News

The Electric Recording Company Produces Classical Music Reissues The Right Way

Michael Fremer  |  Feb 20, 2013

Here's a company that fell well below my radar screen for years until a reader alerted me to its website. The Electric Recording Company and its founder Pete Hutchison is dedicated to reissuing on vinyl much sought after classical music fare from the early LP era, including those of legendary violinist Johanna Martzy as well as recordings by violinists, Leonid Kogan and Gioconda De Vito, ‘French School’ pianists Yvonne Lefébure and Germaine Thyssens-Valentin and cellist János Starker.. Or as the website describes the musical choices "...iconic 'Holy Grail' recordings by the most revered classical performers."

These records are officially sanctioned and licensed by the labels and include both monuaral and stereo recordings.

The company begins with EMI master tapes, cuts in true monaural (when appropriate) using 1950's Lyrec/EMI tube tape recorders and an Ortofon DS522 mono cutter head. The handcrafted artwork recreates the original using a vintage letterpress process. The releases are strictly limited to 300 copies of each release.

Today the company announced three volumes of Johanna Martzy playing Bach's Unaccompanied Violin Sonatas (ERC001, ERC002, ERC003) and ERC004 "Mozart a Paris" the complete recording of Parisian Mozart compositions (1763 and 1778).

The price is steep: £300 or about $458 per set. However, were you to investigate the current prices of the ultra-rare originals, you'd find that these prices are "bargains"! For instance according to popsike.com the 3 LP set of Martzy's solo Bach violin records sold in 2008 for $4860, in 2010 for $5750, and in 2012 for $5445!

For more information, go to The Electric Recording Company website

COMMENTS
mauidj's picture
Submitted by mauidj on Wed, 2013-02-20 10:26

Can we expect a review Michael? Drool worthy indeed. Now what can I sell...........

Michael Fremer's picture
Submitted by Michael Fremer on Fri, 2013-02-22 09:43

Yes. I feel privileged.....

jdmcderm's picture
Submitted by jdmcderm on Wed, 2013-02-20 21:04

...to have an edition size of 300. This is probably equal to the number of the world's billionaires who spin vinyl.  The process does appear authentic, well thought out and extremely well done, but if they haven't done so already, I'm sure that Chad Kassem, Abey Fonn or Kai Seemann are on the horn angling to be next in line for the tapes.  If well done and priced in line with other current reissues, I'd certainly be interested.

suteetat's picture
Submitted by suteetat on Thu, 2013-02-21 01:14

I would think that at $30 a disc, they would sell more than 10 times the number of discs  they would sell at $300 each. Or may be they think that number of people buying new classical LP would not be big enough anyhow. Just wondering! Too bad, I certainly am not in a habit of buying $300 LP unless it is a boxset.

mauidj's picture
Submitted by mauidj on Sun, 2013-02-24 14:56

I just checked their site and it looks like the single Bach titles are about $470 each as you said and the 7 album Mozart set runs about $4200. Ouch! Amazingly it also looks like they've sold over 220 of the run of 300!

Michael, do you know anything about the Columbia Japan pressings of these titles?

ianm0's picture
Submitted by ianm0 on Wed, 2013-02-27 17:16

Testament has reissues of Johanna Martzy's LPs at much lower price. Can't see any justification in paying 300 quids for a set. Testament's quality is extremely good.

Michael Fremer's picture
Submitted by Michael Fremer on Fri, 2013-12-06 13:04

I compared the two editions. No comparison. The violin on the Testament sounds thick and congealed. The Electric Recording Company edition, open, airy, and well-textured as live. Maybe you can't "see" any justification, but you would hear it!

X