Philips Vinyl pressings - 9500, 6882 series, etc.

[MikeCh]

Anyone else appreciate these well recorded and quiet late 1970's-1980's "classical music" issues?

The vinyl is thinner, not 180-200g modern-day weight but is of very high quality/purity with extremely quiet backgrounds and an impressive range of dynamic content.

Lots of Marriner, Davis, Arrau and Haitink on this label.

Some of my favorites.

 

[socfan12]

Mike, haven't heard about these. Can you post a few album covers to see?

BTW, finally got that Symphonie Fantastique you recommended at my local record store. Can't wait to give it a spin!

 

[MikeCh]

Hi Allen,

Here's a crappy iPhone picture: (easiest to just do a google search for - philips 9500 vinyl )

The Philips discs are a little more flexy than the DG's of the same era but equally quiet. Depending on the pressing location ("Europe", Netherlands, etc.) the Philips labels can be different colors. I've seen blue and red labels mostly but there are gold labels too.

 

[MikeCh]

Mike, haven't heard about these. Can you post a few album covers to see?

BTW, finally got that Symphonie Fantastique you recommended at my local record store. Can't wait to give it a spin!

Did you get the mono or stereo Monteaux?

 

[socfan12]

Thx, Mike. I will do a search on them.

I got the stereo version. I think you were recommending the mono, correct? Hopefully they didn't destroy the sonics too much going from mono to stereo.

 

[astrotoy]

I have quite a few Philips albums. They had a nice group of artists, including Marriner and the ASMF after Erik Smith left Decca to head Phillips A&R. The Colin Davis BSO Sibelius set is quite fine as is his mammoth Berlioz series. The Haydn operas with Dorati and the early Verdi opera sets IIRC most all with Gardelli conducting were the first major commercial releases of most of those operas. My introduction to the Beethoven string quartets as well as many others was the Quartetto Italiano. Also the Beaux Arts Trio Haydn Piano Trios and others. Arthur Grumiaux did both concertos and chamber music on Philips.

Philips started as the Decca distributors in Holland and then broke off to form their own company. After their merger with DGG forming Polygram, they ended up buying Decca in 1980.

There has always been some controversy about the Philips pressings, the main pressing plant was at Baarn. Very quiet pressings, but many have rolled off highs and lows, making them easier to track. When I interviewed some of the old Decca engineers for my Decca book, John Dunkerley told me that after Polygram purchase of Decca, they closed Decca's famous New Malden pressing plant and moved the pressings to Baarn. The first pressings to come back from Baarn were shockingly bad to the ears of the Decca engineers and they complained. Things got somewhat better and mastering was done by Decca engineers, but pressings were done in Philips facilities. Philips had a plant near Walthamstow, outside of London, but they used Philips equipment.

The best sonics I have in Philips recordings are the R2R tapes that Barclay-Crocker did in the late '70's and early '80s. They are all dolby B encoded and it is crucial to have a great dolby B decoder (I have Steve Koto's modification of one of the original Dolby encoder/decoders).

Ironically, with the mergers and consolidations of the 1990's into Universal, Decca is now the dominant classical label and the Philips label is no longer used. Great Philips artists like Mitsuko Uchida (one of the great living pianists) are now Decca artists.

Larry

 

[MikeCh]

Thx, Mike. I will do a search on them.

I got the stereo version. I think you were recommending the mono, correct? Hopefully they didn't destroy the sonics too much going from mono to stereo.

Yes Allen, I have the mono RCA. Please do share how the Stereo version sounds once you get it spinning.

 

[MikeCh]

Thanks for the great info Larry!

Didn't you say (or maybe it was someone else) that you had written a book on the Decca recording history/process? Is it published and available?

 

[astrotoy]

Thanks for the great info Larry!

Didn't you say (or maybe it was someone else) that you had written a book on the Decca recording history/process? Is it published and available?

My Decca book came out last summer. It is called Decca: Supreme Stereophonic Legacy, published by FIM (First Impression Music). It comes with 4 CD's of excerpts from some of the great analogue Decca albums of the late '50's to late '70's. They were mastered by Michael Bishop and Robert Friedrich of Five/Four Productions and produced by Winston Ma. Available from Elusive Disc, Music Direct and Acoustic Sounds and even Amazon. You need to search on the title. We got a lot of help from Decca/Universal and some of the old engineers who shared their stories and photos with me. Fortunately for FIM the first printing sold out within a couple of weeks, and the second printing is available now. Unfortunately, the book (actually two volumes) lists for $250, with the dealers usually giving 10% off.

We got put up for a Grammy but didn't make the nomination cut. Michael Bishop did get a Grammy for another project he did (I think that makes 12 or more for him).

Larry

PS. Universal has expressed interest in us doing a similar book on Philips, but I think that won't happen.

 

[MikeCh]

My Decca book came out last summer. It is called Decca: Supreme Stereophonic Legacy, published by FIM (First Impression Music). It comes with 4 CD's of excerpts from some of the great analogue Decca albums of the late '50's to late '70's. They were mastered by Michael Bishop and Robert Friedrich of Five/Four Productions and produced by Winston Ma. Available from Elusive Disc, Music Direct and Acoustic Sounds and even Amazon. You need to search on the title. We got a lot of help from Decca/Universal and some of the old engineers who shared their stories and photos with me. Fortunately for FIM the first printing sold out within a couple of weeks, and the second printing is available now. Unfortunately, the book (actually two volumes) lists for $250, with the dealers usually giving 10% off.

We got put up for a Grammy but didn't make the nomination cut. Michael Bishop did get a Grammy for another project he did (I think that makes 12 or more for him).

Larry

PS. Universal has expressed interest in us doing a similar book on Philips, but I think that won't happen.

Very cool Larry. I will look for it! Thanks.