Concert Hall Society, Inc., New York, and Musical Masterpiece Society

As early as 1950, Concert Hall Society, Inc., advertised in Schwann Long Playing Record Catalog, the new monthly publication for music lovers and record collectors. Initially these were half page advertisements but from December 1950 on these were full page ads on the first page of the catalog. The ads say that Concert Hall is located at 250 West 57th St, New York 19, NY. Concert Hall was the record company of two brothers, Samuel and David Josefowitz. David studied the violin.

Handel Society and Chamber Music Society

In the June 1952 issue of Schwann Long Playing Record Catalog, a full page advertisement of the Handel Society appeared instead of the Concert Hall ad. The Handel Society was located at the same address and was a sister label of Concert Hall and was of course maintained by the brothers Samuel and David Josefowitz.
The Handel Society label had been introduced in the fall of 1951 and in December the first two releases with references HDL-1 and HDL-2 were listed: Israel in Egypt and Acis and Galatea respectively. Performances of various Handel Societies in the US, Great Britain and the Netherlands were recorded.
In the spring of 1952 another label, Chamber Music Society, was introduced. The label stated "Licensed by Concert Hall Society for Noncommercial Use". Like the early Concert Hall Society pressings, the Chamber Music Society disks were pressed on red vinyl. On CMS-4 Beethoven's Quintet Op. 29 is released with the Pascal Quartet and Walter Gerhard (2nd viola). But a few years later this same recording was issued on Concert Hall CHS 1214 although the Chamber Music Society label was being continuously listed in the record catalogs.

"Shellac" Recordings

Concert Hall existed already in the 78 RPM shellac era.
But according to The Gramophone Shop Encyclopedia of Recorded Music (New York, 1948) the label did not yet make recordings with Walter Goehr or the Pascal String Quartet. Goehr then recorded for Victor and Parlophone, the Pascal String Quartet for Odeon and Lumen. The Winterthur Municipal Orchestra could be found on His Master's Voice, and the Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra was on Decca. Violinist Ricardo Odnoposof appeared on Columbia and on Victor. Pianist Robert Goldsand recorded for English Decca as did pianist Noel Mewton-Wood. On Decca K 1038/40 Mewton-Wood plays Carl Maria von Weber's Sonata No. 1 and Chopin's Tarantella. On Decca K 959 he accompanies violinist Ida Haendel in Beethoven's Sonata for Piano and Violin No. 8 (Op. 30 No. 3).

First Editions

The 78 RPM records are not too many as David and Sam Josefowitz had just started their company (mail order business) and the listings in the Gramophone Shop Encyclopedia of Recorded Music (1948) are of the first year of the business. What is different is that the company will will turn out only 2,000 copies of each album as it presses the records directly from the master matrix, eliminating the "mother" and "stampers" as was reported by Time Magazine on Nov. 25, 1946. Concert Hall will specialize in uncommon, previously unrecorded material. The records can be obtained by subscribing to a series of 12 titles. An advantage of the plastic was of course that shipment was less hazardous if compared to sending shellac discs to subscribers. But the great advantage was that shellac was a scarcity.

Listings

The recordings are not easily spotted in the Gramophone Shop Encyclopedia of Recorded Music, 1948 edition.
These 78 RPM albums have somewhat odd reference numbers indicating a specific series of 12 records. Violinist Daniel Guilet (who played music of Brahms for Vox and later founded the Beaux Arts Trio) is already contracted by Concert Hall in the 78 RPM era. He and his fellow musicians - Jac Gorodetsky (violin), Frank Brieff (viola), and Lucien Laporte (cello) - recorded Bartok's String Quartet no. 4 (Concert Hall reference AS). The Guilet Quartet also played the 4th Quartet of Paul Hindemith on discs with reference B2, and Schubert's Unfinished String Quartet No. 10 has reference AE, all 78 rpm records of course. Pianist Rudolf Firkusny apparently left VOX to make records for Concert Hall before he switched to Columbia and Capitol in the LP era. He is the soloist in Concertino for Piano, Strings and Wind Instruments (Janacek) on 4x 12" B10.

From Schumann to Schuman

There is also pianist Ray Lev who recorded Brahms's Sonata No. 1 and Chorale-Prelude no. 11, "O Welt ich muss dich lassen", on A7. From her hands are also Prokofiev's Children's Pieces (AC) and Schubert's Unfinished Sonata in C Major (from 1825) on 4x 12" discs (B3). Russian cellist and Casals pupil Raya Garbousova (Garbusova) had been a Victor artist but now she recorded for Concert Hall. She is the soloist in Samuel Barber's "Capricorn" Concerto with the Saldenberg Little Symphony (A4). She plays Debussy's Minuet and Cello Sonata(A10) and Grieg's A minor Sonata (AD), both accompanied by pianist Artur Balsam. Like so many recordings from the early years, also Garbousova's recording of Debussy's Cello Sonata was later reissued on the MMS label. Pianist Paul Loyonnet accompanies flutist René le Roy who blows Haydn's Sonata in G Major on 4x 12" discs with reference B8. Loyonnet also recorded Robert Schumann's Humoresque Op. 20, issued on 3x 12" discs, reference A1, and Couperin's Suite du Sixieme Ordre on B14. Symphony for Strings by American composer William Schuman is recorded by the Concert Hall Symphony Orchestra (whatever collection of musicians that may have been) conducted by Edgar Schenkman on 4x 12 inch discs, reference AL1. Schuman's String Quartet No. 3 is played by the Gordon String Quartet (led by violinist Jacques Gordon) on AB.

78 rpm Vinyl Records

While 78 rpm records generally were pressed on black shellac, the disks on the newly founded Concert Hall label were pressed on vinyl. Samuel Josefowitz recalls in an interesting article, written by Michelle Owens and published in Rensselaer Magazine, that his father was offered a load of plastic at a very low price. That triggered the idea to make and distribute records.
In hindsight the plastic they acquired was a gift. While other record manufacturers struggled with the scarcity of shellac and started using a mix of shellac and plastic to cut the price of manufacturing, as Don Gabor of Remington Records did for the records pressed in the pressing plant of his Record Corporation of New England, the Josefowitz brothers were extremely lucky. Some records were pressed on black vinyl and others on red vinyl. No doubt that the red color was chosen for publicity reasons so the Concert Hall disks could easily be distinguished and could help improve sales. Yet, Samuel says in the article, “For the first two years it was a hobby. We didn’t make any money."

Know-How

An asset in this respect was the knowledge of David Josefowitz. He had not only studied the violin in Berlin (Europe), but after he had come to live in the United States he studied chemistry and chemical engineering at the Massachusetts Insitute of Technology (MIT) and later at the Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute.

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After the introduction of the Long Playing record, Concert Hall switched to the new medium and expanded the catalog with many recordings made in Europe as so many American record companies did in those days. Vienna, Zürich, Winterthur, and Hilversum became the recording venues where various orchestras and groups of musicians were hired: Vienna State Opera Orchestra, Zürich Tonhalle Orchestra, Winterthur Symphony Orchestra, Utrecht Symphony and Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra, and on occasion Haarlem Symphony Orchestra (Haarlemse Orkest Vereniging). The fact that these records are being listed in the editions of Schwann Long Playing Record Catalog suggests that they were available in shops and therefor they were reviewed in High Fidelity Magazine.
Principal conductors were Otto Ackermann, Victor Desarzens, Henry Swoboda, Carl Bamberger, and foremost Walter Goehr. There were several conductors of Dutch origin like Henk Spruit and Paul Hupperts. The name of Ignaz Neumark is not a mystery name. Neumark appeared only once, conducting Symphony No. 9, The Great (Schubert). He was originally from Poland but also lived in the Netherlands, in Hilversum to be more precise, next door - so to speak - to the Tesselschade Church and the church of the Reformed Apostolic Congregation, the churches where many recordings were taped. See Rolf den Otter's Page.
And pianist Ray Lev continued to record. Existing 78 rpm recordings of Artur Balsam and others were dubbed to LP and new performances were taped.

Carnival of Animals (Camille Saint-Saëns) performed by Jean Antonietti and Isja Rossican, the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Walter Goehr, coupled with Piano Concerto No. 3 (Camille Saint-Saëns) played by Pina Pozzi and the Winterthur Symphony Orchestra, Victor Desarzens conducting - CHS 1178.

Concert Hall in Great Britain

Editions of The Gramophone Long Paying Classical Record Catalogue show that - as early as 1952 - Concert Hall Society issues were released in England on the Nixa label by the company that also dealt with Vanguard recordings. The prefix for 12 inch records was CLP, a prefix later used by HMV. Nixa stopped pressing Concert Hall records in the second half of the 1950s, probably around 1956. From then on Concert Hall was registered as a label. The Concert Hall editions differed in style from the US issues. At right the label of a relatively late issue, reference CM-LE-16, with works by Ernest Bloch (Four Episodes for Chamber Orchestra), Schönberg (Begleitmusik), Berg (Seven Early Songs and Four Pieces for Clarinet and Piano) performed by conductors Thomas Scherman, Charles Adler, Walter Goehr, soprano Kathryn Harvey, clarinetist Herbert Tichman, and pianist Ruth Budnevich. Seven Early Songs and Four Pieces had earlier been issued in the US on Release C-12.
CM-LE-16 contained a program of relatively modern music. The liner notes were written by composer Nicholas Maw.
The cover indicated "A first edition of 3,000 copies" and "This record bears the number 1953."

The recordings were also licensed to one or two record companies abroad. Many a Concert Hall recording appeared in France on the Classic label and the available records were listed in the French catalog "Disques de longue durée" published in the fall of 1955. Ready pressed records were exported to small foreign markets like the Netherlands. On the ochre Dutch cover of CHS 10 with pianist Noel Mewton-Wood playing Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 4 together with Walter Goehr conducting the Utrecht Symphony Orchestra, the following New York address is printed, 250 West 57th St. This means that this Dutch issue is from before 1953, before Concert Hall moved to 507 W 56th St. Name and address of the importer for the Netherlands is printed underneath the Concert Hall address in the US. The importer was M. Stibbe & Co., Amstel 222, Amsterdam-C, Telephone K 20-41260.

Note for Dutch readers: K meant "kengetal" = numerical code. So K 20 was Amsterdam (which is 020 today).

At age 19, Wim van Es, who is originally from Amsterdam, first started working for a jazz store named DISCOTONE in Amsterdam. In 1956 he was employed by the company of Mr. Stibbe. "Then", he remembers, "Concert Hall was no longer represented by Stibbe & Co. The labels he imported were Erato, Cetra, Odeon, Parlophone, Discophiles Français, Metronome, Prestige and Savoy. In 1956 when I joined the company, Concert Hall had disappeared from the list."

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Enter Musical Masterpiece Society

In 1951 and 1952 when David and Sam Josefowitz launched their Handel Society and Chamber Music Society labels, they had the brilliant idea to start the MMS subscription label in the US. Potential clients were lured into buying a sampler disc at an affordable introductory price, or were offered a selection of records at $ 1.00 a piece or even just one dollar. In the early advertisements the series is named Musical Masterwork Society. Like Don Gabor with his Masterworks label, obviously also the Josefowitz brothers were told by Columbia that the word "Masterwork" could not be used in the name as "Masterworks" had been in use by Columbia since the nineteen thirties. Gabor changed Masterworks into Masterseal. The Josefowitz brothers change Masterwork into Masterpiece and the undertaking is then called Musical Masterpiece Society.
The success of MMS makes it necessary to find larger offices. Maintaining a series with a growing number of subscribers asks for more administrative office work and also for manual labor. And eventually more space for storing records was needed. The move is effectuated a year later in the spring of 1953. The new address is 507 West 56th St. The growth of the company leads to another move two years later. Then the offices are relocated to a building at 45 Columbus Ave. In 1957 the address did change again. Now it was 71 5th Avenue.

New Idea

Starting a subscription series In 1952 was not so much a new idea. Record Clubs and subscription series had existed all along and had been selling esoteric material (as Concert Hall did), or children's records, Billboard Magazine explained. But the idea of selling the standard repertory was quite new and it inspired many an American entrepreneur to start a record club: Greystone Press, Book of the Month Club, Music Treasures of the World, World Record Club, and various other series which had a longer or shorter life, came into existence. Even Columbia had a Record Club. At far right a Musical Masterpiece Society advertisement from 1954 offering 8 Masterpieces for $1.00. The ad reads, Send Coupon at Once, and the buyer will receive the Masterpieces on record and a brochure, Music in Your Home, written by famous critic and musicologist Olin Downes. The address, 43 W. 61st St., is obviously the warehouse from where the discs are being shipped.

At left the release of Music Treasures of the World with works by Tchaikovsky (Overture 1812) and Borodin (Symphony No. 2) performed by the Leipzig Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Gert Pflüger - MT 551-44, Variable Pitch. Another release was Grieg's Piano Concerto Op. 16 playd by Margaret Mitchell and the Music Treasures Philharmonic Symphony conducted by William Strickland, coupled with La Mer (Debussy), conducted by Ernest Borsansky - MT 30 - Variable Pitch. Margaret Mitchell also performed Rachmaninoff's Concerto No. 2 Op. 18 on MT 26, with Strckland, coupled with Georges Enesco's Romanian Rhapsody No. 1 conducted by Hans Swarowsky.

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MMS Goes Europe

An article in Billboard Magazine of March 26, 1955, says that "Concert Hall with its Musical Masterpiece Society, Opera Society and Jazztone is operating in virtually all European countries: Holland, France, Germany, Italy. The biggest operation is in West Germany. There most of the records are pressed".
Concert Hall claims a memberships stateside of 300,000 and a European membership of 250,000.
The article suggests that Musical Masterpiece Society was set up in Europe in 1954 which is substantiated by the MMS listings in "Discopedie 1955" compiled by Dutch journalist and reviewer Ralph N. Degens who gave the year of release of many recordings. The 1955 catalog contains several MMS recordings released in 1954, yet Concert Hall Society recordings were still listed in this first edition of "Discopedie". However in the 1956 supplementary edition no Concert Hall discs were listed and obviously no longer available.

Guilde Internationale

The name Musical Masterpiece Society could easily be used in many countries, except in France, for the French are very culture conscious, and still are, even if they like speaking "franglais" today. If MMS would be translated into French, it would be called "La société musicale du chef-d'oeuvre" or something similar. That sounds rather haughty and is not very much inviting to join the club. However, the word "club" could not be used as in France there existed "Le club français du disque" and "Club national du disque" (CND). So a brilliant, yet somewhat similar label name was thought up and in France the MMS recordings were released on "Guilde internationale du disque", a name which had a nice flavor that suggested importance and quality. The license agreement with the Classic label was terminated. Yet the original Concert Hall recordings released on the Classic label were still listed in the French catalog "Disques de longue durée" issued in the fall of 1955. Nevertheless the establishment of the subscription series started already in 1954, according to Jean-Pierre Mathieu from Paris who grew up with the records bought by his parents and the gramophone offered by the "Guilde internationale du disque" which they acquired in 1958. The French subsidiary was opened in 1954. The records could also be bought directly in shops. Every important city had one or more Guilde du Disque shops. The most famous shop in Paris was at 222, rue de Rivoli, Paris 8ème. The success of La Guilde internationale du disque was immense and in 1967 it was decided to open a huge center in Evreux in Normandy. The Paris address was still operating in the early 1980s and in 1986 La Guilde merged with Edition Atlas, Mathieu told.

Ten Inch Records

The MMS discs had the small ten inch format and they were extremely thin if compared to the heavy 12 inch Concert Hall pressings. So the MMS discs were cheaper to manufacture as less plastic was involved. For the covers a standard lay out was designed. Only the names of the composers, the titles, and the performers had to be printed on this 'generic' sleeve. Thus another vast saving was made as no additional well chosen art work had to be commissioned - as illustrated by the Concert Hall cover of CHS 1155 with El Cid (Massenet) and Tzar Sultan Suite (Rimsky-Korsakov) conducted by Henk Spruit and the Saint-Saëns program on CHS 1178. Furthermore it was decided that no full color printing was necessary as music lovers did not have to be persuaded through artistic covers to buy this or that recording. The low price of the product and the convenience of receiving the discs in the mail were the main incentives. At right label and cover of MMS-30, the lightweight MMS release of the original heavy Concert Hall Society disc of the Mendelssohn recordings with Frank Pelleg.

Strategies

Starting the Handel Society label in 1951 was probably inspired by the existence of the Haydn Society from Boston. The Handel Society was not a strict American affair in that respect that only a few recordings were made with conductors Robert Hull and Maurice Abravanel as the advertisement at the beginning of this web page tells. Judas Maccabaeus with Maurice Abravanel conducting the Utah University Chorus and Orchestra was issued on Handel HDL-12. This recording was released in France on the Classic label and in 1955 in the Netherlands on Concert Hall HDL 12. Alexander's Feast was recorded with Prof. Robert Hull conducting the Cornell University Chorus and the 'Handel Society Orchestra'. This issue was also released in France on the Classic label. Harpsichordist Frank Pelleg performed the Handel concertos for harpsichord on the label. Pelleg was accompanied by Walter Goehr conducting the Orchestra of Radio Zürich.
The Handel label did not flourish, probably because all the energy went into the main activities of the MMS subscription series. And of course the number of specific collectors who would consult a list of Handel's music was too small, no doubt, to keep the label economically alive. As a result, in Schwann Long Playing Record Catalog of June 1957, the Handel Society listings were marked with a small diamond which meant that the recordings were - as the catalog stated in the legend - "to be discontinued by mfr. as soon as supply is gone; will be dropped from future issues of this catalog."

Forgotten Recordings and Unknown Artists

Not only all Handel Society recordings were deleted from Schwann, but also a number of Concert Hall disks. At the same time new recordings were listed, like CHS 1501 with pianist Philippe Entremont and conductor Carl Bamberger performing Symphonic Variations (César Franck) and Piano Concerto No. 2 (Sergei Rachmaninoff) with the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra. This one and other new recordings were also listed in the small catalog accompanying the 12" Sampler from 1957. Such a sampler for the American market was quite a luxurious item if compared to the light weight and flimsy Dutch sampler with music of Bach, Vivaldi, Beethoven, Mozart, Chopin, and Berlioz. A thin 10 inch disc was already much more than the usual 7 inch disc named "Klassiek Kompas" with Szymon Goldberg conducting the Nethelands Chamber Orchestra in Mozart's Eine Kleine Nachtmusik used by Philips for promotional purposes.
Several American Concert Hall disks were reissued later on the MMS label, like the Beethoven Quartets and those of Mozart performed by the Pascal String Quartet.
Also a series of recordings originating from Russia with David Oistrakh, Emil Gilels, Leonid Kogan, Sviatoslav Richter, Kyrill Kondrashin, Alexander Gauk, Samuil Samosud were deleted; now they were available on the French Chant du Monde label. When checking the deletions in Schwann June 1957 edition many familiar names and recordings came up. But also a few lesser known musicians and works:

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Reviews in Record Magazines

Early on a number of MMS disks was reviewed, at least in the Netherlands. An example was Paul Tortelier's recording of Dvorak's Cello Concerto on MMS 13. The reviewer complained about the technical aspects of the recording (bad microphone placement and "hard" sound), but in the end he praised Tortelier. When it was clear that the records could only be obtained through membership of the club, the MMS disks were no longer listed in record catalogs and magazines. One exception is that they were listed in "Discopedie", but this was a publication by a Dutch reviewer, not an official catalog issued on a regular basis.
Dutch record monthly "Luister...!" refused to review the MMS releases when they were only available to members of the "Klassieke Luisterkring" (Classical Listening Circle) which issued a monthly magazine "De Kring" which was in fact a small 8 page booklet. It listed the records on offer accompanied by "reviews" written by the MMS sales department. If the records would have been positively reviewed in magazines, it would have been mere advertising for MMS by urging the reader to subscribe and give MMS an advantage over regular record labels.

Selection

Every month a list of records was sent to each and every member of the club from which he or she could chose the recordings he or she wanted to receive. Then the records were sent to the member's home and even then members were allowed to return some or all of the records offered. Only if over a longer period no records had been bought, MMS would cancel a membership. The small magazine featured also a few world music titles. Also jazz recordings were offered from time to time. In 1955 Concert Hall had bought the jazz catalog of Ross Russell's Dial label, one of the earliest American record labels in the LP era.

See also The Treasure Trove

The Opera Society

Opera Society was another label issuing the existing opera catalog and adding new recordings. It is remarkable and amazing that so many standard repertory operas were performed in front of the MMS microphones. Of course, some performances - like the earlier Russian recordings - were remastered from tapes made available by other record companies or were obtained from radio broadcasting corporations. But most of the time they were performed by the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra renamed for the occasion "The Opera Society Orchestra". At right the 2x 10 inch LP gatefold (reference M141-OP24, Guilde internationale du disque SMS 141) of Puccini's La Bohème from 1955. Singers were Marilyn Tyler (soprano), David Garen (tenor), Leonardo Wolovsky (bass), Corry Bijster (soprano), Paolo Gorin (baritone), Gerard Holthaus (baritone), and Henk Angenent (bass). Conductor was Carl Bamberger who also led the Nord Deutsche Symphony Orchestra and Radio Chorus in Fidelio (Beethoven) with Gladys Kuchta, Julius Patzak, Heinz Rehfuss and Melita Muszely (MMS 2120).
Familiar and unfamiliar voices could be found on the Opera and MMS releases: Annie Delorie, Heinz Refuss, Julius Patzak, Maria Stader, Ernst Haefliger, Uta Graf, Hedda Heusser, Mathias Schmid, Anneke van der Graf, Siemen Jongsma, Albert Kunz, Cora Canne Meyer, Rudolf Gonszar, Karl Liebl, Broc Peters, Margaret Tynes.
One of the designers of the covers for MMS and The Opera Society was Curt John Witt. who also designed for Don Gabor's Remington and Plymouth labels.

Shown above is the Japanese Concert Hall Society release of Hungarian Rhapsodies (Franz Liszt) conducted by Hans Swarowsky.

Naturally MMS and Concert Hall Society records were also available in Israel. Offices were located at 63, Ibn Gvirol Street, Tel-Aviv. At left the label of the release of MMS 2207 with Vlado Perlemuter playing 24 Preludes, Op. 28 of Frederic Chopin. Above is the cover of Sondra Bianca's disc with the 21 Waltzes of Frédéric Chopin on MMS 2131.

At left the label of the German issue with Mendelssohn's Symphony No. 4 (conducted by Sir John Barbirolli) and Symphony No. 1 played by "l'Orchestre du théatre national de l'opéra de Paris", conducted by David Josefowitz.
The original German liner notes say:

By the end of the nineteen sixties when stereo discs were marketed, in France La Guilde internationale du disque made available to its members a complete stereo set consisting of turntable, amplifier and two loudspeaker enclosures for an initial payment of FF 298 plus 11 installments of FF 100. The advertisement gave the details. The player had four speeds, the amplifier delivered 24 Watt per channel, and each loudspeaker was equipped with a 20 cm (8 inch) low-mid unit plus a 11 cm tweeter.

In order to recruite new members and to intensify the link with existing subscribers, the company offered gramophone record players (turntables with built in amplification) all at an affordable prices. Above a picture of the mono player offered by Guilde internationale du disque in France in the mono days. The gramophone was manufactured by EDEN (Etablissements Marcel Dentzer) in Montreuil.

(Images submitted by Jean-Pierre Mathieu, edited by RAB.)

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Binaural Stacked Reel To Reel Tapes

From September 1956 on High Fidelity Magazine started publishing reviews of prerecorded reel to reel tapes. In that section Concert Hall tapes are also mentioned and often get positive reviews in case the sound quality is good and/or the performance is noteworthy. An example, in the issue of July 1957, Symphony No. 2 of Brahms in the performance of the Frankfurt Opera Orchestra conducted by Carl Bamberger, receives praise and is more or less preferred over the RCA Charles Munch recording. The Frankfurt Orchestra is less accurate, but Bamberger's performance is more individual, provocative, and dramatic. The Concert Hall recording gives "a boldly sculptured delineation" as the reviewer writes. Philippe Entremont's recording of Piano Concerto No. 2 is another release on tape. It was recorded before Entremont joint CBS (Columbia). There were other issues on tape. A few will be added later.

This reel contains the binaural (stereophonic) Concert Hall edition of Piano Concerto No. 2 of Franz Liszt performed by Philippe Entremont and the Radio Zurich Orchestra conducted by Walter Goehr. The reference number is CHT/BN-6.

Below the cover of the Synchro Stereo release of Bernard Greenhouse's performance of the Cello Concerto of Antonin Dvorak - Hans Swarowsky conducting - on SMS-2322.

Above the box of the rfeel to reel recording of Enterempont's Liszt. Binaural means that that from 1957 on - or even earlier - recordings were made in stereo which also explains the appearance of many an old recording as a Synchro Stereo issue many years later. Synchro Stereo meant in fact Stereo Compatible, the denomination used by the regular record labels, and in several cases it meant electronically enhanced to recreate stereo.

His fellow member of the Guilet Trio and Beaux Arts Trio, pianist Menahem Pressler, made various recordings for the label of Sam and David Josefowitz, well before the trio started recording for Phonogram (as the Philips record company was then named). One of the first Philips recordings was the disk with the Complete (Two) Trios of Mendelssohn, still with Daniel Guilet, issued on 802 802 LY (1967).

On November 17, 2011, Menahem Pressler gave a very enlightening masterclass in the Small Auditorium (Kleine Zaal) of the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. At the beginning of the instruction his biography "Always Something New to Discover" (Menahem Pressler and the Beaux Arts Trio), written and compiled by Cynthia Wilson, was presented to him by Mrs. Wilson. After the masterclass had ended, I was in the privileged position to converse for a short while with the eminent pianist while he was signing copies of his biography for eager visitors. And he was very friendly and did not mind at all me asking him a few questions.
So I asked the maestro about the Concert Hall Society label. Od course he told me that he knows David and Samuel Josefowitz very well. He also told me that in the early years the trio, of which he was the pianist of course, recorded a Mendelssohn Trio and Dvorak's Dumky Trio for the Concert Hall label. I asked him: "That was the Guilet Trio?". "Yes", he said, "with Daniel Guilet, he came from the Calvet Quartet, you know, and with Bernard Greenhouse. It was quite a hectic, three hour session. But afterwards we received a Grand Prix du Disque for these performances!" He also told me that he recorded Chopin's Concerto No. 1 with David Josefowitz conducting. That too was a hectic affair. David conducted at a rather high tempo which Menahem Pressler did not like too much. He added as a sort of mitigating circumstance: "He is very fond of the Concerto, you know".
The disc also contains Andante spianato & grand polonaise. The reference number is SMS 2408.

When researching data and material for this page I had come accross another Concert Hall release of Menahem Pressler playing Piano Concerto in A, Op. 16, by Edward Grieg, with Jean-Marie Auberson conducting the Vienna Festival Orchestra (coupled with Holberg Suite played by the Ramat-Gan Chamber Orchestra conducted by Eliahu Inbal).
At left the blue label of M-2381.

Inspired by the LP boxed sets of Reader's Digest and RCA, the Concert Hall record label compiled their old recordings and bought existing recordings from other labels to be issued together in thick and heavy albums. Dutch editions were: "De wereld van de opera" (The World of the Opera, pressed in Germany and issued there as "Zauberwelt der Oper"), and "De mooiste muziek van alle tijden" (The Most Beautiful Music of All Time, pressed in France by EMI).

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Instrumentalists, Singers, Ensembles,
Conductors and Orchestras

The Pascal String Quartet.

"The biggest operation is in West Germany.
There most of the records are pressed."

For several recordings the Radio Philharmonic Orchestra of the Dutch Broadcasting Union (NRU) was renamed
Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra. This was Jean Fournet's ensemble.
Here a picture of the orchestra with Jean Fournet in one of the radio studios in 1956.
Image taken from an old Dutch Radio Encyclopedia.