found an lp yesterday

[david johnson]

In my new office...it's the old recording of Peer Gynt music by Beecham/rpo on angel records.  It looks to be in great shape!  I can't wait to hear it later today.

dj

[jochanaan]

Let us know how you like it!  As I recall, Beecham was the prime organizer of the Royal Philharmonic; he needed a pickup orchestra in a month's time or so, and for some reason it didn't die afterwards.  (That may be the principal reason there are so many world-class orchestras in London--although I seem to recall that many players play for several of these orchestras.  British orchestral players have to work a lot harder than those on the European Continent or even in the US, since governmental and corporate support is on a much lower level.  That's why they do so many movies! )

[scarpia]

In my new office...it's the old recording of Peer Gynt music by Beecham/rpo on angel records.  It looks to be in great shape!  I can't wait to hear it later today.

This it?

[david johnson]

the cover is white with grieg's face on it.  i saw it once many years ago.

dj

[scarpia]

the cover is white with grieg's face on it.  i saw it once many years ago.

If it is "angel" it would be the US release of the EMI recording.  Hopefully it is a UK pressing, or it will sound like you have a frisbee on your turntable no matter how "minty" it is. 

[david johnson]

nah...all my angel records (blue or red labels) have always sounded great.

dj

[Brian]

Oooh, you're going to love it.    Great hearing the choral versions of Hall of the Mountain King and the Arabian Dance, and Ilse Hollweg (I think?) is beautiful in Solveig's numbers. 

[Daverz]

nah...all my angel records (blue or red labels) have always sounded great.

The ones to avoid have the gold/brown label with the angel on them.  There were the domestic U.S. pressings, and they were even worse than other domestic pressings like RCA Red Seal.

[dirkronk]

ALL Angels except for the earliest red labels with the large half-moon "recording angel" were pressed in the U.S. 

Look just under the half-moon on the left side: it will say "Made in England" in black (italic, I think) letters if it was pressed there, or else "Recorded in England" on the left side and "Made in the US" on the right, indicating that it was pressed over here. (I'm going on memory since my LPs are at home, so my wording may be off slightly.) Most of the British-pressed Angel LPs are mono, though I've found a very few of the earliest stereos pressed there.

The only exceptions I've found to this rule are some LPs included in a few box sets, and these too are usually labeled as having been pressed in England. A few of these go into the blue label era.

BTW, the British pressings--when found in good condition--are generally preferable, and understandably so. One would expect the stamper to have been made using transfers direct from the master tape, not a submaster (or sub-sub-master) as would have been the case when the recordings were sent to the US for processing and pressing. You CAN hear the difference. However, greater care was obviously being taken in the red label and early blue label days, and thus those are usually of much higher quality--even in their US pressings--than subsequent editions (later blue, the yellow & brown and much later "floral" angel design labels), especially those that went to super-thin vinyl or fell victim to poor quality vinyl. Alas, many 1970s Angels WERE some of the worst in terms of warps, ticks/clicks, and other pressing flaws.

FWIW,

Dirk

[scarpia]

American pressings were uniformly inferior, no matter what label.  I remember the collective cry of agony when London STS (Stereo Treasury Series), the discount reissue line from Decca, went from those nice orange-label British pressings to the cheap, flimsy American pressings with the yellow paper label.  The difference was obvious, just in the quality of the vinyl material.

Those old mono EMI's were nice, the ones with the wooden dowel to help you pull the LP out of the jacket.  It's also a thrill if you're in an old bookstore and open one of the old London "LLs" to find the original, delicate, tissue paper wrapper still in pristine condition.

[jochanaan]

Well, david johnson, what's the verdict?