Forgotten records

[PJME]

http://www.forgottenrecords.com/concept.php

Mainly recordings from ca 1950-1960. Plenty of dear old friends and "to discover" music!

Peter

[John F]

It's like going into a record store in the late '50s - say, Minute Man near Harvard Square, or Sam Goody while it was still a single Times Square store and not a chain. Quite a few of those recordings still on my shelves. It's not as if they were never superseded; the Guilet Quartet's pioneering versions of the Arriaga Quartets are certainly well played, but later stereo versions are at least as good. And Mack Harrell's RCA Victor recording of Bach's solo cantatas is touching but I haven't felt the need to listen to it in decades. Nostalgia, then. And sometimes more; the Kubelik/Chicago Symphony "Living Presence" recording of the Tchaikovsky Pathetique, more characteristic of the orchestra than Kubelik, still packs quite a punch.

But just look at the sheer size of Forgotten Records's catalog - nearly 400 releases! Even though they're choosing recordings that are in the public domain in Europe (or were, until the law changed), and clearly aren't spending much on cover art, they've got to have significant money.

[maestrob]

Each record is produced individually from the original digital version. In a sense, music lovers then have the priviledge to listen to a master. Additionnally, records are burnt at minimum speed so as to have the lowest jittering as possible and avoid the CD player to make up for imperfections at the expense of sound quality.

Something in the translation confused me.......I assume they're talking about CDs here.

[John F]

None of the reissues were recorded digitally, so there never was an "original digital version." Very few ever appeared on CD, so they weren't digitized after the fact either. It's just not true. The implication is that Forgotten Records used the masters, and I'll bet any amount of money that in many if not all cases, this isn't true either.

[CharmNewton]

None of the reissues were recorded digitally, so there never was an "original digital version." Very few ever appeared on CD, so they weren't digitized after the fact either. It's just not true. The implication is that Forgotten Records used the masters, and I'll bet any amount of money that in many if not all cases, this isn't true either.

They use LPs as the source.

The work of restoration is the kind of craftsmanship that has no interest in being time efficient. Old monophonic records are generally played on a Loic Audio turntable equiped with a professional Pierre Clement long arm and the L5 Pierre Clément red cell that is surely the best for reading old records. Declicking is used carefully so as not to betray the original signal. Decliking is done manually on the sound curve or with the help of the latest Cedar hardware. The listener will be amazed at the quality obtained with old recordings provided they are read with appropriate equipment and if they are of course restored wisely.

These look to be custom made CD-Rs. Some of these would be interesting to hear if I ran into the vinyl inexpensively (some of these wouldn't be cheap!).

John

[RebLem]

I looked through the offerings and i must say I found them disappointing. Just a couple I would like to see reissued that I can think of offhand--back in the early 1950's, Capitol issued what I think is the best ever recording of Sibelius's complete Legends of Lemminkainen conducted by Sixten Ehrling, and then many years later, in stereo, EMI issued a Bartok 1938 Violin Concerto recording by Perlman, Previn, and the LSO that has never been reissued on CD despite the fact that it is, IMO, the best ever recording of that work.

[CharmNewton]

I looked through the offerings and i must say I found them disappointing. Just a couple I would like to see reissued that I can think of offhand--back in the early 1950's, Capitol issued what I think is the best ever recording of Sibelius's complete Legends of Lemminkainen conducted by Sixten Ehrling, and then many years later, in stereo, EMI issued a Bartok 1938 Violin Concerto recording by Perlman, Previn, and the LSO that has never been reissued on CD despite the fact that it is, IMO, the best ever recording of that work.

It looks like this was part of a bigger Perlman collection, but may have been issues separately.

John

[Lance]

I was very happy to find recordings by DGG house conductor Fritz Lehmann. It is an impressive catalogue that takes some time going through, but there are some nice surprises along the way. My complaint is that they seem pricey, but I have not heard any of the reissues to comment on them technically regarding digital remastering. This is going to be a "service" to collectors who want to expand their collections with these recordings from the past, and, we are going to have to pay for it. I do know of some instances where one copy is purchased and copies made from the original and resold cheaply. It is bound to happen.