Collecting Classical Records : Records Labels : Buying Records from Quality Records...plus

For Used Classical LP Catalogue CLICK HERE

*******************

A Guide to Collecting Collecting Classical Records

These notes are merely a guideline as the subject can become quite complicated, however we hope that it is of help and interest. Record Collecting is first and foremost about finding music that appeals to the individual and which will reward repeated listening. Having said that, records are the same as book, or any other form of collecting for that matter, in that some are rare (sometimes for the wrong reason - the performances were so bad, no one bought them), some are performances that have a touch of greatness about them, or they are original pressings - "first editions" - that are sought out for that reason alone. Reissues generally have a lessser degree of collectibility, and there are often great bargains to be had if you are just looking for a particular work or performance.While great performances are not confined to this early period, many consider earlier recordings ( pre 1965 approx.) had a superior sound due to the recording processes (see below), and while I can think of many fine recordings after that date (even a few during the digital era post 1980), it is these early records that are most sought by collectors. There is no hard and fast rule as to which records are the most collectable, but generally British labels HMV, Columbia and Decca lead the way with Duestche Grammophon, Phillips and American Labels, RCA and Mercury not far behind. Some of the Labels to look for are listed below.

Classical Records in Australia
   

Home grown recordings of classical music and recordings of Australian music had wide circulation - mainly thanks to the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Commission) - but during the 50's, 60's and 70's, classical music in Australia enjoyed great popularity with the music listening public. Indeed at one stage, sales per head of population was amongst the highest in the world. The English Labels Decca, Columbia and HMV were all pressed here by E.M.I., often with imported U.K. covers, and many more were imported directly from the U.K. The quality of Australian pressings was extremely good, the equal, if not superior to U.K. pressings (in terms of pressing quality, if not sound quality as they were not pressed from the original master), and carried stamper numbers similar to their U.K. counterparts. Other labels, such as Deutsche Grammophon and Phillips were pressed in limited numbers by the Astor Company- excellent pressings and sound quality, but afflicted (after 50 years or so) by marking from the inner protective bags. The greater majority of these labels were imported from Germany or Holland.

Australian pressings of English, European or Amercian Labels are less collectible than the originals, but given the quality of the pressings, their rarity value, and that they are usually far less expensive, this makes them a most attractive option.

THE GOLDEN AGE OF CLASSICAL LP RECORDINGS : 1954 - 1965

Why is it that used vintage classical LP's are still so much in demand, even when it is possible to acquire exactly the same work on CD? The fact remains that many people prefer the sound of LPs to that of CD's (i.e. the preference of analogue over digital). This is why that in addition to the hard-core of existing classical LP collectors, more and more new people are now buying used and new LP's. It is also why specialist Audiophile companies such as Speakers Corner and Classic Records have been reissuing - with great success - early stereo recordings from labels such as Decca, RCA Living Stereo and Mercury Living Presence. Sonics aside, many collectors enjoy viewing the wonderfully colourful LP jacket designs, so unique to the 50's and 60's.
Recordings during this period were produced using valve (tube) amplifiers and the lacquers were cut using valve driven lathes. As a result these early records have a rich glowing sound quality sometimes not present on later pressings made with transistor technology. The use of simple microphone set-ups, usually just one or two (i.e. Analogue Recording) may in part account for the more natural and satisfying sound of these early recordings. This is not to say that later recordings are necessarily inferior - even during the early digital era there have been some successes - and many other factors such as producers, engineers, recording locations (look for those recorded in Vienna, London's Walthamstow Town Hall and Kingsway Hall, Montreal, Chicago) are relevant.
The combination of some of the most celebrated conductors, singers and instrumentalists of the 20th Century, produced on LP by superb recording engineers, and using top quality vinyl, makes owning the original issues very appealing to collectors. Finally there is a rarity value to many of these records. To find a mint copy of a 1950's L.P. Record is a joy. Many records have suffered ill-use (many just enjoyed the music and did not look after the records properly - the swine) or storage that has caused them some grief - it rare indeed to find a record cover in pristine condition. Early stereo records (late 50's-mid 60's) are rare simply as many people did not possess a stereo player. Popular music fans will that era will remember that they did not get a stereo player until 1967, when the release of the Beatles "Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" made it essential!!

MONO LP's : 1953 - 1965

This is only a brief guide to the vast array of mono labels that came out post 78's. Many of these records do not have any great dollar value with some exceptions - the fame or artistry of the performer or lack of latter recordings being a couple of the reasons for this. The principal British mono labels - ie HMV (ALP series), Columbia (33CX series) and Decca (LXT series) were

HMV's famous "nipper" logo (used by RCA Victor in the U.S.A.) was distinctive throught the 1950's period - a red label with gold lettering and a large dog logo in a semi circle, and groove near the egde of the label. These records have the prefix ALP. Australia had a very similar label with the same catalogue number and prefix OALP.

Decca's mono labels were orange with gold lettering - silver lettering for later and re-issued pressings. These records have the prefix LXT. Australian pressings were again very similar with the prefix LXTA.

English Columbia used a dark blue label with gold lettering with a cirlcular groove near the edge of the label. These records had the prefix 33CX, and Australia had 33CXO.

THE COLLECTABLE EARLY STEREO LP LABELS : 1957 - 1967

In order to establish if the LP which you have is an earliest pressing, one needs to look at the label itself which appears in the middle of the LP and usually first labels often had striking colour design. Whilst some labels have a date on them, this relates to the time the original pressing was issued, but does not mean that the LP in your hand is the original - it may be a re-issue released 10 years later.

If you look, you will note that many original EMI and DGG records don't have a date on the label. As far as the mainstream British labels are concerned, there are three Decca SXL labels, three Columbia SAX labels, six HMV ASD labels. What can be even more confusing is the fact that on all of these labels, new records were not always issued in the same numerical order as they appear in the catalogue.Taking Columbia SAX as an example, the highest known R.blue-silver' is SAX 2538, which was issued in April 1964, but SAX 2532 and SAX 2534 were issued 3 months later and SAX 2537 was issued 4 months later. This explains why no blue-silverlabel of these three has ever been found - the label changed to red before they were issued.

DECCA SXL SERIES

The original Decca SXL label, favoured by many audiophile collectors for it's recorded sound , is known as "Wide Band Groove', (ED1) and because of its renowned extraordinary dynamic range and string tone, it generally remains among the most sought after. This label has silver writing on a black background. It has the celebrated 'ffss' logo (full frequency stereo sound) in a circle at the 12 o'clock position and a wide silver band just above the spindle hole. There is also the Decca groove in the label about two thirds out from the centre and around the rim are the words "Original Recording By..."

The second label is identical to the first with the exception that the words "Original Recording By..." are replaced with "Made in England By...". (ED2) Most experts feel that the sound quality is practically identical to the first label.

The third label (ED3) is identical to the second, with the notable exception that there is no groove in the label. The highest grooved SXL we have seen is SXL 6368, although please note that many lower numbered SXL's only exist in non-grooved form, e.g. SXL 6355. This is because SXL 6355 and the others were issued after SXL 6368.

Australian pressings of the Decca label were pressed by EMI and retained the orange label common to English mono records of the 50's and later, but with silver lettering, no groove, but otherwise identical in most respects to the English black label stereos. "Pancake" pressings (these did not have a raised lip along the outer edge) lingered until into the early sixties. Also, they retained the "Original recording by..." throughout until the arrival of the "narrow band" (see below). Catalogue numbers are the same as for U.K. releases with the addition of the letter A (e.g. SXLA).

After SXL 6448 we have the fourth Decca label, known as "Narrow Band" (ED4). It is also black and silver but has a smaller Decca logo in a rectangle and there is no 'ffss' circle at 12 O'CLOCK. In 1979 the Decca pressing plant was transferred to Holland. The sound quality of Dutch pressings remains very good, but reissues of earlier records tend to be a bit flat, possibly because they did not use the original masters. Decca Digital recordings issued on LP were usually Dutch pressings and were much superior , and these recordings in the early digital era were among the best using this technology and avoided the aggressive harshness of some other labels. In particular Charles Dutoits recordings in Montreal of French music were particularly successful.

A NOTE ON REISSUES

While collectors prefer to have the original, some reissues are also of interest and can still be of great interest. This is especially true where the reissue has been pressed from the same stamper as the original, or from a stamper produced from the same valve-generated mother as the original. The Decca Ace of Diamonds early ffrr label is a prime example; these are mostly reissues of early SXL's made from the same stampers. They offer the same early valve sound quality at a fraction of the price of the original SXL.

In addition to the above, Decca had another numbering system for their opera recordings which used the prefix SET (SETA in Australia), These labels were the same as above, but were usually purple in colour. Other labels which were owned by Decca, but retained their independence as specialist labels were Argo and L'Oiseau-Lyre, mainly concerned with performances of Early, Baroque or Chamber Music. Although considered less collectable than their parent company, (with some exceptions), they are usually superbly recorded and well worth investigating,

HMV / EMI ASD SERIES

The original HMV label (EW1) is distinctive, being an off-white/cream colour with a goldrim and red or gold lettering, and is known as the 'white-gold label.' The lowest record code number here is ASD 250, the highest white-gold being ASD 575.

Original Australian pressings from this period featured a dog within a semi circular enclosure (fan shaped) rather than the English "shaded dog" - also the earliest of these were still what is known as "pancake pressings" and did not have the raised outer lip of later pressings. Also (rather obviously) they had Made in Australia printed on the label. Ctalogue numbers are the same except for the inclusion of the letter O (e.g. OASD)

***

The second label (ER1) is the red/black semi-circle. The label is red and the HMV dog (Nipper) appears in a black half-moon; HIS MASTER'S VOICE appears in white capital letters around the top of the half-moon. Like the white-gold, this is a valve label, and while not as expensive as the white-golds, some collectors prefer the sound quality of this label to the earlier label. ASD 2478 is the highest record code number that we know of for the red / black semi-circle.

***

The 3rd, 4th and 5th labels are known as 'Postage Stamp' labels, where the Nipper appears inside the postage stamp at the top of the label. The earliest Postage Stamp (ER2) is coloured with no white border around the rim. This label extends to around ASD 2810. Next, the 4th ASD label (ER3) is distinguished by the fact that the Postage Stamp is black and white, with a white rim around the diameter of the label. We believe the highest LP code number for this label to be around ASD 3850. The 5th label (ER4) shows the Postage Stamp coloured once again, but differently from the 3rd label, and there is a white line around the rim of the label. The last label used were not disimilar to the 50's mono labels - red with a large fan shaped dog. Australian labels usually did not have a white border.

***

COLUMBIA SAX SERIES

This is another great label produced by EMI. The earliest valve label (known as 'Blue / Silver') is in fact turquoise in colour with a silver rim and silver criss-cross pattern with black lettering. (ES1) As far as we are aware, the highest is SAX 2538, although there are lower numbers where no blue-silver exists.

The Australian label for these stereo Columbia records was almost identical to their U.K. counterparts with the addition of Made in Australia at the top within the silver border. Catalogue numbers included the letter O (e.g. SAXO).

The colour of the second label is red and very similar to the 2nd HMV ASD label (ER1). Instead of Nipper the Columbia magic notes logo appears in a black semi-circle and above this the word COLUMBIA in white capital letters. Apart from where blue-silvers exist, this label was the original up to the end of the series with SAX 5294.

The 3rd label is also red but the magic notes logo appears in a postage stamp instead of a semi-circle. (ER2) This is known as the late-red label. This label gradually disapeared, and later re-issues were released on HMV.

HMV also relased record sets (mainly Opera) with the prefix SAN. This has a gold label with a small black "nipper' and an "Angel" logo. Later sets has an SLS prefix with a yellow label with a coloured postage stamp dog. Other numbering systems were HQS and CSD. These labels were often dedicated to English Music or to performers who were new on the scene. Generally they are less collectable that the ASD or SAN records, but again, many fine performances were released under this numbering.

DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON

DGG has a studio bound philosophy as regard recorded sound, believeng that state-of-the art technolgy was the way to go (Decca was more a concert hall ambience and HMV/Columbia somewher in between). Some feel that their orchestral performances were slighly less because of this, however their chamber and instumental recordings are second to none, and the actual quality of their pressings was among the finest of all. Also, the German company employed many fine musicians (eg. Morini / Schneiderhan / Streich, Seefried) who are now collectable, and produced many LP's with fine performances and beautiful jacket designs.

Mono records had the prefix LPM or LPEM and with a similar label to the one above without the stereo flash. The 3 important stereo pressings are known as SLPM (SLPEM) 136, 138 and 139 because that's what the catalogue numbers start with. The earliest had a label with a blue tulips design going all around the rim (GY5 or GY7) and the words "alle Hersteller" at the two o'clock poistion. Early 70's pressings and reissues had Made in Germany at 2 o'clock, and later pressings of the 70's had a white border instead of the tulips. Australian labels were very similar.

PHILIPS

The Dutch Philips label offered superb sound and quality pressings. Mono labels were a deep plum colour with silver lettering, and the early stereo SABL series with the"hi-fi stereo" logo label is very sought after by collectors. The earliest 50's and 60's labels are dark maroon in colour and are known as plum labels. Later labels are red. English pressings are generally preferred by collectors to Dutch ones, simply as they were pressed in fewer numbers. Australian Labels are very similar.

RCA LIVING STEREO

The U.S. Label, RCA Victor are probably not as collectable as some others, however their early stereo label, "RCA Living Stereo" is, not least because of the spectacular quality of the recorded sound. The label for American pressings of these records features "nipper"and could not be used outside the U.S. As a result, Autralian pressings have a red label with silver lettering and a circular RCA logo which was the same as the U.K. label.

MERCURY LIVING PRESENCE

Mercury Living Presence was probably the finest of the early stereo American Labels with brilliant sound - less harsh than RCA - although they were not always able to record artists of the highest rank as these were signed to the larger companies. Their spectaular version of Tchaikovsky's "1812" Overture with Antal Dorati conducting convinced all and sundry that stereo was here to stay and was a huge seller. At the other end of the spectrum, the recent re-issue by German audiophile label, Speakers Corner, of the Bach Cello Suites by Janos Starker from the early 60's was a more than worthy winner of record of the year awarded by audiophile magazines and shows what a superbly recorded record this was - few have heard the orginal which is very rare and extremely collectible. Australian pressings for theseMercurys had a black label with gold lettering. The sound quality was usually stunning, although the pressing quality was variable.

Buying Classical records from Quality Records....plus

      The "quality" in Quality Records …plus refers to our records. We stock thousands of top quality USED records of all musical persuasions, and our extensive range of pristine classical records generally ranges in price between $5.00 and $10.00 ( $US). All our used records are thoroughly inspected and we have a returns policy that if a record has undue surface noise or a pressing fault that we have missed, we will exchange it or refund money in full. We regularly auction records on Ebay, and these are well worth looking out for. All Classical records listed on our website are of extremely high quality, but we are more than happy to supply any information about individual items. We also stock many new records (over 800 titles at last count) and are stockist for Classic Records and Speakers Corner including their superlative reissues from Mercury Living Presence, RCA Living Stereo and Decca. As even early Australian stereo records are becoming quite rare, and if you are finding it impossible to obtain that elusive UK pressing you may consider Australian copies, particularly as they are usually much more attractively priced than their British counterparts.  

If you have any queries or are searching for a particular performance not listed on our website, please do not hesitate to contact us at +61+3+9500 9902 or e-mail us at quality@lavalink.com.au

Go to : Used Classical LP Catalogue.