Thread: Throwing The Budget Labels Out With the Bath Water?

Originally Posted by erki

I used to discard Naxos, however I have discovered some very interesting recordings from former soviet countries also some obscure stuff you hardly find anywhere else.
Laser Light is the one I never buy still - awful artwork and poor recording/production quality.

Originally Posted by starthrower

I love me some Vox boxes! I used to buy more stuff on budget labels when records stores were thriving. Back in those days Naxos was budget at 4-5 dollars a CD. But now they are huge and not cheap anymore. I've never heard of most of the labels mentioned by the OP other than Pilz. I got introduced to Debussy's piano works on that label. I used to buy some LaserLight titles too.

The cheap labels are an adventure. There are a few threads floating around about hidden gems. The Pilz label is especially known for good offerings.

Denon Essentials is a digital cheap label that has surfaced. I have been listening to Brahms Piano concertos featuring D. Tomsic. That recording has been tossed around the cheap labels for a few decades using different artists names at times. Denon actually lists the same recording under different names. It's a trip. But a good rendition of Brahms and cheap.

Originally Posted by Mark Dee

Just last night I was listening to an LP that was gifted to me by someone who is not into classical music at all. It was 'Marches from the Opera' played by The London Philharmonic Orchestra under Reinhard Linz. Recorded in Mono in 1958 and released on Marble Arch around 1965. (I am guessing it was a re-issue of something released at the time of recording, but I couldn't trace the original release).

https://www.discogs.com/Reinhard-Lin.../master/782412

NoCoPilot:

Thanks for this - that looks like the Alshire US release from 1960 - it looks like it was first released in the UK on Pye Golden Guinea in 1960 (ish), and then re-released on Marble Arch in 1965 (which would make sense as Marble Arch was a budget subsidiary of Pye).

Thanks for the info.

Originally Posted by Oldhoosierdude

I have never understood the Naxos aversion. They have some outstanding performers. They also offer lesser know works and composers that the"major" labels won't touch. That niche has made them an industry powerhouse.

Naxos is my go to label when I'm looking for a recording. I don't always go with them but often.

The best time to buy Naxos discs in the UK was back in the early 2000s when Woolworths were going outta business. My nearest Woolworths at the time (Stockport) sold all their Naxos cds off initially at any 5 for £10 in the last month. In the last few days of trading that pricechanged to 5 for £5 for big name composers (Beethoven, Brahms, etc) and 2 for £1 for any other more obscure discs. I got in late on the last Saturday they were open but still managed to bag around 30 cds at the time. I later found out that one of the parents of a child in my class worked there and she would have got me as many as I wished with a huge staff discount a d coukd have had anything left at the end of the last day for free. I was gutted.

Originally Posted by Mark Dee

For a list of faked performers and conductors:

https://wiki.musicbrainz.org/Budget_...d_Scholz/Lists

Serge Tchaikov is always the one that makes me chuckle...

Far longer ago than I care to remember, I was visiting a schoolfriend's house and his mum put on a Fidelio LP of Mozart's D minor piano concerto conducted, so the sleeve said, by one Wilhelm Havagesse. I tried to stop myself laughing but didn't quite make it.

Serge Tchaikov is so obviously fake ... might as well be Van Ludwig (as in Van Cliburn, or Van Morrison), or even Bert Schu... the list could be endless ...

Originally Posted by erki

Laser Light is the one I never buy still - awful artwork and poor recording/production quality.

I agree, but to their credit, Laserlight was the first label to issue the Rostropovich/Boult recording of the Dvorak Cello Concerto.

Originally Posted by wkasimer

I agree, but to their credit, Laserlight was the first label to issue the Rostropovich/Boult recording of the Dvorak Cello Concerto.

Originally recorded by EMI. The budget labels often issue recordings which fall outside the 50 year copyright period and given that late fifties and sixties stereo is quite acceptable are often great value for money.

Originally Posted by Mark Dee

Serge Tchaikov is always the one that makes me chuckle...

Tssss.. They could not even go for Tchaikofiev?


Loads of excellent CDs on budget labels, especially Naxos (less recorded repertoire but also e.g. Respighi's Roman trilogy and Hyand's string quartets) and Brilliant Classics (especially their re-issues taken from more famous labels).