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In Reply to: RE: actually I think it's Lauteslager, neither Lautenslager or Lauterslager:) posted by tannat on January 26, 2011 at 13:41:25:
I can't find this in Decca's website now, but I saved it a while ago.
Philips 50 - a retrospective view
by Hans Lauterslager
Hans Lauterslager joined Philips’ Phonographische Industrie, Baarn, Netherlands in 1952 as recording engineer. Later he became balance engineer (Tonmeister) and made classical recordings in Europe and the U.S. over a career of 40 years. He worked with producers Erik Smith, Jaap van Ginneken, Vittorio Negri, Harold Lawrence and Michael Bremner.Since his retirement he is part-time curator of the Phonographic Museum, Hilversum (NL).
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The origin of Philips’ as a record label dates back to the thirties, when the first electric record players came on the market. All the big companies like His Master’s Voice, Columbia, Victor, Polydor were manufacturers of both players and records. After World War 2 things got moving. A member of the Philips Management Board, H. Hartong was the instigator of the Philips record label. Engineers were sent to the U.S. to investigate the business of recording and record making. The first professional tape recorders became available, and in 1947 the 33 1/3 r.p.m. vinylite record, the LP, was demonstrated by Columbia. This was the event Philips had been waiting for; a new product, in every way superior to the 78 r.p.m. shellack disc.
On september 28, 1950 Philips’ Phonografische Industrie was founded with its head office in Baarn, in the Netherlands, close to "Radiocity" Hilversum. A new record factory was built, also in Baarn, and became operational by the end of 1951. In the meantime a catalogue had to be set up. The popular music division was practically a takeover from the Dutch Decca Company with mainly Dutch and English repertoire. Building a classical catalogue was the task of Otto Glastra van Loon, who had been a conductor of the Nederlandse Opera and the Philips Choir. Not an easy task as nearly all important artists were connected to the old labels. There were two producers appointed: Jaap van Ginneken, a former radio producer and Us van der Meulen, a recording pioneer who had already recorded the famous "Mengelberg" St. Matthew Passion in 1939 on Philips-Miller tape. (In 1953 the tapes were trancribed and released as a set of 4 LP’s.)
The first orchestral recordings were made in December 1950 with the The Hague Philharmonic Orchestra, (Residentie Orkest) under Willem van Otterloo with Haydn’s Oxford Symphony and the Peer Gynt Suites by Grieg. As there was no suitable hall in The Hague, orchestra members and their instruments travelled in coaches to and from the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, with its famous acoustic. Philips has always been lucky having such a magnificent recording location within easy reach!
The first recordings with the Concertgebouw Orchestra itself were in 1951 under Paul van Kempen with Tchaikosky’s Symphonies 5 and 6 and some Overtures. In 1952 conductors Antal Dorati and Eugen Jochum followed. Eduard van Beinum was still under Decca contract having joined Philips in 1954 and started rightaway, making no less than 5 LP’s in 12 days!
The actual concert activity was a fraction of what it is nowadays. Philips had the opportunity of planning recording sessions day after day, only sometimes interrupted for a rehearsal or a concert. Often, the recording team just moved their microphones from the large Grote Zaal to the smaller Kleine Zaal to continue recording solo repertoire. Soloists were also recorded in the Phonogram Studio, where popular music was recorded by Phonogram’s engineers and producers during the daytime. In the evening their classical colleagues moved in for a night-time session. Classical music could not be recorded there during the day because of traffic noise, even in those days!
The classical catalogue expanded rapidly. The earliest edition, of 1952 numbered 38 LP’s. By 1953: 107, 1955: 283, and by 1957 it contained 680 LP’s. Not all of it was done by the Classical Producing & Recording group in Baarn, however, as there was also a smaller Recording Centre in Vienna as well as a contract with Columbia Records for the exchange of repertoire.
A wealth of repertoire and great names appeared on the Philips label; Bruno Walter, Eugene Ormandy, Sir Thomas Beecham, Robert Casadesus, Rudolf Serkin, Zino Francescatti, Isaac Stern and Pablo Casals.
One of the first artists of international reputation contracted by Philips was Clara Haskil. Her first recording, in fact one of the earliest of all Philips recordings, was the Schumann Piano concerto with the The Hague Philharmonic Orchestra under Willem van Otterloo, in May 1951. One of her first solo recordings was made in a small studio, built as an annex to "Villa Hoogwolde", the Head Office in Baarn. She was to record some Beethoven piano sonatas. We knew that she didn’t like studio recordings, so in order to make her feel a little more ‘at home’, flowers had been put on a table together with her favorite truffle chocolates. When she started playing we heard, now and then, slight creaking noises emerging from the loudspeaker. Eventually we discovered it was caused by her new shoes when she used the pedal. A lady of the Artists & Repertoire Office was sent into the village and brought her a pair of soft, noiseless slippers. She liked them instantly and ever after brought them along to sessions.
With violinist Arthur Grumiaux, Haskill formed an ideal partnership for the Mozart sonatas. They shared their ideas in a marvellous way; the intimacy of these recordings is something very special. When greeting us, Grumiaux always put out his hand with a warning "ne serrez pas la main!" (don’t squeeze my hand!) , afraid of his delicate hand being hurt by too hearty a handshake. He always brought with him an enormous box of delicious Belgian chocolates for all of us (he himself had them even for lunch). He and Haskil found each other in Mozart… and chocolate!
I Musici belong to those with a very long Philips association like Arthur Grumiaux, Colin Davis, Alfred Brendel, Neville Marriner and The Academy of Saint Martin in the Fields, Claudio Arrau, Jessye Norman,and The Beaux Arts Trio, to name a few. I Musici made their debut on the Philips label in 1955 in the Bachzaal, Amsterdam with a work hardly anybody had heard of: Vivadi’s Four Seasons. The success of that record was tremendous, it became an immediate bestseller and remained so for a long time. In fact this LP was the beginning of a complete revival of Italian Baroque music. For Philips it was the start of the M.I.M. (Monumenta Italicae Musicae), a series of Italian Baroque music under the direction of producer Vittorio Negri, the instigator of the project. A major part of the repertoire was played by I Musici, with works by Corelli, Albinoni, Bonporti, Locatelli, Geminiani and of course many other Concertos by Vivaldi.
The stereo version of The Four Seasons presented in the Philips 50 series was made in 1959 in Vienna,. We made recordings with I Musici all over Europe, but mainly in Italy and later in Switzerland. As we were all of the same age, more or less, we became good friends. After long hours of work we set out for the best trattoria and had a great time with that cheerful lot!
George Szell is remembered by Truus de Leur, director of the Concertgebouw Orchestra, as "the conductor who subjected the orchestra to a rigorous training programme in ensemble playing and precision, which was at times referred to by orchestra members as ‘prison-cell punishment’. He demanded the highest degree of perfection (sometimes at the expense of the pleasure of music making) but with an unequalled combination of musical inspiration, instrumental control and finesse." I remember him also as one of the few artists interested in recording technology. His first recording for Philips was Mendelssohn’s Midsummer Night’s Dream. This was December 1957 and we were just starting with stereo experiments, next to the normal mono recording. The LP was in still mono, but the later CD release was the stereo version, which makes it the first Philips stereo recording.
Before the first session, when I was adjusting the microphones, Szell turned to me:
"I see you use Neunann condensor microphones, pressure types, I suppose?"
"Yes maestro, M 48 omnidirectionals in fact".
"Ah, and the sensitivity? I mean , how many millivolts per microbar?"
I happened to remember the figure. "Good!" he said, turned round and started rehearsing. I had passed the exam!
Jean Fournet , who is probably the oldest still active conductor, started recording for Philips in 1953 with the Fauré Réquiem (which he conducts in the Philips 50 series), with the Orchestre Lamoureux and French singers . In the following years he recorded an enormous amount of French music, orchestral and opera. In those times French orchestras were pretty undiciplined. During rehearsals lively conversations would go on, and not necessarily about the music. Fournet never lost his temper. When the noise got too bad, he tapped his baton on the music stand, raised his other hand and said in a admonishing voice: "Mais messieurs, je vous en prie….!" and the orchestra fell quiet, at least for a while. In the end Fournet invariably achieved remarkable results, thanks to his patience and sharp musical ear.
In 1961 Repertoire Manager Alex Saron brought Sir Colin Davis to the Philips label. He started with a Mozart programme: Symphonies 39 and 40, Violin Concertos K.216 and 219 with Arthur Grumiaux and Piano Concertos K.259 and 537 with Ingrid Haebler. Unbelievably the programme was squeezed into just a couple of days. In the morning we did the symphonies, in the afternoon the violin concertos and the evening was for the piano concertos. An arrangement nobody should have accepted!
Naturally , during the evening session conductor, orchestra and recording team were pretty well exhausted. Ingrid Haebler, however, had just started. During a playback break Sir Colin stretched out on the floor and closed his eyes. When Frau Haebler, who was attentively listening , said something to him about the tempo, she got no reaction. She repeated her comment. No reaction. She then kneeled beside him and, nudging him on the shoulder, said, "Did you hear me?" Whereupon Davis openened his eyes halfway and moaned: "PLEASE stop poking at me!"
In 1966 Sir Colin Davis recorded Handel’s Messiah. The producer was Harold Lawrence from Mercury Records. Philips had had a contract with Mecury Records for an exchange of repertoire since the end of a similar arrangement with Columbia Records in 1961.
Mercury was famous for its series Living Presence, a new recording concept in those days. The wonderful sonic quality was based on a system using only 3 microphones. This system was further developed by Philips audio engineers in Baarn and used at the recordings which Lawrence produced. So this Messiah was recorded with only 3 microphones! It took a lot of time to get microphones, orchestra, soloists and choir in the right position; every balance problem had to be solved in the hall itself. The result is a wonderfully clean and tranparant sound picture. This matched perfectly the new approach which Davis had to the work. Using an orchestra and choir of smaller size than usual in those days, he achieved a totally new, bright performance. It was an enormous success and this Messiah has been a best seller for many years.
Antal Dorati was one of the first conductors who recorded for Philips. He started in 1952 with the Concertgebouw Orchestra with Smetana’s ‘Moldau’. Still relatively young then, he was a highly temperamental person, even rather short-tempered now and then. The Concertgebouw was in a bad state of maintenance in these post-war years; repairs and painting were daily routine. During recording sessions we put large boards in the surrounding corridors and foyers with the warning; SILENCE! RECORDING! in order to stop the workmen making noise. But the painters thought it din’t apply to them and kept walking in and out. Dorati, irritated, ordered them out. Just before starting a take we wanted a last microphone adjustment and sent one of our engineers into the hall. Dorati, spotting the man in his white lab-coat from the corner of his eye, took him for another painter and exploded with rage, shouting that he’d call the police and the fire brigade to barricade the place. We didn’t have TV monitors in the controlroom in those days so we had no idea what was going on. It took some time to calm him down and explain the situation.
We recorded the same work (the Moldau, now as a part of the complete Ma Vlast with Antal Dorati again in 1986 in the same hall) When I reminded him of that incident 34 years earlier, he smiled and said: " Well, you know, I’m eighty years old now and a bit calmer." Antal Dorati has been making records throughout his long career, and in large numbers. Consequently he had developed his own way of working. Unlike less experienced conductors he was not in a hurry to make a first take. Instead he rehearsed at length until he was completely satisfied. This could take sometimes more than half the session; a delight for the balance engineer, a despair for the producer. In the end we always got what we needed, perfectly played, in just a couple of takes.
The Tchaikovsky Suites were recorded in 1966, shortly after the Messiah, in Watford Town Hall, a place with excellent acoustics. We used the same technique with 3 microphones. Exept the fourth, the Mozartiana, the Suites have always been a bit underexposed, but what delightful music it is, for example that hilarious Scherzo burlesque of Suite no.2, with the Russian accordions.
In 1969 Erik Smith joined Philips as producer and head of the A&R Division . I have had the pleasure of working closely with him, as balance engineer, for more than twenty years. Among the first artists who were "brought in" by Erik Smith were Sir Neville Marriner with his orchestra , the Academy of St.Martin in the Fields and pianist Alfred Brendel, who were all going to have a long association with Philips.
An important task for Erik Smith was to strengthen the catalogue with opera and other stageworks. The first project was a real challenge. Les Troyens by Berlioz, a 6-LP set, most complicated and never recorded before. It was the start of the Berlioz Cycle, which was going to contain all the orchestral- and stageworks, conducted by Sir Colin Davis. The Berlioz Requiem, represented in the Philips 50 series, was recorded in Westminster Cathedral . Some days before it was given in concert in St Paul’s Cathedral. For the Tuba Mirum the four required brass groups were placed in the four corners around the audience. The impresssion of that gorgeous brass sound, amplified by the reverberant space, was tremendous. Other opera’s conducted by Colin Davis followed, like the three Mozart-da Ponte works, Tippett and Puccini.
The Tosca we did in 1976, with Montserrat Caballé, José Carreras and Ingvar Wixell, in Watford Town Hall. When we unpacked our equipment it appeared that we had the wrong type of loudspeakers, too small to handle the big forces of a Puccini opera. An immediate call to Baarn headquarters reassured us: the big loudspeakers we needed would be sent by van on the night ferry and arrive just in time for the first session in the afternoon. The next morning passed, and no van arrived. Probably a delay at customs? So we had to start with the small loudspeakers. They were all right for balancing at a modest soundlevel, but for playing back to the artists who have just come out of the hall one has to turn up the level considerably which we couldn’t do without getting serious distortion. Montserrat Caballé sat beside me behind the mixer. When we got to her first big notes she looked at me with very black eyes and said in her heavy Spanish-English:
"This is no good. Out there I sing like a horrrse, een heerre I sound like Meekie Mouse!" I tried to explain but still she looked very unhappy.
At that moment the van arrived. The new loudspeakers were quickly installed, and we played the same take again. A smile appeared on Montserrat’s face and she said, tapping my shoulder, "Now I know you again". The session was saved, and we made one of our most successful recordings.
In 1983 pianist Mitsuko Uchida joined the Philips label. We were at once taken with her charming personality. As it was the start of a series of Mozart Sonatas we wanted a perfect sound and balance right from the beginning. With a new artist and instrument (she brought her own Steinway Grand), it can take quite some time to get the piano and microphones in optimal position. When I explained this to her, begging for patience, she said laughingly: "But of course, take your time, it is very important. While you work, I’ll do some practising if it helps." It did indeed. Now and then she came in to see, or rather to hear how we were getting on. When we were all happy with the result, she jumped up, embraced us, saying; "Leave it like that, it’s perfect. Now it’s my turn!" She has the ability of combining deep concentration and relaxation. Her sessions are a joy for the recording team.
Jessye Norman’s first recording with Philips was in 1972 as the Contessa in Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro. She wasn’t yet the world celebrity she is today, in fact many of us hadn’t heard her before. When we heard her first glorious notes, we were electrified, knowing at once that this was one of the great voices of the future. Erik Smith and I had the pleasure of doing a great many of her recordings over 18 years. She is utterly critical of her own performance, always striving for perfection, and possesses a very strong self-discipline.
Once, we were in the middle of recording Carmen, in Paris, when Jessye received the message that her mother had died suddenly. Via our A.&.R.manager she let us know that she didn’t want to talk about it to anybody, but would finish that day’s session. Then she left for the funeral in the U.S., returned after a couple of days, and finished what she had to sing. I remember Neil Shicoff, our Don José, saying: "I can’t think of any other singer who could have managed that. What a marvellous, strong person she is…." Her love for music made her keep going.
end.
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Follow Ups
- Hans Lauterslager's writing, here you are. (long) - alc777 01:19:56 01/27/11 (1)
- RE: Hans Lauterslager's writing, here you are. (long) - tannat 02:29:18 01/27/11 (0)
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