Re: New Music String Qt.

Date: Wed, 12 Mar 2003 20:22:51 GMT
Newsgroups: rec.music.classical.recordings
Size: 1,188 bytes

On Wed, 12 Mar 2003 17:27:58 +0100, "W.M. Bonger"
<email-address-deleted> wrote:
> Reading about Mozart's early string quartet my eye was caught by the name of
> an ensemble that used to be one of my favourites: The New Music String
> Quartet. I have two LPs on which they play Wolf and Schumann. Especially the
> latter is quartet playing of the highest order i.m.o. And the Philips or
> Columbia mono recordings were not bad at all. Why have these superb
> performances never been transferred to CD?
>
> Any comments?
Most of them were originally made by (American) Columbia, and
remain "locked in the vaults". Sony Classical, at least its US
arm, has been notably backwards in issuing its pre-stereo
catalogue on CD. At present, Sony Classical is essentially out of
business in the US & Canada. Oh, sure they exist, you can buy
their CD's, but new releases have slowed to the tiniest of
trickles and reissue programs seem to be dead.
What a shame: the NMQ recordings originally made by Sony would
make a very interesting box set. They did a wonderful rendition
of John Cage's string quartet when it was still fairly new music.
--
Rodger Whitlock
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada