Quote:
Originally Posted by Nickthedentist
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ted Kendall
I did some work for such a reissue label a while ago, and all the material was sourced from vinyl, mainly compilation LPs. One track started with the wrong item for two seconds, followed by fast-winding noises and then a slurring start two bars into the right track - and that was the only surviving source. Lacquers were expensive in Jamaica, it seems....and then there was the reissue of some pioneering Mahler symphony recordings which had to come back from several copies of the original LPs, cutting around the once-per-revolution scrunches on different copies and confirmimg that the recorded pitch was accurate - that took a 'phone call to Vienna, which confirmed that the Philharmonic was still using A=446 in the early 1950s.
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Fascinating! I knew that period orchestras go for A<440, but I never knew that. |
The known history of standard pitches is complicated, never mind the educated guesswork used to establish pitches for original instrument performances. A=440 was agreed as an international standard just before the war, but the Berlin and Vienna Philharmonic stayed at A=446 for some time, not wanting to lose the brilliance of tone thus achieved.