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Concert Artist/Fidelio Recordings
Royston, Hertfordshire, SG8 7EG, England
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Concert Artist/Fidelio Recordings Royston, Hertfordshire, SG8 7EG, England
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The
Company was formed in 1952 with the basic objective of providing a sounding
board for young British talent sadly neglected by the small group of major record
companies who held sway some fifty years ago. The first issues were on 78rpm but
we recognised the advent of the Long Playing Record in the United States as
being a great advance and we were among the first of the smaller companies to
commit whole heartedly to the new medium. The
small size of the young label, many distributing problems, and the open
hostility that confronted the company, did not prevent it from adopting a very
positive attitude in promoting unusual repertoire.
It scored a number of notable “firsts” in those early
years. Among them were first releases of Symphonies by Mahler, as well as the
then completely unknown “Das Klagende Lied” together with the Bruckner First and
Third Symphonies. Over the years premiere recordings of unusual works by
Beethoven, Bartok, Chopin, Elgar, Handel, Liszt, and many others found their way
into the record collections of music enthusiasts throughout the world. Concert
Artist Records was the first in the world to see the commercial
potential of music on tape and issued selected recordings on full track reels. Concert Artist repertoire, utilising the voiceover of Sir Compton
Mackenzie, that great gramophile, was chosen and used extensively by the
Grundig Organisation for advertising their tape recorder products in the mid
fifties.
Throughout the past fifty years the Company
has kept up with every technical and commercial advance. For nearly twenty
years, we have maintained a considerable catalogue of audiocassettes for the
convenience of many music lovers. In January this year in a trade and public
announcement we gave six months notice that we would cease to manufacture and
distribute our product in that format. In line with that announcement we have
now deleted our remaining cassette catalogue. We have also decided that as
public acceptance of the minidisc for pre-recorded music has proved generally
disappointing our own sales in this medium did not warrant a continuing
investment. We are, therefore, discontinuing any further minidisc releases.
Present stocks will not be replenished as they become exhausted and the
catalogue will be completely deleted at the end of 2004. We
are probably the only recording organisation endeavoring to maintain an availability
of deleted catalogue material by providing a special copying facility from the
original masters for collectors and music lovers to order their special
requirements in a choice of Compact Disc, Minidisc or Audiocassette format. For
this service we are gradually transferring all our original analogue tape
masters to digital. At the same time we are updating sound to take full
advantage of modern technigues. We supply
any of our releases on Digital Audio Tapes (DATS) to special order from public
or commercial broadcasting corporations and ‘hi-fi’ enthusiasts. We
are a company run by musicians and music enthusiasts. We are always happy to hear
from the public and to receive comment, or constructive suggestions, on all our
products. We, in turn, guarantee a reply to all customer contacts. If you
wish to receive an email to give advance information and advise on all new
releases then do please make contact and we will readily add your name to our
regular email list.
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© 2005 Concert Artist Recordings
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