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hobbyists's views for hobbyists
Wilma Cozart Fine is Mercury


Rudolf A. Bruil - Page first published 2001

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Wilma Cozart Fine with porta phone communicating during one of the recording sessions of The Civil War.

On September 23, 2009, I received a message informing me that Mrs. Wilma Cozart Fine had passed away peacefully in her home. She was 82. It is often stated that good sound recording and reproduction have nothing to do with the appreciation of music. In essence this may be true, but it does not exclude the many music lovers and musicians who can admire good sound at the same time and think it is an important ingredient of the performance and the recording. Wilma Cozart Fine loved music as well as the technical aspects of sound recording and reproduction. She must have had an inborn interest which started to develop during her early stay with the Dallas Symphony and conductor Antal Dorati and gradually evolved to a high, professional level during her Mercury years. No doubt her marriage to Robert C. Fine was also instrumental in this. Although I met Wilma Cozart Fine only for an hour or so, in our conversation I felt that she was purposeful, and, being a very good communicator, she knew very well how to get her message accross, but at the same time she had a friendly gentleness. Although Mercury Records consisted of many more devoted people - David Hall, Claire van Ausdale, Robert C. Fine, Harold Lawrence, Robert Eberenz, and the valuable George Piros, and others - Wilma C. Fine remained the important link to the glorious past of Mercury Living Presence sound recording. The remastering of the recordings to CD was a work of precision and re-releasing the recordings was a prestigious project undertaken by Philips. It differed essentially from the mastering of the SACD releases several years later for which the original Westrex and Western Electric equipment was not used. The transfer to SACDs was not done by her.
Wilma Cozart Fine (1927 - 2009) was already a legend during her lifetime. She will be remembered as an expert producer of quality recordings and as an inspiring human being. - R.A.B.

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50 Years Living Presence: 1951-2001
In Roman mythology Mercury is the god of commerce, manual skill, of travel and thievery.
But he is also eloquent and is the bringer of tidings.

The utmost concentration is essential when mixing the 3 channels of the original Mercury recording tapes to two channel stereo in order to achieve that perfect stereo-balance and a real to life sound at all instances, for all instruments. Because "real to life" means: dynamics that are detailed and frequencies that are harmonious in all registers - as is the case in the recording of 'Pictures at an Exhibition' played by pianist Byron Janis on Mercury CD 434 346-2.
The grand piano has extraordinary presence and you can clearly imagine that you are almost able to touch the black lid, while seeing the keyboard from the side and part of the bronze frame with the strong, tensed strings, and you hear the wooden construction. As if you were there.

It is also a question of microphone placement, of choosing the right position of the instrument in the studio or concert hall and of using top quality tape recorders, playback amplifiers and monitor loudspeakers. But to mix the three channels down to two-channel-stereo when the signal is transferred to a DAT recorder while preparing the CD reissues, that takes as great a skill as the initial transfer to the lacquer in the nineteen fifties and sixties. Obviously Wilma Cozart Fine has the ability to concentrate in abundance. The Mercury Compact Disc with 'Pictures at an Exhibition' is the eminent proof.

Wilma Cozart Fine at the Western Electric mixing console and surrounded by a host of components as she poses for the camera at the occasion of the release of another batch of CDs containing transfers of legendary Mercury 'Living Presence' tapes. Connoisseurs can easily spot the modular Audio Suite (designed by Mark Levinson) which is one of the few preamplifiers in the world today that can boast of extreme neutrality.

AUDIOPHILE

Wilma Cozart Fine: 'Not so long ago a dealer called and told me that he had some trouble in selling a pair of Thiel high-end loudspeakers. The client had been listening to all sorts of music but was unable to decide if he would buy the speakers. Until the dealer played this CD and the client went home with the speakers and the CD.'
This performance by pianist Byron Janis of Mussorgsky's original piano version of 'Pictures at an Exhibition' was recorded decades ago (December 25 - 29, 1961) in New York, in the Ballroom Studio of Robert C. Fine - Bob for insiders - to whom Wilma Cozart was married four years earlier. Today this recording is as modern as it was then, because the sound quality and the total image are a showpiece (in the best sense) of what is possible in recording technique, and will remain so for years to come.

Making the first stereo recording in 1955. Picture taken at a recording session of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra in Orchestra Hall (former Church of our Prayer).

In the foreground at right is David Hall (producer) conferring with Howard Herrington (orchestra manager).

In this first stereo setup three Neumann U-47 microphones were used and it looks as if they were arranged in the configuration of the "Decca microphone tree". However the microphone in the middle was independent and was for recording in mono on a separate tape recorder with 1/4" tape. Another recorder with reels with 1/2 inch tape was used for stereo.

This and similar experiments finally led to the typical microphone placement used by the Mercury team in the days of recording classical music in stereo.
(Photograph courtesy Peter Dobkin Hall.)

NEW MIX

In recent years Wilma Cozart Fine has transferred over 200 Mercury tapes that date back from the years when analogue recording was an art as well as a science. She mixed the many legendary tapes to a DAT recorder from which the CD-masters were made.

In order to make this possible it was necessary to restore the original Ampex 300-3 stereo tape recorders (using 1/2 inch tape) , the 35 mm Westrex machine and the Western Electric mixing console. All were used at the end of the nineteen fifties and the beginning of the nineteen sixties, the early stereo days.

Naturally it is valve-equipment. Although the transistor had been invented decades before, this was the only quality equipment available. In the process of restoring, not only the circuitry had to be checked, but the heads of the recorder should have the precise gap and should function with the right bias and equalization in order to read the signal to the max. The restoration of the equipment was not without difficulty. It took about six months to compete. The Ampex machines are special machines with three heads and three channels, with three head amplifiers. They were built specifically by Ampex for Bob Fine.

EARLY EXPERIMENTS

Wilma Cozart Fine: "Bob handed the specifications to Ampex. You know, he was a technician and an inventor. Already in 1955 he experimented and compared the quality of 2 and 3-track stereo. He said that only recordings made with 3 channels could provide a good stereo-image."
Those of you readers who have witnessed the rise (and decline, I should say, in some sections) of the high-fidelity scene through the years - or have read about the often painstaking trials that led to the extraordinary achievements in the sixties when the analogue sound reproduction was at its peak if you owned top quality playback equipment - may know that especially in the beginning of the stereo era, some amateurs used a center-channel, that is to say that a third loudspeaker was placed in between the stereo pair to produce a signal that was the subtraction of left and right channels. Others experimented with a 'mid-speaker' that radiated the addition of the left and right signals, but at a precise adjusted level.

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STEREO FROM 1956 ON CD

One of the earliest proofs of Bob Fine's stereo technique is on CD as well. It is Mercury 432 005-2 with Kodály's 'Hary Janos Suite', 'Dances of Galanta' and 'Maroszek Dances', and Bartok's 'Hungarian Sketches' and 'Romanian Folk Dances', all performed by the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra conducted by Antal Dorati. The recording date: November 1956.
In November 1953, Robert E. Blake, Don Gabor's recording technician, already recorded in stereo for the
Remington label. The orchestra was the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra directed by conductor Thor Johnson it performed with the Helsinki University Chorus; see the link on top of this page). RCA and English Decca (London) followed in 1954.
However, Bob Fine's stereo recording is unique because of the use of three microphones and the specific placement to record the performance on three tracks (channels) in order to fully capture the original orchestral balance.

UNIQUE

So a stereo-recording is only then true to life if the sound stage is picked-up by three microphones. This means in case of an orchestra: one microphone for the left section, one for the right section and one for the players sitting right in the middle in front of you.

DIGITAL RECORDINGS AND 3 MICROPHONES

There are technicians who try to use this basic set up in these modern days of digital recording and conclude that the original 3-microphone set-up has it flaws. They forget that digital formats are completely different from analog. They forget or do not know that the digital format of the CD has only 16 bits and is a linear format where relatively close miking of all the instrumental sections of an orchestra, a band or an ensemble is imperative.
With an increasing distance between microphone and instrument while making a digital recording, the sound gets less precise. Hence these technicians are forced to use more than the three channels as the Mercury team did. Today they are likely to use 24 channels for large orchestral recordings and have to adjust the sound balance meticulously.
And: in the days of analogous recording, valve amplifiers were used in recorders and steering amplifiers. Naturally the playback system consisted also of valve amplifiers and the big loudspeaker systems had large woofers with a relatively high resonance frequency. If today one wants to make recordings like Mercury did, analogous tape machines have to be used for the recordings which then can be transferred to a digital format.

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Mono Days

 

 A Mercury advertisement with the first Living Presence releases. Before the Living Presence label was born, Mercury had recorded with the Louisville Orchestra and had obtained tapes from abroad and these recordings were issued in the 10000 and 15000 Series.

 


Other labels looked with envy at the success of Mercury's 'Living Presence' recording. It prompted Columbia records to advertise in the Schwann catalog of September 1953 for their 'Pictures'-recording with Eugene Ormandy as 'the greatest high fidelity recording ever made'.

TELEFUNKEN

In the nineteen fifties, the days of mono recording, Bob Fine - who then was employed by Reeves Sound Studios - had proposed a technique that was in essence the same, but then using just one single microphone that covered the entire orchestra. The same technique was used by other recording engineers and technicians, a/o. by Us van der Meulen when recording on a Philips Miller Optical Sound Recording System Bach's St. Matthew Passion conducted by Willem Mengelberg on Palm Sunday 1939 in the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam.
See also:
WILLEM MENGELBERg AND BACH'S ST.MATTHEW PASSION

ONE MICROPHONE

The use of one microphone is certainly also a reason why the Mercury technicians recorded the orchestra seated on stage, so that the sound produced by the instruments in the back of the orchestra was reflected and acoustically amplified by the walls, as compared to their loudness when recorded in a much larger space (as was later done by Philips c.s. placing the orchestra in the hall).
Bob Fine then choose a Telefunken U-47 omni directional microphone. He said that, if you are serious about recording serious music, this is the way to go about it: position the microphone at about 25 feet above the orchestra in the middle of the front-line of the orchestra. In that way you will pick up all instruments in their natural position.

MERCURY 50000

In the beginning of 1951 there was only one recording of the orchestral version by Maurice Ravel of Modest Mussorgsky's now so popular "Pictures at an Exhibition" available on disc. It was the performance of the New York Philharmonic under Arthur Rodzinski on Columbia ML 4033. The Mercury team choose that same score for the recording of their first ever classical Lp production (Mercury was initially a pop label) in the performance by the Chicago Symphony with Rafael Kubelik conducting. The reference number is 50000.
On its release in the fall of 1951, it made a sensational entry in the world of the serious music lover as well as the hifi-fanatic, and in one blow it established Mercury's reputation. Howard Taubman, music critic of The New York Times, wrote in his review that these recordings do sound as though you are in the living presence" of the performer. The sound is so lifelike that "you are there". From then on "Living Presence" became Mercury's quality slogan that distinguished the label from its competitors and adorned all following Mercury-issues.

ARTISTIC DISCIPLINE

The quality of an enterprise depends on its people: from management, producers and technicians right down to the workers in the pressing plant and the shipping department. Those who set the tone were Irving Green (founder), John Hammond (who was known because he had recorded 'Dumbarton Oaks' with Stravinsky for Keynote in the days of 78 RPM), David Hall (producer), Claire van Ausdale (supervisor), Robert C. Fine (chief engineer and technical supervisor), Harold Lawrence (musical supervisor), Robert Eberenz (assistant technician; he restored the tape machines for the CD-transfers) and George Piros (cutting engineer). Wilma Cozart (recording director) joined Mercury after Rafael Kubelik had left the Chicago Symphony in 1953 and the orchestra was no longer available.


Rafael Kubelik in his late thirties.
Edited picture, the original taken from the cover of Decca LW 5213 with Janacek's Sinfonietta played by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.

 

David Hall setting up the mike for a 1954 session of the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra.
Photo Herman Leonard. (David Hall wrote the liner notes for a number of early Everest releases of classical music.)

CLASSICAL CATALOGUE

Mercury's foray into classical releases actually began when John Hammond and David Hall were sent to eastern Europe in 1948 to acquire the recorded sound archive of Czech radio as John Hammond writes in his autobiography.
David Hall became the producer of Mercury's classical line. Working with Bob Fine and Bert Whyte, he was very much a part of the team that devised Mercury's pioneering recording techniques. David Hall stayed at Mercury until 1956. He wrote best selling books on recording and high fidelity. The first was published in 1941 long before Mercury started. He did much to build the market for classical records in which Mercury
ultimately found a secure niche (as his son Peter Dobkin Hall wrote to me). David Hall became involved with Bert Whyte's Everest label. Though writing was only one of his specialties, many liner notes have been written by him.

PERFECT BALANCE

The microphones were suspended along the frontal area of the orchestra at a fair distance above the musicians. In all events microphones with omni-directional characteristics were used. Height and distance between the mikes were carefully chosen as to cover the orchestra as a whole.
After listening to the result of the positioning of the microphones, adjustments -if necessary- would be made by the producer and the technician who at the end determined the definitive position of the microphones: height, angle and distances.
The loudest passage in the music was indicative for the maximum recording level. After everything was found in order, nothing would be altered. No use of supporting microphones was made, nor were limiters and filters applied. Mixing of the three channels to two-channel stereo was not done at the recording site but eventually later when the lacquer master was being cut. The performance was recorded on three tracks on 1/2 inch tape and later on 35 mm magnetic film as used in the motion picture sound studios. This 35 mm magnetic strip was spliced together with the actual film (rushes) and synchronized.

MICROPHONE PLACEMENT, PHILIPS AND DECCA

Originally the Mercury people recorded an orchestra as it was seated on stage as can be heard in early mono release and later in the early stereo recordings. Philips and Decca, when recording the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra for instance, generally would do the same in the early years, but later would take the seats out of the large hall of the Concertgebouw and put the orchestra right there, in the stalls area (in the middle of the hall). In this way the acoustic space of the stage is not recorded. Mercury recordings have this natural sound-stage as if you were sitting in a chair in the concert hall facing the stage. This is especially evident in the recordings made in Minneapolis and Detroit. The recordings made in London show the different acoustics of a larger space.

ANTAL DORATI

Antal Dorati was the conductor of the Dallas Symphony from 1945 until 1948. In 1949 he accepted the post of conductor of the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra. Wilma Cozart had been his secretary. She suggested that - when the Chicago was no longer available - the orchestra from Minneapolis with conductor Dorati could fill the void. That is how Dorati was contracted by Mercury when Wilma Cozart had joined the record company.

MINNEAPOLIS SYMPHONY

The contract with the Minneapolis Symphony is significant for the continued success of the Mercury label. It was not common that a small label hired such a big and rather expensive orchestra, especially when the contract was exclusive.
It is that performance which is transferred next to Byron Janis' piano version on the same CD (434-346-2). Just as the grand piano is detailed, well balanced with natural dynamics, the orchestra also has a strong and firm sound. The recording was made on April 21, 1959.

TELEFUNKEN MICROPHONES

Now also M 54 and M 56 Telefunken microphones were used. The M54 and M56 were selected because of the extended frequency band and the ability of picking up delicate sounds as well as powerful crescendos.
In Dorati's 'Pictures' the recorders are 1/2 inch tape machines which were especially manufactured for Mercury. (The covers of recordings made on 35 mm film are identified by the perforated tape.)
At left an advertisement from 1957 showing Antal Dorati and the single microphone.
Below at left a special Living Presence Sampler (OLD-6) from the mono days featuring conductors Rafael Kubelik (Chicago Symphony), Antal Dorati (Minneapolis Symphony), Paul Paray (Detroit Symphony), Howard Hanson (Eastman-Rochester Symphony), Frederick Fennell (Eastman Symphonic Wind Ensemble), in various excerpts of compositions by Chabrier, Ravel, Tchaikovsky, Stravinsky, Brahms, Hanson, Wagner, and Holst. Price 98 c.

OVER 350 RECORDINGS

Next to discipline it is the artistry of not only the musicians but of Staff and Producers which can lead to exceptional quality of sound and performance. And: it is not enough to produce something remarkable just once or occasionally. A reputation of true quality only will be established if there is some continuity.
Mercury would not have become the exceptional label that would have set an example that inspired so many labels at the time and continues to inspire modern labels as Telarc, Reference Recordings, Sheffield Lab, etc., if after this loud introduction of Kubelik's 'Pictures' nothing noteworthy had been produced. Some 350 recordings, more or less in the same vein, were going to follow, first in mono in the Olympian Series, and when stereo arrived, Mercury 50000 was replaced by a completely new recording. Not with the Chicago Symphony with Kubelik, because he had received such a bad press from the music critics that he had to make way for Fritz Reiner who became the new conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. And Reiner was under contract with RCA. Enter Antal Dorati.

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1/2 Inch and 35 MM Sound Recording

The diagram shows the microphone setup and the 35 mm film sound recorder with 3 tracks. In the cutting room the various takes were spliced. Each recording had a minimum number of splices which makes the recording all the more natural. Nowadays, with the digital technique up to 400 (or even more) splices are not uncommon in a recorded symphony. (Diagram drawing by R.A.B.)

Frederick Fennell's admired Gershwin album.


HI FI INFORMATION

This recording was made in Studio A at Fine Recording Studios in New York City. The dimensions and acoustical properties of this former ballroom make it ideal for stereo recording techniques. Its generous volume of 76,000 cubic feet provides the natural reverberation so necessary for an authentic spatial effect; and the hardwood floor, plaster walls, and irregular pattern of reflection surfaces - candelabra, fluted columns, chandeliers and grillwork - result in a brilliant sonority characterized by smooth frequency response throughout the audio spectrum.

The cover of the Dutch Mercury edition of "Spanish Fire" MDY 135 376 (from US Mercury stamped matrix PPS 6025) with the explanation of the f:35d Perfect Presence Sound Series..

The covers of spectacular sound recordings of so called popular music were often of a higher quality than the musical contents engraved on the disc, especially in the case of this Mercury Perfect Presence recording of Clebanoff "Strings Afire", made in Holywood.

The recordings of the Rossini Overtures conducted by Antal Dorati on SR90139 show variations in microphone placement.

TIME CONSUMING

The technique of microphone placement is in essence as simple as it is effective. But it took a master technician like Robert Fine to devise it in concordance with the laws of nature covering the audible frequency spectrum, maintaining a frequency characteristic as straight as possible, while not disturbing time and phase.
When preparing a recording it takes time to position the microphones in such a way that the sound balance of the orchestra is captured as desired. First the microphones were put in the right position: the distance above the orchestra and the angle were determined.

The position also depended as a matter of fact on the acoustic energy generated by a 100 piece orchestra, by a string quartet or by a single performer as in the case with Byron Janis playing Mussorgsky in the Ballroom Studio in New York, or performing Chopin in the large concert hall in Moscow. Also the specific acoustic properties of the hall were the orchestra was playing were taken into account. And finally the nature of the work plays an important part in the game.
The 'Organ Symphony' of Camille Saint-Saëns asks for a completely different microphone placement than the Minute-waltz of Frederic Chopin.

Of course the Mercury-people were experienced technicians and producers. They had knowledge of the music itself, the instrumentation and the score, which all added to their method of recording. This 3-microphone technique was specifically used for classical, and symphonic music in particular.

PERFECT PRESENCE SOUND SERIES

There was also a series with excellent sound recordings of popular orchestral music for which the technicians chose to apply multi miking, using a variety of microphones: Telefunken (U-47) and RCA (44 BX, BK 5, KM 56). But now the slogan "Perfect Presence Sound Series" were added. One of these outstanding recordings was "Frederic Fennell conducts Gershwin" on PPS 6006, from which the notes about Studio A at Fine Recording Studios in New York City are shown on the left. Wilma Cozart was the recording director; Harold Lawrence was the Musical supervisor; Bob Fine the technical supervisor.
The Perfect Presence Sound Series recording "10 trombones like 2 pianos" (PPS 6001) was done in Hollywood by recording engineer Mel Chisholm and recording director David Carroll. They followed a different set up.
"Spanish Fire" (PPS 6025) was another of those recordings made in Fine's ballroom studio in New York. The cover explained the technical ins and outs of f:35d Perfect Presence Sound stereo recording. It also mentioned the advantages of 35 mm film:

1. Film cuts the background noise of a recording to an irreducible minimum. There is no tape hiss.
2. No flutter: film is used on a specially designed recorder which guides it throughout its closed loop sprocket guide path across the recording head.
3. The recording width of film is nearly three times that of conventional one-half inch tape. This allows much more space for each channel in stereophonic recording and eliminates the danger of "cross-talk" between tracks.
4. The 5 mil thickness of film as against 1.5 mils for tape means less danger of print-through in storage.
5. Better transient response and a greatly extended frequency range are made possible due to the faster rate of speed (18 inches per second or 90 feet per minute) for film, and its closed loop path and the low impedance head assembly.

It is clear that in some cases artists and technicians were not always creating beautiful music. Many times they were merely challenging the limits of the possible through perfect phase in microphone placement, the use of specific tape recorders, the cutting of the lacquer in such a way as to achieve great dynamics, and finally through a perfect pressing. Many of those recordings had demonstration quality and were especially loved by the high fidelity crowd.

DIFFERENT STEREO IMAGES

The various methods result in different sound and different images. Dutch technician Hans Lauterslager, who worked as a recording engineer with 'Philips Phonographische Industrie' (later to be Phonogram and Polygram respectively before it became part of Universal Music), talked in 1988 in Dutch record magazine 'Luister...' about his experience while working with the Mercury recording team when making recordings in London for Mercury and Philips in the early nineteen sixties.
For the recording of the set of the complete Symphonies of Tchaikovsky with Dorati, they used Mercury's 3-microphone technique, but only for the first three symphonies (SR 2-9015), and abandoned this microphone set up for the remaining of the symphonies. If you own the symphonies in their original releases or the complete set in a box, you should be able to hear how beautifully (for example) the third movement in the 1st Symphony is executed, both by the orchestra and the Mercury-technicians. It is quite in contrast with the sonic qualities of the recordings of the later symphonies.

SOUND STAGE

In the original 3 Lp boxed set with Tchaikovsky's Three Suites for Orchestra (SR 3-9018, Antal Dorati and the Philharmonia Orchestra), the inlay states that Hans Lauterslager and Harold Lawrence made the recordings. You can hear that the Mercury 3 mike technique technique was not achieved to the full. Lauterslager said in "Luister..." that the Mercury setup was too time consuming and would require a longer recording session. Though Harold Lawrence reported that the three microphones were positioned at three carefully calculated spots, the listener can easily hear the difference in sound when comparing the recording of the Suites to other, earlier Mercury recordings made in the US and in England. The positioning depends for a great deal on the hearing of the technician and the producer. By then the talented Robert Fine did not work for Mercury any longer. He and cutting engineer George Piros were hired by other labels like Enoch Light's Command Records. The Philips management apparently found Fine's way indeed too expensive, just like other aspects of the final product. The pressings from plates coded RFR were now done in the Chicago factory. They were of lower quality as many later Mercury SR and Philips PHS releases showed.
It is of course possible that the microphone placement of one recording session differs slightly from the positioning during the next session. The recordings of the Rossini Overtures conducted by Antal Dorati on SR90139 is an example of this. There is a discernible difference between Side One and Two.

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Everest and Command

.Everest comparison  of quarter inch tape and 1/2 inch tape to 35 mm chord.

The liner notes of early Command recordings explain Bob Fine's microphone technique:

35 MM SOUND FILM CHARACTERISTIC

That same CD carries two encores played by Byron Janis. One of them is recorded on the 35 mm film recorder made by Westrex. Westrex had modified the machine mechanically and electronically so that three heads were aligned and three channels with electronics were built in. Certainly inspired by the Cinemascope and Widescreen movie technique which for their sound recording used 5 tracks on the film. In the movie theatre there were 3 speakers in the front (left, middle and right) and there were two speakers in the back of the theatre and some supporting speakers on the side walls. 
Since dialogues in movie theaters have to be understood, originally these film recorders had a frequency-characteristic that could not be identified as high fidelity. So they were modified in order to achieve the desired characteristics: an extended frequency range and linearity, with the benefit of an increased signal to noise ratio of the 35 mm sound film
If this correction is not made, the sound gets that slightly "glassy" character as often heard in Everest recordings.
Also the attention paid to the cutting of the discs and the use of the best cutting-lathe played a mayor role in achieving excellent dynamics and a detailed sound quality. Though not every reviewer was always pleased with the clear and often bright results, those who owned quality-equipment enjoyed practically every first release they bought of any Mercury recording. One should not forget that quality cartridges like the Ortofon A, B and C cartridges in the mono days and later the Ortofon SPU models in the first stereo years translated the modulated groove in a completely different way than modern high end cartridges with their ultra fine line tips do.

EVEREST

Everest initially used 35 mm film for recording and explained the advantages on the inner sleeves: thicker tape, less print-through, wider tracks, higher dynamics.
When Everest stopped their high quality productions, the 35 mm recorders were sold to Bob Fine. How come that there is a distinctive difference in the sound characteristics of a Mercury Living Presence recording (and of early Command recordings as well) if compared to the early Everest stereo releases? These are caused by the choice of microphones and microphone placement. There are also the differences in the electronics of mixers and amplifiers used when cutting a laquer. These are: frequency characteristics, signal to noise ratio, dynamic capabilities, phase characteristics, and distortion values. Remember: Bob Fine had the recording characteristics of the 35 mm machines changed by Ampex.
Every record label has its own "sound". In RCA and Decca (London) recordings a slight phase shift can be noticed as if the signal is somewhat weaker in the lower-mid/mid section. Everest recordings show a less chiseled transient.

COMMAND

Command recordings however have fantastic sound because of the application of exact the same microphones, the electronics and the perfect placement. Robert C. Fine and George Piros were respondible for that as is printed on te inside of the early Command gatefold issues.

NOISE REDUCTION

Often these differences are also brought about by the unfortunate application of the Dolby Noise Reduction System. Mercury did not use a noise reduction system.
A 35 mm film recorder was originally designed for the recording of speech to be put on the sound track of movies. The frequency characteristic and the dynamics were mainly designed to reproduce the dialogues. Robert C. Fine had the electronics of his 35 mm recorders modified for recording music in high fidelity.

More Questions

 

In Mercury's special recording van Robert Eberenz just has put on a new reel of 35 mm tape into the recorder.


MORE QUESTIONS

I was in the privileged position to meet Wilma Cozart Fine in Holiday Inn Plaza Hotel in the center of Amsterdam. We had been talking already for quite a while. But I wanted to know more about Mercury's past and the transfer of the tapes to CD.

RAB: Was this recording technique patented by Mercury? The label Everest also used 35 mm film recording, and Command did the same.

WCF: No, there were no patents. Everest was Bert Whyte's label. He started an audio shop and later on he became a journalist. He died in 1994. My husband and I were good friends of Bert Whyte.

RAB: How about other labels and the competition?

WCF: We came already in the nineteen fifties with 'Living Presence' and only sometime later RCA with 'Living Stereo'. We were so busy with producing that we actually paid hardly any attention to other labels. And there were the big labels: Columbia, RCA, American Decca.

RAB: Did Mercury have their own plant where the records were pressed?

WCF: Yes, we had one for pop. Classical Lp's were pressed at RCA's factory. We cut the lacquer and they manufactured the matrix.

RAB: I admire so much that you have mixed the three tracks manually towards two channels during the cutting of the record. I myself made audiovisuals and had to mix the tape with speech and the tape with music manually and synchronize it with the images. I had to start a fade-in at the right moment and finish the transition to the following image on preselected moments in the music, sometimes slowly and at times very quickly. If I made a mistake I had to start the whole program of 20 minutes all over again. I can imagine how intense your work must have been.

WCF: Yes, we never mixed the channels to a master tape, but always directly to the cutting lathe. A tape would introduce extra hiss and we did not want that.

RAB: As the transfer was in progress you could change the stereo-balance. Did you do that?

WCF: I had to prepare myself well and I had to note beforehand which passages needed small adjustments. Too much correction is not good. That would disturb the natural sound balance of the orchestra.

RAB: Was there more than one lacquer cut from the same recording so that two masters were made, possibly with a small difference, and RCA used both of them?

WCF: No, only one lacquer was cut. Of course things did go wrong sometimes. You know, the groove with a high level of dynamics need more space. It can be done by the cutting machine automatically. We did it manually. I would say to the technician who was cutting the lacquer: 'Here comes the loud passage' and he then varied the distance between the grooves. It could happen that we were busy and that I had still three more minutes of music on the tape and he had already reached the final groove. And then everything had to be done from the start. But we also have cut lacquers that contained a maximum of information, almost 30 minutes for one side.
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The Scully Lathe




In High Fidelity magazine from December 1956, an article, written by audio journalist Fritz A. Kuttner, describes the history and the uniqueness of the Scully Lathe designed by John J. Scully (who originally was from Ireland) and his son Lawrence Scully.
At the end of the article Kuttner explains the workings of the Variable Pitch Control:

Until quite recently, recording lathes cut a fixed number of lines (grooves) per inch of diameter on every disk: 96 lines was most frequent for 78s, and for lps it varied between 200 and 280 lines. Once the number of given lines for a given recording had been selected, it had to be maintained consistently from beginning to end. A certain "feed screw"" was mounted into the lathe assembly, which moved the recording head steadily forward at the pitch selected. ("Pitch" is the distance the screw would advance in one revolution.) For soft music and little bass on the tape, the grooves were more widely spaced than desirable, with the result that the cut was uneconomical.

With high volume and strong low frequencies, the fixed pitch was too narrow to accomodate the pasage in full, the engineer had to reduce volume and bass in order to prevent the stylus from overcutting the grooves. This meant serious loss of quality and fidelity which could be compensated in part only by expensive playback equalization controls. For years the Scully toiled on the problem, and by 1950 they had solved it: pitch variation at any given moment from 70 to 400 lines, or from 105 to 600 lines, or even from 140 to 800 lines per inch. Instead of several interchangeable feed screws with fixed pitches, a highly complex and smooth-working mechanism was devised and introduced into the machine, and today the engineer may set the advancing speed of the cutting head differently from moment to moment.

He can cut out a violin solo played in softest pianissimo at 600 or even 800 lines per inch, three times narrower than one could a few years ago; ten seconds later, when the whole orchestra's tremendous outburst with blaring trombones and tubas would have destroyed any master disk made by the earlier method, the engineer turns a knob and widens the groove distance to 70 or 100 lines per inch - and a smooth cut will engrave all the vigor and grandeur which had to be throttled away until recently. Inclusion of this device raised the price of the Scully lathe to $7.300. To record makers it was worth it.

If the variable pitch feature was to work at full efficiency, the operator of the machine had to develop a fantastic timing accuracy: every low bass note, every slight increase in volume had to be anticipated by about two seconds - the time it takes the turntable to complete one revolution. If the pitch was not widened by the lathe operator sufficiently ahead of time, the stylus might still overcut the previous groove and destroy an otherwise perfect master disk. The knowledge of the musical score and of the performance essential for efficient operation of the lathe might exceed the capacities even of a veteran orchestral conductor.

There also was the additional difficulty of precisely estimating the amount of additional groove-spacing desirable for any musical passage forth-coming from the master tape. In an effort to solve these problems Scully got to work with W.R. Dresser, an electronics engineer, and after long experimentation came up with an answer: automation.
On the recorder used for mastering playback, a second monitoring head is mounted before the actual playback head.
From the supply wheel the tape is led, via a system of rolls and guides, to this "monitoring station" set one or two seconds ehead of "cutting time". Here the volumes and frequencies are measured, and by way of a complex system of amplifiers, potentiometers, feed motors, and adjusters, the
variable pitch control is continuously activated and adjusted to whatever pitch width is needed next. An "excursion control" and a "return control" ( a time delay network) see to it that the new pitch is exactly right for the following passage and that it returns to a lower level with a sufficient amount of delay to protect the preceeding groove from being cut into.


Note: Mercury Records and the Detroit Symphony were among the first users of the fantastic Scully lathes which were exported to countries worldwide. Many Mercury lacquers were cut using the new technical possibilities instead of the Reeves-Fairchild thermodynamic Margin Control as used in the early mono days.

The picture of Lawrence J. Scully, son of founder John J. Scully, has been taken from High Fidelity magazine, December 1956.
The images of a 1950's Scully lathe (courtesy Aardvark Record Mastering) have been edited.

Splicing the Takes



When a reel is full, a new reel with unrecorded tape is inserted. To make splicing possible, the performers will start playing several bars earlier in the score. The recordings will overlap.

This same procedure is followed whenever a mistake in the performance has been made: noise, false note, or whatever. The performers will start playing at a point much earlier in the score. Now there is enough overlapping to make a perfect splice.
But...

Just after S1 a mistake in the performance has been made.
So at S1 of take 1 a splice should be made to continue at S2.
But there is a problem. The perforation at S1 of take 1 and S2 of take 2 do not coincide. See the drawing. Unfortunetaly the splice cannot be made at S1.

However both the music signal and the perforation do synchronize much earlier in the recording, at S3. There the splice will be made in order to avoid an incorrect transition. This means that a new take has to start much earlier than is the case with 1/2" audio tape.

The 35 mm brown recording film was not transparent of course but was visualized for better understanding. (Diagram drawing by R.A.B.)

The Mercury people were always proud of the "simple" way they made their recordings. The liner notes of MG 50038 say:

" This recording was done at Orchestra Hall, Chicago, on January 8 and 9, 1954, using a single Telefunken microphone hung approximately 15 feet above and slightly behind the conductor's podium, the orchestra playing in normal concert set up throughout these recording sessions. Fairchild tape machines were used for the recording sessions; and the processing from tape to disc was done through Fairchild tape machines, McIntosh 50-watt amplifiers and the Miller cutting head, employing the Fine-Fairchild margin control system of variable pitch and variable depth of cut - thus assuring a 100-percent reproduction in disc form of the recording captured originally on magnetic tape."

Note: Zoltan Kodaly composed The Peacock Variations for the 50th anniversary of the Amsterdam (Royal) Concertgebouw Orchestra and the work was first performed in 1939, Willem Mengelberg conducting.



RAB:
Did you record more than one take and did you splice them?

WCF: Yes, the disadvantage of the Westrex-recorder that we used on location was that it could handle spools with a maximum of 10 minutes. In case the orchestra made a mistake, we stopped and the recorder was prepared with a new reel with magnetic film. The orchestra had to continue in the same tempo. No difference should be noticed. Sometimes we started all over again if the mistake was made in the beginning of the work. That amounted to a lot of tape. A tape that contained a mistake could not be used a second time.
Or we just continued after a mistake, but then a few bars earlier in the score in order to have enough length to make a perfect splice. You know that 35 mm sound film is transported via sprocket wheels. The music and the position of the sprockets on both takes do not always coincide. That is why we needed more
tape in order to be able to make the splice much earlier at a spot where music and perforation were identical.

RAB: I first came in touch with 'Living Presence' many years ago as a student on a summer job when I was traveling to New York. On 1600 Broadway I bought the 'Peacock Variations' by Zoltan Kodály with Antal Dorati as conductor.

WCF: With the Chicago Symphony. That was in mono. We did not do mono-recordings in this series of CD's.

RAB: No stereo-version was made in later years?

WCF: No.

RAB: I thought it was very well done. One could hear a big orchestra in quite a natural way. Everything was there in the right perspective.

(I told Wilma Cozart Fine that I bought several Mercury LPs: Brahms' Second Piano Concerto with Gina Bachauer and Stanislaw Skrowaczewski (SR 90301), Rachmaninoff's 1st and Prokofiev's 3rd with Byron Janis and Kyril Kondrashin (SR 90300), and Prokofiev's Fifth Symphony with Dorati (SR 90258). We talked about how in the 3rd movement of Brahms' Second Concerto you could almost see the strings of the cello, and how beautifully Janis played the second movement in Rachmaninoff and the variations in Prokofiev. Exceptional were the sections of Brass and percussion in Prokofiev's 5th Symphony. But all instruments are all there in the right proportions. Nowhere there is an emphasis on a single instrument in particular or on some specific aspect of an instrument. These works are also available on CD.)

RAB: Not long ago I bought a Nixa Lp with Vaughan-Williams' 8th Symphony, out of curiosity and I was amazed by the excellent recording. Now I do read in the notes of Polygram Classics & Jazz that you and the 'Living Presence' team made this recording in England in 1956.

WCF: Nixa was a subsidiary of the Pye factories. We made various recordings for them. Later the contract between Philips and Pye ended and Pye was purchased by EMI. EMI releases the recordings that we made for Nixa.

RAB: Apart from the Sviatoslav Richter-recordings for Philips, did you make recordings for other labels?

WCF: Yes we made a number of recordings for the Italian publisher Ricordi. They too do not belong to Philips. The specialty of the releases of the Mercury-recordings on CD is that we restored the old equipment and used it, I do not know how EMI does it. They do not have our equipment.

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Microphone Placement

 

Just three microphones are sufficient to capture singers, orchestra and chorus in the recording of the La Scala production of 'Lucia di Lammermoor' for Ricordi. The microphones are hanging at precise determined distances above the orchestra and in front of the singers and the chorus. The chorus is positioned a few feet above the orchestra in order to not obstruct the sound of the voices and to keep the sound sources in perspective. The orchestra however has a wider spread. Hence in the recording the chorus will be 'narrowed down' slightly to the center of the sound stage. Note that this an exemple of the actual microphone placement in use by the Mercury team and it differs from the early trials in 1955.

The production team (Wilma Cozart Fine, Bob Eberenz and Harold Lawrence) are following the score while listening to the recorded takes of the day. The team is hardly distinguishable because of the bright ligt. It is the recording of the performance of Rossini's comic opera 'La cambiale di matrimonio' (The Bill of Exchange of Marriage) in July 1959, in the Teatro Grande of Brescia (Italy) with Renata Scotto, Rolando Panerai, Renato Capecchi, Nicola Monti, Mario Petri, Giovanna Fiorino, I Virtuoso di Roma, and conductor Renato Fasano. SR2-9009.

As for every production also here three Altec loudspeaker systems were the reference for monitoring the recordings. (Photo by Leonida Barezzi, taken from the Ricordi mono release MRO 109-10 from 1960.)

This picture illustrates once again that the stereo recordings were three channel recordings. Today they can only show their full blooded Living Presence sound and space on 3-channel SACD releases, if the original tapes, recorders and mixing panel were used as used by Wilma Cozart Fine preparing the CD releases..

 

This forest of microphones as used by some Philips recording technicians, stands in clear contrast to the "simple" microphone placement applied by Bob Fine and the Mercury team.

The Philips microphone system technique consists of two basic microphones plus a number of supporting microphones. Levels were carefully adjusted to capture the original orchestral balance in the beautiful acoustics of the "Grote zaal" (large hall) of the Amsterdam Concertgebouw. Such extreme multi miking was not every Philips engineer's microphone technique in the days of analog recording. Yet the results are very positive with depth and a wide image, if the record is played on a quality system.

The fact that in this recording the orchestra is seated on the stage instead of in the hall, make the listener perceive the orchestral balance as in a live concert performance.

Picture taken from the cover of Philips Lp 6500 429 from 1972 (and edited by R.A.B.) with Josef Krips conducting the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Mozart's Symphonies Nos. 41 (Jupiter) and 35 (Haffner).
Leader/concert master/first violinist is Herman Krebbers who is seated at Josef Krips's left.

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RAB:
Yes, they (EMI ed.) actually would need you to do it for them. When beautiful tapes that were made with valve recorders and amplifier stages and mixing consoles are re-released, one can hear that they have been replayed on modern equipment that work with transistors and so they have lost their original, beautiful character. In what state where the 1/2" tapes and reels with 35 mm magnetic film?

WCF: Some had to be restored. Splices had to be renewed and bits had to be re-recorded.

RAB: You had to mix the three channels once again for the CD-releases. How did you go about it?

WCF: First I listened to the Lp's, many times, so my memory came back. You know that as a writer, that when you are absorbed by the writing process you cannot be reached by other people. It takes a lot of concentration. I listened of course to the sound balance and the stereo-image on the Lp. I wanted that the CD did not differ from the Lp.

RAB: What was the most difficult mix?

WCF: That was the Balalaika-recording. It was difficult to get the naturalness of the plucking of the strings right.

RAB: CD is a completely different medium. How do you perceive it? Do you think it has its restrictions?

WCF: Yes, my husband always said that the sampling rate was too low. But the CD's are closer to the masters, the original tapes, than the Lp's.


The Transfer to CD

The Mercury team used a Scully variable-pitch recording lathe designed by John J. Scully and his son Lawrence J. Scully.

For the transfers of the tapes to the PCM format (44.1 kHz - 16 bit) the original equipment was used, except for a modern DAT recorder which replaced the Scully cutting lathe. (Diagram drawings by R.A.B.)

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Mono, Stereo, 1812


OVER

'But the CD's are closer to the masters, the original tapes, than the Lp's.'
That is certainly true for certain aspects of the sound. Many early stereo releases lack the full dynamics and warmth of the monaural issues. We all know that this is true for all labels, classical, pop and jazz, in the beginning of the stereo era. That is why early stereos of the Riverside and Blue Note labels (and even of Contemporary) sound much better when skillfully remastered. The OJC catalog (Fantasy) showed this all too clearly. Also the first HiFi Stereo Philips recordings do not have the appropriate dynamics, specifically in the lower register.
Many music lovers did not like the stereo Lp in the beginning too well. They knew that there was something wrong with the overall signal, even when big loudspeakers with large woofers were connected.

It can be heard how strange for example a piano (an upright most of the time) sounded on Blue Note and on early Riverside discs. The CD (Pulse Code Modulation - PCM) format gives to these old recordings much better dynamics. And the original recording of Prokofiev's Fifth Symphony on Mercury can sound loud and sometimes aggressive (depending on the pressing) as the Mercury people never applied a correction, nor did they use limitters and filtering. The reissue has benefited from the digital format. Analog reissues on vinyl in recent years can, if carefully mastered, sometimes sound better than the original issue.

MORE

I could have talked with Wilma Cozart Fine (who became a vice president of Mercury records in 1954 unil her departure a short time after Philips had taken over the label) about many more subjects and details.
For instance about their journey to Russia and the recordings they made there with Byron Janis and the ones for Philips with pianist Sviatoslav Richter, cellist Mstislav Rostropovich, conductor Kyril Kondrashin, conductor and violinist Rudolf Barshai, and pianist Vasso Devetzi.
About conductor Antal Dorati, the pupil of Zoltan Kodály, about Dorati's Hungarian programs and the always and everywhere emerging 'Pictures at an Exhibition' on many different labels (on an early Philips Minigroove as well).
About Frederic Fennell and the spectacular recordings of 'The Civil War', a sonic documentary about this dramatic and decisive episode in American history for which recordings authentic instruments were used (LPS2-901) with the Eastman Wind Ensemble conducted by Frederick Fennell, with Martin Gabel (narrator) and Gerald C. Stowe (military advisor).
Antal Dorati (at right) is presented a Golden Record for Tchaikovsky's 'Overture Solennelle/1812' with guns and bells. (Picture taken from Dutch record magazine "Luister..." - 1963)

The mixing down of the three tracks to two stereo channels was done by Wilma Cozart Fine. Here she is seen at the stereo mixing console in the early days of stereo recording.

Antal Dorati (1906-1988) in the early years of the Mercury label (photograph taken from an advertisement in a Dutch publication from 1955).

And about the clear 'ringing' of bells and the thunder of canons in 'Overture 1812' of which the first recording in mono in 1954 (MG 50054) did not make its entrance unnoticed, and that the recorded stereo version of 1958 (SR 90054) fully showed the strong points of Mercury's stereo recording-technique and microphone placement. By 1963 over one million, and by the end of the nineteen nineties two million, copies had been sold of this recording (the photograph shows conductor Antal Dorati receiving his golden record in 1963).
On the occasion of the two millionth copy a special box, the size of the Lp, containing the CD-transfer, facts about the Mercury label and the recording, plus a DIY fieldgun was issued by Philips in Baarn (The Netherlands) in a limited edition.

NOTE: Before the mono recording of '1812' with Dorati was produced, Mercury had Tchaikovsky's '1812 Festival Overture' (Ouverture solennelle) and Richard Strauss' Don Juan in their catalogue, performed by the Concertgebouw Orchestra and conductor Willem Mengelberg: Mercury 15000. These were original Telefunken recordings and generally Telefunken was issued on Capitol. But as Irving Kolodin pointed out in 'The New Guide To Recorded Music' (Doubleday & Company, New York, 1950), Mercury had negotiated with Czech Ultraphone and obtained their rights for the same recording. Overture 1812 was also issued on Eli Oberstein's Varsity 6925.

We could have talked about the French programs of Paul Paray. About how the valve equipment was kept on the right temperature - when the recording van was parked in a cold garage - in order to provide the same sound quality at all times (tubes need at least one hour warming up time and a near constant temperature to function well as we all know). About the financial success and the decline of the label. About the jazz recordings which also had a special sound quality, but then different microphone placements were used. About the recordings made in London's Watford Hall.

There are many subjects, but my interview time was over, we shook hands and parted heartily, and afterwards I realized that I forgot to ask her why the recording of Byron Janis of 'Pictures at an Exhibition' only got its first time release on CD and was never issued on Lp before. The answer can be found in the the Mercury documentation accompanying the sample CD. When Janis's recording had been taped it had been scheduled for release later, but then the tape was mislaid and discovered only years discovered.
Without Wilma Cozart Fine the re-release on CD of the many original analogue recordings would not have been possible in this original way.

EARLY STEREO CATALOG RENUMBERED

The listings in the September 1958 edition of Schwann Long Playing Record Catalog introducing the stereo format, reveal that the presence of Mercury stereo recordings is somewhat pale. Stereo recordings with Robert Fine and the recording team, though certainly in the making, are not yet ready for release.
The first Mercury stereo records feature The Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra.

SR 90001 - Johan Halvorsen's Suite Ancienne Op. 31 (written to the Memory of Ludvig Holberg) with conductor Oivin Fjeldstad.
SR 90002 - Compositions by David Johansen (Pan Symphonic Music Op. 22); Edvard Braeien (Concerto Overture); Arne Eggen (Olaf Liljekrans); Jensen (Partita Sinfonica "The drover"); Sparre Olson (Two Edda Songs); with Odd Grüner-Hegge conducting.
SR 90004 - Johan Svendsen (Symphony No. 2, Norwegian Rhapsodies Nos. 2 and 3), Oiven Fjeldstadt and Odd Grüner-Hegge conducting. These must be very rare records.

The advertisement in Schwann of November 1958 (at left) lists SR 90001 with a Bizet Program (Suites from Carmen and l'Arlesienne). SR 90002 now contains Gershwin's Concerto in F and Rhapsody in Blue performed by pianist Eugene List and Howard Hanson conducting the Eastman-Rochester Orchestra instead of music by Norwegian composers.
Ravel's Bolero was originally a popular release on 18031 together with Rimsky-Korsakov's Capriccio Italien; Paul Paray conducting the Detroit Symphony. But as of November 1958 that recording is listed as SR 90005 coupled with Ma Mère L'Oye and Chabrier's Bourrées; no doubt a better coupling commercially; in any case for the classical collector.
However, SR 90004 with the music of Johan Svendsen, remains for some time in the catalog.
Nevertheless the catalog is expanding rapidly. The advertisement anounces SR-3-9000, a 3-record set, with Cherubini's Medea featuring Maria Callas, conducted by Tulio Serafin. The mono set of this 1957 recording (originally done for Ricordi in Italy) had already been listed earlier. The stereo-set is available in March 1959. The recording is licensed to EMI since Mercury had an agreement with this British giant. EMI does release the complete opera recording much later (in Europe) in December 1959, on Columbia SAX 2290-2.



 


PHILIPS

Since 1954 Philips had an agreement with Columbia (CBS). Columbia-recordings were released on the European continent by Philips and Philips-recordings were released in the USA on the Epic label. When American Columbia and British Columbia split up, the Columbia label was no longer available in the UK. Now the US Columbia recordings were issued on the Philips label.
A few years later American trade regulations changed and made it easier for foreign companies to trade in the US. For the electronics divison Philips had founded North American Philips (Norelco) and was looking for a record company as well to get their feet on US soil. In 1961 they bought Mercury Records Inc. That resulted in the appearance of many a Mercury-artist on the Philips-label outside the USA (violinist Henryk Szeryng, guitarists The Romeros, harpsichordist Raphael Puyana, violoncellist Janos Starker) and the release of many a Mercury-tape was released as a Philips product. Philips immediately started to release various mono recordings in Europe and several recordings made in Europe by Philips appeared in the nineteen sixties in the US on the new acquired Mercury-label: pianists Clara Haskil (Mozart) and Cor de Groot (Rachmaninoff), in simulated stereo, and singer Gérard Souzay, while recordings of Van Beinum and Grumiaux continued to be issued on the Epic label though Haskil with Beethoven appeared on American Philips. It was all rather confusing. But it showed that the acquisition of the Mercury label was probably an incentive for the Philips record company to make recordings on a much larger scale than before and on an international level.
The contract of Mercury with EMI expired in 1963. And around 1965 Mercury records gradually disappeared completely from the British market. Only a selection of Mercury recordings were released in Great Britain on the Philips label whereas in Europe the Mercury label continued to exist and many records were pressed by Philips and several subsidiaries from Dutch matrixes (and in some cases from matrixes made in Chicago with PFR written in the dead wax, P for Philips). They were of course distributed by Philips.
In Europe many a Mercury tape was reissued in the Philips 839 series and by 1969 on the Fontana label. Some ten years afterwards a new series of Mercury-records were pressed in the Netherlands on high grade low noise (silent) vinyl from new, Dutch plates, the covers were adorned with a special gold seal stating 'Golden Imports', specifically pressed for the US market where the Mercury label continued to exist.

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MESSENGER

In 1967 the last recording was made, Mercury Living Presence became history. But after so many years Wilma Cozart Fine gave new life to the 'Living Presence' recordings.
Mercury is the god of commerce, travel and thieves. But he is also eloquent. That is why he became the messenger of the gods. Wilma Cozart Fine is Mercury.

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Mercury and Philips, Melodiya, Nixa, Tono, and HMV

Mercury's first classical release in the Olympian Series: Aram Khatchaturian's Violin Concerto performed by David Oistrakh and conductor Alexander Gauk, a recording which sometime later could be found on many different record labels.
 
Mercury had a license contract with EMI in Great Britain. Mercury 50000 was released in Great Britain on a 10" HMV in the fall of 1952.
In the early days recordings of the TONO label from Denmark were released by Mercury in the US. At right the label and the cover of the Danish TONO edition of Beethoven's Sonata for Piano and Violin No. 9, "Kreutzer", performed by Antoinette Wolf (piano) and Endre Wolf (violin). Reference LPA 34001. The Mercury release from December 1952 had reference number 10120 and contained also Sonata No. 5 performed by the same artists.
Symphonies 1, 2 and 5 of Carl Nielsen performed by The Danish National Orchestra of the State Radio under Thomas Jensen appeared on the London (English Decca) label. No. 6 - Sinfonie Simplice - was a Mercury release: MG 10137.
 
  The Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, conductor Odd Grüner-Hegge with Alfred Maurstad (Peer Gynt), soprano Eva Prytz (Solvejg/Solveig), Gunvor Mjelva, Synnove Haugan and Randi Brandt Gundersen (the Saeter Girls), perform the Original Stage Version of Grieg's Peer Gynt: Recorded under the auspices of the Norwegian Performing Rights Society, originally released on the Danish TONO label. As a Mercury release it is MG 10148.
Apparently Mercury also bought ready recordings from other sources, like this performance of 'Das Klagende Lied' (Gustav Mahler) with conductor Zoltan Fekete and singers Ilona Steingruber (soprano), Sieglinde Wagner (contralto) and Ernst Majkut (tenor). In Great Britain it was not released as a Mercury but was issued on the Concert Artist label in April 1955.
Critics considered the Fekete Mercury recording as excellent. Maybe because of the optimization of the playback curve of the tape and the cutting of the lacquer. Note that on the right of the spindle hole is printed: Reeves-Fairchild Thermodynamic Margin Control.
 
In dynamic and complex passages the behavior of the cutter diamond is more intense and this raises the temperature which can be detected by a sensor to which the speed of the motor of the cutter head responds. This is an easier way to keep optimal land at adjacent positions of the groove.
 
In the early Olympian days violinist Rafael Druian made various recordings for Mercury when he was in his thirties.At left Sonatas by Schumann and Brahms performed with pianist John Simms. Mercury MG 50091.He played the solo violin in Scheherazade (Rimsky-Korsakov) with Antal Dorati conducting the Minneapolis Symphony in a brilliant Living Presence recording. Mercury MG 50009.
Benjamin Britten's 'Young Person's Guide To The Orchestra' and Tchaikovsky's most famous ballet 'The Nutcracker' were exquisitely enlightened by composer/musicologist Deems Taylor (cover not displayed here). At far left the British EMI pressing of the mono recording. He also explained the recording of the 1812 Festival Overture - Ouverture Solennelle (shown is the release by PYE in England of the 1956 recording).
After Mercury had been bought by Philips, in Europe many a Mercury recording found its way into the homes of music lovers and audiophiles. One of the best sellers was Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture (Ouverture Solennelle). At left the Italian release on Mercury MGY 130 514. Wellington's Victory was a Philips mastrix. The Overture a matrix with the number in writing: SR-90054A-PFR-1.
In April 1978 Antal Dorati returned to his old neighborhood, Minnesota, to make his third recording of Tchaikovsky's Festival Overture, coupled with Capriccio Italien and Marche Slave, this time with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, and for English Decca (SXL 6895; London 7118), and featuring the Liberty Bell, Philadelphia, the bells of the National Cathedral, Washington DC, and an American Civil War cannon.
 
Antal Dorati recorded The Suite of Stravinsky's Firebird with the Minneapolis Symphony on 18010, coupled with Borodin's Second Symphony.
Later the complete ballet was recorded in London and released on SR 90226 (cover at left). This performance is compelling even if you content yourself with a release from EMI in Great Britain or Germany, or a Philips-Fontana pressing, if you cannot acquire an original Mercury.
  Some of the releases of Mercury recordings by Philips on the Philips and Fontana labels can boast of matrixes cut by George Piros like the recordings of Gershwin's Concerto in F with Eugene List and Howard Hanson, and Brahms's Piano Concerto No. 2 with pianist Gina Bachauer and conductor Stanislaw Skrowaczewski. See also: new window
Die Matrize von Brahms 2. Klavierkonzert mit Gina Bachauer wurden von George Piros angefertigt.
The Philips recordings of the Piano Concertos of Franz Liszt performed by Sviatoslav Richter and Kyril Kondrashin were made in London by the Mercury team: 835 474 HiFi-Stereo label, original first Dutch matrices which differ substantially from German HiFi-Stereo matrices. At left the first edition in its original cover. Mercury had already recorded these concertos with Byron Janis in Moscow for their own catalog. At right the American Richter release pressed in Chicago by Mercury (PHS 900 000).
 
The two Liszt concertos played by Richter were remastered for CD (446-200-2) from the original 3-track master tapes by Wilma Cozart Fine who, together with her husband Robert Fine and the other members of the Mercury team, produced these outstanding recordings in 1961 for Philips .
The Mercury recordings of the two Liszt concertos with Byron Janis were made in Moscow with the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Kyril Kondrashin and the Moscow Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Gennady Rozhdestvensky respectively (SR 90329).
The First Concerto replaced the recording from 1957 played by pianist Richard Farrell and conductor George Weldon, coupled with the Grieg A Minor Concerto. These recordings were originally made by the Mercury team for Pye and released on CCLP 30194 and on CCL 30104 in Great Britain in 1957 and 1958.
At left cover and inner sleeve of the British issue on Pye CCL 30 104. The Richard Farrell performance - which starts without much energy and only reaches momentum in the third movement - was released in mono on Mercury MG 50126. It was later available in stereo on SR 90126. There never was a stereo release with reference AMS in England. And this recording was superseded by the performance by Byron Janis with Kyrill Kondrashin (coupled with No 2. with Gennadi Roshdestvensky conducting).
Byron Janis made several recordings which are admired by many. One of these is SR 90300 with conductor Kyril Kondrashin: Prokofiev Concerto No. 3 and Rachmaninoff Concerto No. 1, one of the recordings made in Russia.
 
There were three more Russian Mercury recordings: a recital by pianist Byron Janis, Balalaika Favorites played by the Ossipov State Russian Folk Orchestra, and thye Borodin Quartet playing Shostakovich Quartets Ns. 4 and 8.
The issue by Philips on Mercury 130 540 MGY had of course the same cover as the original American release. The plate of Side Two was cut by George Piros: SR-90309B-RFR-1. The matrix of Side One was made by Philips from a tape supplied by Mercury in Chicago. Side One had a few passages with fierce high frequency content.
Another "Russian" recording was made for the Philips label: cellist Mstislav Rostropovich and pianist Sviatoslav Richter playing Beethoven's Complete Sonatas for Piano and Cello, first issued on the Philips HiFi Stereo label (835 182/83) and later reissued using the same plates in the 839 Series (839 602/03). At right the American release of the Sonatas in a double album made by Mercury. Reference number of the set: PHS 2-920.
The same performances of Beethoven's Complete Sonatas for Piano and Cello were also released in the Soviet Union on the Mk label (torch) on two discs: 013811/12/13/14 (mono).
 
Josph Szigeti was invited to record the Beethoven Concerto with Antal Dorati (SR 90358) and of course the Brahms (SR 90225) and also Prokofiev's No. 1 (SR 90419) with conductor Herbert Menges. The accompaniments for the old master are careful and sympathetic.
Another recording of Byron Janis is his performance of Rachmaninoff's 3rd Concerto with the London Symphony conducted by Dorati (SR 90283). This recording is also one of the most admired performances of "Rach Three".
The original Mercury covers had a colored back and additional notes explaining the technical ins and outs of each recording.
The first transfer to CD of this Concerto was done from a half-inch tape. The LP release apparently also, otherwise the banner would have shown the perforated tape. The original 35 mm film recording had been lost, hence the inlay of the juwel box of the first CD release does not have the 35 mm banner either. The later transfers to CD and the 180 gr. LPs are done from the original 35 mm film which was recently rediscovered.
The original Mercury covers had a colored back and additional notes explaining the technical ins and outs of each recording. The back of the Philips issue is shown at the far right. Even the earliest Philips MGY 130512 release is worth having as it was pressed from original George Piros plates. Later the Concerto was reissued on Golden Imports SRI 75068.
Other outstanding recordings are those of Marcel Dupré at the organ of the Saint Sulpice in Paris, playing César Franck (SR 90168), Charles Widor (SR 90169), and five volumes of works by Johann Sebastian Bach (SR 90227/ 90228/ 90229/ 90230/ 90231).
Yehudi Menuhin plays Bartok's Violin Concerto with the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra and Antal Dorati on SR 90003. The early American recordings in the SR 90000 Series had the Mercury logo in the upper left corner next to the STEREO lettering.
 
After the introduction of the "stereo compatible" format, the release of stereo and mono editions of a recording was no longer necessary. Many new plates were cut from the original stereo tapes or were cut from tapes which were copied from the original 35mm and 1/2 inch tapes.
At left the French "stereo compatible" release of Vol. I of the music of Maurice Ravel conducted by Paul Paray with the exhilarating and captivating rendition of "La Valse" on 130 634 MLY (instead of MGY). Philips regrouped the music of Ravel on two volumes instead of releasing the compositions on various dics with music of other French composers as Mercury originally did.
 
SR 90268 with Symphony No. 1 of Johannes Brahms performed by the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Antal Dorati was leater released on the Fontana label owned by Philips: Stereo Spezial 700 136 WGY, pressed from the 850 400 matrices from the series which replaced the 130 MGY series,.
It is known that the earliest pressings from matrices with prefix FR are to be considered the best. However there are examples where the quality is not high. Dorati's Beethoven 3rd (Eroica) in stereo pressed from FR plates for example suffers from a lean lower register and some rumble caused by the drive of the cutting lathe. If performance is your first criteria for collecting, it can be worthwhile to have a later, not original pressing.
A lean lower register is a trait of many releases in the Golden Import Series. At left the release of the performances by Janos Starker, cello, accompanied by pianist Georgy Seebok of Bach's Sonatas for Violoncello and Piano, BWV 1027, 1028, 1029 on SRI 75104.
Janos Starker's most famous recording is of his performances of the Six Suites (Sonatas) for Solo Cello of Johann Sebastian Bach (BWV 1007-1012). Suites 2 and 5 were issued first on SR-90370 in 1964. The 3 Lp set with all six Suites was issued as SR3-9016. The recordings of BWV 1007-1012 were made in the Ballroom Studio. The sound engineering naturally added to the impact of the cello and revealed the full intensity of Starker's playing. Robert Eberenz the engineer. But this time just two mircophones were used, I was told.
Harold Lawrence was the producer.
At right the reissued recordings in the Golden Import Series: SRI 3-77002.
At left the box with the complete set as it is reissued by Speakers Corner. (There is also a two-LP set issued on the Philips label in the nineteen seventies.) The sound of the issues differs. The Golden Import has the openess and lightness of the analog days but lacks somewhat consistency in the lower mid band. The Speakers Corner issue is of an extreem high quality.
Already in the mono days Janos Starker recorded for Mercury. He was the cellist in the Roth String Quartet. The other members were Feri Roth, 1st violin, Jeno Antal, 2nd violin, and Nicholas Harsanyi, viola. At left the recording of Ernest Bloch's String Quartet No. 1 (MG 50110). The Roth String Quartet also recorded Zoltan Kodaly's String Quartet No. 1 (MG 50094).  
At right the cover of an English pressing from EMI plates of Gershwin's Concerto in F and Rhapsody in Blue with Eugene List and Howard Hanson conducting the Eastman-Orchestra, EMI reference number AMS 16026 (originally SR 90002).
The British Mercury releases were pressed from plates cut at a lower level. Also the English Mercury records are less dynamic.

Bouquet de Paray: Paul Paray conductor of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra in a spectacular program: Wilhelm Tell Overture, Dance Macabre, Invitation to the Dance and Mephisto Waltz on SR 90203.
At right the cover of Symphonie fantastique (Berlioz) on SR 90254.

 

At right the cover of a Dutch Philips mono pressing of Stanislaw Skrowaczewski and the Minneapolis Symphony with Prokofiev's Suites from Romeo and Juliet (originally SR 90315).
Like most labels, also Mercury issued 4 track tapes of many of their recordings.

Tapes were "mastered and quality audited by Ampex. Duplicated by Ampex in Elk Grave Village, Illinois, USA." And it was printed "This tape recording contains two automatic reversing signals."
The front and back of the box of the reel to reel issue of Volume 2 of The Civil War is shown at left. The box has both the Mercury and Philips logo. It is a late release.

 
The earliest recordings were made with conductor Rafael Kubelik and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra: the famous recording of Mussorgsky's 'Pictures at an Exhibition' with Adolph Harseth, trumpet (MG 50000), Bartok's 'Music for Strings Percussion and Celesta' (MG 50001),
Deutsche Mercury Ausgabe von Elektrola.
At left an early German release of the recording from the mono days of Symphony No. 6, Pathétique (Tchaikovsky), performed by Rafael Kubelik and the Chicagoans. At right the original Mercury MG 50006.
Dvorak's 'New World' Symphony (MG 50002), Tchaikovsky's Fourth Symphony (MG 50003) and Brahms's First Symphony (MG 50007) all conducted by Rafael Kubelik.
Antal Dorati (Minneapolis Symphony), Paul Paray (Detroit Symphony Orchestra), Howard Hanson (Eastman- Rochester Symphony Orchestra) and Frederick Fennell (Eastman Symphonic Wind Ensemble) were the principal conductors who recorded for Mercury.
At left the gatefold cover of the British EMI release of the Mercury recording of Dvorak's New World Symphony Op. 95 by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Rafael Kubelik (ALP 1018).


At left an early Pye release of British Band Classics with Suites Nos. 1 and 2 by Gustav Holst, and Toccata Marziale and Folk Song by Vaughan Williams on MRL 2001.
At right the British EMI release of MG 50143 with Hindemith (Symphony), Schönberg (Theme and Variations), and Stravinsky (Symphony for Wind Instruments). All performed by Frederick Fennell and the Eastwind Ensemble.

Notes


1. Not Pictures at an Exhibition was the first classical Lp on the Mercury label. The first release on the Mercury label was a 12" Lp with reference number 10000. It contained the Russian recording of Khachaturian's Violin Concerto played by David Oistrakh of which Bob Fine obtained the rights in 1950. The technical quality is bad, but Bob Fine makes more than the most of it. That was not the first time Oistrakh could be heard on record in the United States and in this concerto. The same performance was already available on 78's on the USSR-label according to 'The Gramophone Shop Encyclopedia of Music', 1948 edition, New York. The conductor is Alexander W. Gauk.
I own a set of this shellac-edition made in the former USSR, ref. 14151/2/3/4/5. Wilma Cozart Fine: 'You are the first person I meet who has these records.'
2. The lacquers originally made for pressings by RCA bore the stamped initials FR, in a later stadium other lacquers were made with handwritten matrix numbers for pressings done by Columbia (CBFR) and lacquers were made for the early Philips pressings in Europe (PFR). Numbers with prefix RFR were of the Vendor Series. (The Columbia-pressings were generally of lesser quality.)
(Continued after the display of covers below.)

3. Although I praised the company for their standard of quality when I had my conversation with Mrs. Wilma Cozart Fine, I only later discovered that my assumption was not correct as I encountered many low grade pressings, mono and stereo; especially the Wing pressings often were abominable. This of course does not apply to the CD transfers.

4. The various recordings made for Ricordi with Sciutti, Scotto, Bastianini, Capecchi a.o., and with I Virtuosi di Roma, the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino and La Scala in Milan were released in the US by Mercury.

5. Byron Janis told in the CNN-program 'Q&A' with Riz Khan on December 26th 1997 about how revolutionary the visit to Moscow in 1960 was and about the immense success. Janis, who was struck with arthritis in 1973 and had to give up a promising continuation of his career, announced that he was going to write his autobiography. No doubt this will be of interest to the many owners of the vintage Lp's as well as the music lovers who bought the CD-transfers of his outstanding performances.

6. This article is a translation and an adaptation of 'Wilma Cozart Fine is Mercury' as it originally was published in 1995 in Dutch and in 1998 in English.

7. John Johnson, who was employed at 'Fine Recording' in New York City for 8 years, from 1958 to 1966, sent me some interesting, additional information as my interview time with Wilma Cozart was too short to deal with all the details.
In those years John Johnson did the mono disc mastering on the Mercury classical records. That was in the beginning of the stereo era when both a mono and a stereo plate were cut and when recordings were released in the two formats. He also mastered some of the stereo-discs (when George Piros was not available) and did a number of the EMI stereo issues which -as we know- were cut at a lower level, the "trademark" of British EMI. On the cover of many a Command disc is mentioned "Mastering George Piros (stereo) John Johnson (monaural)". Charles E. Murphy was responsible for the art direction of the Series.
Robert Fine's studios, "Fine Sound" and later "Fine Recording", did all the classical work for Mercury, for Command and for many other labels and for advertising agencies.
Johnson: "In the nineteen fifties, Bob Fine (when he had left Reeves Sound Studios) had set up a recording and mastering operation in upstate New York. He then invented Vista Vision which he sold, possibly to Loews, in exchange for setting up a very good operation on Fifth Avenue in NY. Unfortunately, Fine only owned 49% of the studio complex and when he was forced out, he started around 1955 his famous Fine Recording which was located in the Great Northern Hotel on 57th street. In the 1970's this operation went out of business and Bob Fine operated as a free lance consultant for a few years prior to his death."
Like so many people who worked with Robert C. Fine, also John Johnson states that "the man had a very inventive mind but was not a good business man."

Rudolf A. Bruil - Page first published 2001

(Images edited and all original drawings made by R.A.B.).

 


 
Audio&Music Bulletin - Rudolf A. Bruil, Editor - Copyright 1998-2009 by Rudolf A. Bruil and co-authors