back into the archives of Bavarian Radio - with one exception: the complete recording of Wagner's The Flying Dutchman under Clemens Krauss. The entire stock of licensed material contained wartime as well as post-war recordings, the whereabouts of which remain an unsolved mystery. What makes this official deal so interesting vis-a-vis Oberstein's business, is the fact that parts of these Bavarian recordings had been used for various of his own pseudonymous issues. The question whether Rosen may have offered these tapes to Oberstein for a second, "secret" issue, must remain open. An illegal use of dubs from some Mercury pressings of Oberstein's records may also have been a possibility. But then, it is also a fact that on some of his records he did not use the Bavarian material, although it would easily have been at hand, either as an original tape from Rosen or as a release on Mercury. Two such examples are Mozart's "Little Night Music" (Royale 1275) and Wagner's "Siegfried-Idyll" (Royale 1362). However strange these proceedings may have been, it is clear that Oberstein was drawing on more sources than he had admitted to in the 1954 lawsuit, at a time when already more than 250 Royale discs had been issued, not to mention the many Varsity and Gramophone releases. Three more of his "sources" were recordings of the German broadcast companies of NWDR Cologne, SWF BadenBaden and NWDR Hamburg, material which was issued on the later Allegro/Elite series, deriving from airchecks with all probability. A fourth source was Soviet Russian 78s or LPs. Some part of the material supplied by the "Berlin source" apparently came from the archives of East German Radio, a station which also held a lot of German war-time tape recordings, apart from their own productions made after the war years. Finally, every now and then dubs were used from old German Telefunken shellacs. It was during Oberstein's earlier venture as the "U.S.Record Corporation" that he could also rely on Telefunken matrices obtained through Czechoslovakia (Ultraphon). A couple of these recordings had been released ca. 1938/39 on Royale's 78 format with the correct names of orchestras and conductors, but even during these times records existed which named the infamous "National Opera Orchestra" under Leo Blech, when in fact the Berlin Philharmonic was playing. It is unknown to the author what events or reasons may have caused the suppressing of the original orchestra's name while leaving the real conductor's name unchanged. Political considerations, though, may be taken into account.

The Author's Method

The Records

1. Section of Identified Performances

B) Varsity

C) Gramophone

D) Allegro/Elite

E) Concertone

F) Halo

II. Items of Probable Indentification

III. Corrections and Additional Information

Discussion

During the evaluation of certain items of the "RCA" catalogue, the author has found hints which might additionally point to an "East German source" for a couple of items. He prefers to believe in the use of first generation copies of radio tapes in these cases, rather than in the generally accepted version of low-quality tape recorded broadcasts. The Brahms Symphony No.4 on Royale 1239 ("Berlin Symphony Orchestra/Franz R. Friedl", also on Allegro/Elite 3124, "Dresden State Symphony Orchestra/Fritz Schreiber) is a studio recording of the same sound ambience as in the Haydn No.94 on Royale 1223 and in some other works in their catalogue. What makes these recordings so interesting is some extraneous noise, clearly audible during certain soft passages in the slow movements, especially when earphones are used. However, this could only be detected in some of the cases when the usually quieter pressings of these performances on their Gramophone incarnations were inspected. In these cases there are crows of a rooster and sounds of car horns coming in from outside the recording location! It may not be without significance, in this respect, that sounds from car horns also intrude into the recordings of Dvorak's 9th symphony under Pfluger (Urania LTRLP 7132) as well as into Abendroth's Beethoven Pastorale from 1950 and into his Tchaikovsky Pathetique from 1952, both issued on Etema. In Schubert's Unfinished on Royale 1220 ("Rome Symphony Orchestra/Dr.Felix Guenther", also on Gramophone 2040, "National Opera Orchestra") there is another car horn finding its way into the recording somewhere in the middle of the first movement, and yet another one can be heard at the very beginning of Franck's Symphony on Royale 1288 ("Berlin Symphony Orchestra/Joseph Balzer", also on Gramophone 2088, "National Opera Orchestra"). The peak is reached in Haydn's Surprise Symphony on Royale 1223 ("Orchestra of the Rome Symphony/Angelo Questa", also on Gramophone 2040, "Varsity Symphony Orchestra"), where a rooster's crow is followed by a car horn and then something like the jingling bells of a tramway, all this at the beginning of the second movement, when Haydn's "surprise" is just about due. This extraneous noise, the rooster's contribution in particular, is a tantalizing facet of these "RCA" items, as this makes them likely to be connected with a very particular, if not unique, recording location. No definite answer can be given as yet to the question of where this location may have been.

In this author's opinion the fact of these very faint noises, captured on a tape used for a record production would rule out a mere off-the-air tape as a master in these instances (and many others not "marred" by such extra-musical ornation), because it seems unlikely that such delicate sounds should have been transmitted that clearly by AM broadcasts of those times. Record piracy indisputably is a violation of law. Nevertheless, without a doubt, through this practice a couple of performances have been preserved, which otherwise would be lost for all times. In continuing his research, the author hopes to be able to rely as much on his fellow-collectors'future support as he could in the past. There is still much to do and surely more to discover.

Ernst A. Lumpe is a teacher at a high school in Germany. A collector of 78s, LPs, CDs and radio performances for some 25 years he has taken a keen interest in disclosing the real performers ofpseudonymous LP issues. He presented this matter to a wider public in three half-hour broadcasts for Deutschlandradio Cologne in May 1994. He has been published earlier in the ARSC Journal. Currently he holds the post of research officer of the Wilhelm Furtwangler Society UK and has contributed to the newsletters of both this society and the Wilhelm Furtwangler Society of America.