1931 - Reduction of Victor record sales during the economic depression of the 1930s
During the 1930s, Victor experienced a dramatic drop in record sales as people
cut back in spending, due to the great economic depression. This was not
only for the higher priced Victor Red Seal recordings of classical music, but
of all record sales. In fact, as can be seen in the following data,
record sales in the mid-1930s dropped as low as only one-tenth of the sales
level of the 1920s. These data show that record sales of
Victor (and of other record companies) did not recover to the pre-depression
levels until 1940. Record sales did not start to grow again until the
economic stimulus which resulted from World War 2. Consider
the following table which shows the dramatic sales reductions in Victor
record sales during the 1930s:
Year
Number of records sold
1927
37,625,429
1928
37,764,906
1929
34,493,447
1930
17,710,520
1931
7,093,917
1932
3,119,049
1933
3,635,713
1934
4,439,235
1935
4,751,219
1936
7,676,526
1937
10,494,610
1938
13,205,366
1939
24,248,789
1940
35,558,487
1941
56,268,433
2
In the face of this collapse in sales, it is fortunate that RCA Victor
was a subsidiary of the economically strong (although also suffering) Radio
Corporation of America. Victor's long-time rival in the U.S., Columbia
Phonograph for example, after being separated from its British parent in
1931 was sold to a now-forgotten company Grigsby-Grunow. Grigsby-Grunow
in turn went bankrupt in 1934, at which time Columbia Records was sold to the
American Record Corporation (ARC) for the distressed price of $75,000.
(ARC had also leased the Brunswick label in 1931, and had acquired a number
of other famous labels in the US market. ARC was in turn purchased
by William Paley's Columbia Broadcasting System on January 1, 1939 for
$700,000 3.)
Victor was indeed fortunate to have had RCA as its 'rich uncle'.
1931 - Victor moves the Philadelphia Orchestra back into the
Camden Church Studio
After the lean recording year of 1930, Victor management decided to cut back still
further in recording the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1931. This resulted in two
actions: first was to move recording of the Orchestra from the Academy of Music,
back to the Camden Church Studio. The Philadelphia Orchestra in that era did
not own the Academy of Music, so previously, Victor had to hire the hall for each
recording session in the Academy. The second action by Victor was to greatly
reduce the number of Philadelphia Orchestra musicians used in each recording
session. Victor had also used reduced forces during the acoustic recording
era in the 1920s. However, this reduction in 1931 was for economic reasons,
rather than because of the physical limitations of the acoustic recording
process.
The Camden Church Studio, also called Victor Building 22
Fortunately, as described below, Stokowski was able to mitigate
these negative effects through his programming of music and because of his
interest in acoustics, microphone placement, and the recording process.
A negative consequence of this move back to the acoustically 'dead' Camden Church
Studios number 1 and number 2 was the reduction of clarity and lack of ambience
of the recorded sound. However, the good news was that Victor continued
to record Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra at all during the
1930s. Other great Victor stars, such as Fritz Kreisler, were not asked
by Victor to record during the economic depression.
In addition to these reductions, only four Victor recording sessions were
conducted in the Camden Church Studio in 1931: These were on March
17, April 3, 4 and 18, 1931. Also a special recording session was
held on July 17, 1931 in the Academy of Music in Philadelphia for
Victor's new 33 RPM long playing recording system. In this July 17
session, Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra recorded the Beethoven
Symphony no 5.
After 1931, Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra typically participated
in two series of recordings: on in the Spring and another in the Autumn,
corresponding to the Orchestra's annual concert season. However, in 1931, there
were no recordings made of the Philadelphia Orchestra in the second half of 1931.
1931 - Bach - 'Little G minor Fugue' BWV 578
As described above, Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra returned to
Camden, New Jersey on Tuesday, March 17, 1931 for their first Camden recording
session since 1926. The first work they recorded was Stokowski's
orchestration of the Bach 'Little G minor Fugue'
in g minor, BWV 578. The choice of this work by Stokowski may have been
influenced by the fact that it requires a reduced orchestra of only winds and
strings.
This transcription begins with solos by the two leading oboes of the
Philadelphia Orchestra, Marcel Tabuteau, and either Louis DiFulvio or Robert
Bloom. The beautiful English Horn solo was by Max Weinstein (1907-1983),
who as English horn of the Philadelphia Orchestra for only two seasons,
1930-1932. Weinstein came immediately from his graduation from
Juilliard. During the late 1920s and early 1930s, Stokowski seemed
to be continuously in search of an English horn soloist who suited him.
During 5 of the 6 seasons from 1925-1926 to 1930-1931, Stokowski
appointed a series of new English horn soloists.
Max Weinstein, English horn
of the Philadelphia Orchestra 1930-1932
Also demonstrating his dissatisfaction with his various English horns
during this period, Stokowski often requested Marcel Tabuteau to play
English horn in key Philadelphia Orchestra recordings, such as the 1929
Sibelius Swan of Tuonela. However, by 1930, contemporary accounts
make it clear that Tabuteau no longer wished to double as English horn
back-up. By the end of the 1931-1932 season, Stokowski also became
dissatisfied with Max Weinstein, and did not renew his contract. It
was with the appointment of Robert Bloom as English horn solo beginning
1932-1933 that Stokowski finally found an
English horn that met his needs 1.
Stokowski performed his arrangement of the 'Little Fugue' BWV 578 frequently, and included
it in his film 'The Big Broadcast of 1937'.
Click here to listen to (download)
the 1931 Bach 'Little G minor Fugue' BWV 578
1931 - Wagner - Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg - Prelude to Act 3
Only one other short work was successfully recorded during the March 17, 1931 recording
session in Camden. Perhaps Stokowski and the Orchestra were still becoming
re-acquainted with the recording conditions in the Camden Church Studio after being
away for five years. This work was the Wagner Prelude to Act 3 of Die Meistersinger
von Nürnberg. This Prelude, less famous than the Prelude to Act 1 of this opera
introduces Act 3 Scene 1 in Hans Sachs' workshop, where Sachs contemplates the world's
madness with his monologue 'Wahn! Wahn! Überall Wahn!' (Delusion! Delusion! Above all,
Delusion!).
The recording is less than totally successful, particularly sonically, and the orchestra
was coming to terms with the Camden Church Studio, after 5 years absence. As with
the Bach Little Fugue, Stokowski used a reduced orchestra of only 46 musicians.
This Wagner recording of 6 1/2 minutes was released on the two sides of a 10 inch
Victor Red Seal disk number 1584, matrices BVE 64078 and BVE 64079. The recorded
sound on this disk, and the Bach Little Fugue has a tendency to be somewhat thin and
shrill, a result that Stokowski, the Orchestra, and the Victor engineers were able to
improve in the later recording session of April 4, 1931.
After the relatively limited recording session of March 17, 1931, Stokowski
and the Philadelphians returned to the Camden Church Studio for recording
on April 3 and 4, 1931. First, they attempted a major work usually
requiring a larger orchestra of about 95 musicians. This was the
Brahms Symphony no 4 in e minor. This was a mysterious choice and
(at least to me) a mysterious recording project. Strange was that
this long work, nearly 40 minutes in length, was recorded on 10 inch
disks. This of course had the effect of breaking up the movements
into even shorter 3 minute spans, rather than the approximately 4 1/2
minutes of a typical 12 inch 78 RPM side.
In addition, the sound or this recording was certainly
hampered by the relative small size and heavily damped
acoustics of the Camden Church Studio number 1, where this was recorded
on April 3, with a 'make-up' session on April 18, 1931. It was
likely for these reasons that Victor, and/or Stokowski decided against
approving the release of this 1931 recording. Victor and the public
would need to wait two more years until March and April of 1933 for
the Philadelphia Orchestra and Stokowski to re-recording and release
their reading of the Brahms Symphony no 4.
The recording, although not released, was assigned Victor 10 inch Red Seal disk numbers
1510, 1511, 1512, 1513, 1514, 1515, 1516, intended for Victor Musical Masterpiece
album M-108. The matrices were all of first takes: BVE 64088-1, BVE 64089-1, BVE 64090-1,
BVE 64091-1, BVE 64092-1, BVE 64093-1, BVE 64094-1 BVE 64095-1, BVE 64096-1, BVE 64097-1,
BVE 64098-1, BVE 64099-1, BVE 64100-1, BVE 69001-1 (wow, 14 ten inch sides!).
If you should want to listen to this 1931 recording of the Brahms Symphony no 4, Mark
Obert-Thorn has done his usual splendid and amazing restoration of this music, contained
in the Music & Arts 4 CD album
'Leopold Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra - CD Premieres of their Rarest 78 RPM
Recordings', catalog
number CD-1173 ( www.musicandarts.com ). This wonderful collection features unmatched
restorations of many rare Stokowski - Philadelphia Orchestra recordings in sound far better
than found in the amateur efforts of this website. All interested should buy this
fine album before it goes out of print. Many thanks should go to Music & Arts
for commissioning Mark Obert-Thorn and and for releasing this valuable album.
(Read about other Music & Arts restorations of Stokowski recordings, and the many
other Stokowski restorations done by Mark Obert-Thorn for a number of leading
record companies by
Clicking Here
.)
1931 Debussy - 'Danses sacrée et profane'
The day after the recording of the Brahms Symphony no 4, on Saturday
April 4, 1931, Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra returned to
Camden to record Debussy's 1904 composition 'Danses sacrée et
profane'. This work was more appropriate for the Camden Church
Studio recording location, since it is a smaller work, originally
scored for harp and string orchestra. In Stokowski's 1931
performance, 39 Philadelphia Orchestra string players joined the
Orchestra's harp, Edna Phillips, who was harpist of the Orchestra
1930-1946. This work was originally composed by Debussy as a
commission to demonstrate the chromatic harp, rather than the pedal
harp normally used by orchestras, such as played here.
Claude Debussy in 1908, shortly after composing 'Danses sacrée et profane'
Although the title 'Danses sacrée et profane' would suggest two contrasting
pieces, in fact the two parts are similar in feeling and effect and are
intended to be played without pause. In concert, it is not obvious
when the Danse sacrée ends and the Danse profane begins. Edna
Phillips in this beautiful performance shows why this music is a favorite
show-piece for the harp.
The 'Danses sacrée et profane were issued on two Victor 12 inch Red Seal disks,
Victor 7455, 7456 in the Victor Musical Masterpiece album M-116 of Debussy works,
coupled with the Gavotte from Thomas's opera Mignon on the flip side of 7456. Also
in M-116 were the 1928 recording of Nuages, and Stokowski's orchestration of 'La cathédrale
engloutie', recorded in 1930. This is a beautiful and atmospheric recording that
provided a rare opportunity to hear this work in the 1930s in an evocative
performance. I have added a small amount of ambient reberveration to try
to compensate for the 'dead' acoustics of the Camden Church Studio number 1.
1931 - Bach - Chorale Prelude 'Christ lag in Todesbanden' BWV 718
Also on April 4, 1931 in Camden, Stokowski recorded his orchestration of Bach's
Chorale Prelude 'Christ lag in Todesbanden' BWV 718. This orchestration employs
a smaller orchestra than other Stokowski Bach transcriptions. The original organ
work, which Stokowski would have played often, begins with simple and mysterious
single notes played in the lower register. The music is then progressively
layered, but never becomes massive. Stokowski's orchestration matches this mood,
although the development of themes is far less contrapuntal than Bach's, and the 3 minute
length of this orchestration is about one half the nearly 6 minutes of the original
organ Prelude.
Again, as with the Debussy 'Danses sacrée et profane' (but not the Brahms symphony) it would
seem that Stokowski has selected for recording a work requiring fewer musicians, and which
might be less impacted by the smaller size, and more acoustically dead Camden Church Studio
number 1.
Click here to listen to (download) the 1931 Bach Chorale Prelude 'Christ lag in Todesbanden'
1931 - Long Playing 'Program Transcription' records and the development of long playing records
One of the principal disadvantages of the 78 RPM record, from the beginning,
was its short playing time of about 4 1/2 minutes, maximum, for a 12 inch
(30 cm) disc. Several initiatives had attempted to solve this short
playing time problem. March 11, 1903, Victor introduced the 'Deluxe
Record', later renamed 'Deluxe Special Record' to differentiate it from
12 inch disks 4. This 'Deluxe Special Record' was a 14 inch
(35 1/2 cm) record, designed to rotate at 60 RPM, about 75% of the speed
of the conventional 78 RPM record. This increased recording time to
about 6 minutes per side 8.
Probably due to its very large and heavy size, these 14 inch discs were
not successful and were discontinued the following year. These
14 inch discs are rare, today, a witness to their small sales.
Thomas Edison pursued the strategy of a finer grove - smaller in diameter,
and more closely spaced - as a means to gain a longer playing time
for the 78 RPM disk. The Edison 'Diamond Disk' used a diamond
stylus, with an smaller groove diameter. Introduced in 1926,
the Edison disk had playing times of more than 20 minutes.
Conceptually, this was a good solution to the playing time
problem. Unfortunately, in practical experience, it was a
failure.
These Edison disks had a number of disadvantages. They
were of a laminate construction, with a core of flakes of materials
which tend to absorb moisture and to swell, causing disk de-lamination.
Also, equipment to play them tended to produce variable results.
The Diamond Disk was also easy to scratch, and any scratch or surface
blemish was more noticeable on the Diamond Disk than a conventional 78.
Further, if someone tried to play an Edison Diamond Disk on a
conventional Victrola, the steel needle of the Victrola would
immediately and permanently destroy the Diamond Disk grooves.
Finally, the music programmed on these disks was not artistically
interesting (an artistic problem for the non-musical Edison throughout
his recording career.)
Bell Laboratories in the later 1920s had been working on improved
systems for synchronous disk recordings for movies. According
to Arthur Keller 5,
the Bell engineers had calculated that the optimal playing time for
a 16 inch disk, then used for synchronous disk for talking films was
33 1/3 RPM. Although this speed was not used in the Vitaphone
synchronous recording process, commercialized by Western Electric
and Warners Bros., it was later used by Victor.
From this development of a long-playing recording,
RCA and Western Electric later developed methods for a
long-playing phonograph record. In November, 1931
6, Victor introduced of the 'Program Transcription'
disk. As well as a slower playing time, Victor also used
a slightly smaller groove size and groove separation.
These 'Program Transcription' disks were issued in both 10 inch and 12
inch formats. Most of the recordings were dubbed from
existing 78 RPM masters. However, some recordings, including the
1931 Stokowski Beethoven Symphony no 5 and the 1932 Gurre-Lieder were
recorded directly onto 33 1/3 RPM masters.
These records were pressed on a semi-plastic compound
called 'Victorlac' 7, which was not particularly
quiet, and also wore quickly because of the very heavy weight of
the stylus connected to a massive horse-shoe magnet electric
pick-up cartridge assembly used in that era.
The result
was negative in two important ways.
First, the recordings did not sell well, in part due to the economic
depression, and their incompatibility with existing phonographs.
Also, for the technical reasons described, Victor eventually decided
that they needed to withdraw the recordings,
because they rapidly wore out 3. So, after this
commercial failure for Victor, the public had to await the introduction
by Columbia in 1948 of a commercially successful long-playing record
format.
1931 - Beethoven Symphony no 5 in c minor Long Playing recording
As described above, for economic reasons, Victor had moved Philadelphia
Orchestra recording from their home in the Academy of Music, back to
the Victor Camden Church Studio recording site. Further, Victor
had reduced the number of musicians used for each recording.
The single exception to this in 1931 was the July 17, 1931 'Program Transcription'
recording of the Beethoven Symphony no 5. This was recorded in extended
first takes by the full orchestra in the Academy of Music in Philadelphia.
The 'Program Transcription' recording was issued in 1931 on a double sided
33 1/3 RPM 12 inch (30 cm) disk, Victor L 7001, matrices LCVE 67543-1 and
LCVE 67544-1.
1 An important source for insight into the English
horn history of the Philadelphia
Orchestra was given in: Finkelman, Michael Philadelphia Story: An English Horn's Eye-View
of the Life and Times of a Great Orchestra over Six Decades, 1900 – 1960. The Double
Reed. Volume 23 no 3. 2002.
2 The always superb and interesting Mainspring Press ( www.mainspringpress.com )
has published an exhibit
containing the Victor record sales units 1901-1941 as contained in the January 26 1943
documents of the U.S. District Court Southern District of New York.
3 From narrative by Edward Wallerstein (1891-1970) published in
Music in the Mall
website www.musicinthemail.com
4 page 31. Sherman, Michael W. (in collaboration with Moran,
William R., Nauck, Kurt
R.) Collector's Guide to Victor Records Monarch Record
Enterprises Dallas, Texas. 1992 ISBN 0-9632903-0-4
5 Keller, Arthur. BBC Radio 3 interview. 1981.
6 page 114. Sherman, Michael W. Collector's Guide to
Victor Records op. cit.
8 Hoffmann, Frank W. and Ferstler, Howard. Encyclopedia of recorded sound, Volume 1.
New York. 2005. Routledge Publishing.
If you have any comments or questions about this Leopold Stokowski site,
please e-mail me (Larry Huffman) at e-mail address:
leopold.stokowski@gmail.com
Charcoal Sketch of Stokowski late 1920s
The Camden Church Studio, also called Victor Building 22
Max Weinstein, English horn
of the Philadelphia Orchestra 1930-1932
Claude Debussy in 1908, shortly after composing 'Danses sacrée et profane'
