# Conductor for these Beethoven symphonies



## Johnnie Burgess (Aug 30, 2015)

Anyone know the conductor on this recording?


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## RobertJTh (Sep 19, 2021)

Had to google image search for this one.
https://www.discogs.com/release/12887489-Beethoven-The-Complete-Beethoven-Symphonies-
Looks like Scholz tier garbage, really, don't bother. Even if a name turns up somehow, it'll probably be a pseudonym.


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## Merl (Jul 28, 2016)

Roger is correct it's a Scholz cheapo set made up of all sorts of stuff released by Pilz over the years. Avoid that old Intersound set like the plague, unless you want a laugh. Very little of it is digital (some are sessions with the Bamberg SO from the 60s). There's an hilarious, infamous Eroica from that cycle that has half the 2nd movement missing and there's terrible edits in the 9th (if I recall the very first few bars at the start of the 9th gets missed off because of the shocking editing, lol). Recording quality is highly variable across it. It's not the worst Beethoven cycle I've ever heard but its pretty bad (more from a production, editing and recording standpoint). Tbf, some of the performances aren't really that bad. Lol. Obviously pay no attention to most of the orchestras credited. They don't exist. :lol:


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## KevinJS (Sep 24, 2021)

Scholz' Discogs page makes interesting reading, and gives a list of his aliases.

https://www.discogs.com/artist/730304-Alfred-Scholz

I feel quite sorry for Anton Nanut. He often turns up on recordings where he shares the billing with one of these fakes (usually Lizzio).


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## Johnnie Burgess (Aug 30, 2015)

Merl said:


> Roger is correct it's a Scholz cheapo set made up of all sorts of stuff released by Pilz over the years. Avoid that old Intersound set like the plague, unless you want a laugh. Very little of it is digital (some are sessions with the Bamberg SO from the 60s). There's an hilarious, infamous Eroica from that cycle that has half the 2nd movement missing and there's terrible edits in the 9th (if I recall the very first few bars at the start of the 9th gets missed off because of the shocking editing, lol). Recording quality is highly variable across it. It's not the worst Beethoven cycle I've ever heard but its pretty bad (more from a production, editing and recording standpoint). Tbf, some of the performances aren't really that bad. Lol. Obviously pay no attention to most of the orchestras credited. They don't exist. :lol:


I had seen this set in the 90's for less than 10$. The 9th was not too bad. They deserve to have credit for the job they did.


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## Merl (Jul 28, 2016)

Johnnie Burgess said:


> I had seen this set in the 90's for less than 10$. The 9th was not too bad. They deserve to have credit for the job they did.


But that's the problem, Johnnie B, who to praise cos no bugger knows who recorded what and where. I'm not sure but the 9th in that set is the same 9th with the 'London Festival Orchestra' (lol) as the one with such luminaries as Eugen Duvier (he obviously came up with that pseudonym whilst tucked up in bed) but it's not The LFO this time it's the Philharmonica Slavonica. Or maybe it's the 'Solisten Der Staatlichen-Oper Oper Bratislava'. Perhaps it's 'Albert Lizzio and the Great Festival Orchestra' (haha) or Scholz, himself, with the Festival Symphony Orchestra of London (rolls eyes). It could be 'Alexander von Pitamic' at the helm or, my personal favourite, Hymisher Greenburg. The most popular attribution to that same 9th is usually 'William Bolden' (more lols) and some form of wording involving the words London, Philharmonic, Festival and orchestra. Sometimes the transfer of the material is OK, or sometimes (as in this set) it has strange cut-offs and variable volume recordings. It's the same old stuff just in a different package. So thanks Scholz, you massive con artist, for leaving us with these mysteries. I doubt we'll ever get to solve them all.


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## marlow (11 mo ago)

There were a number of very cheap labels around 60 years ago like Fidelio which were rehashed Eastern European recordings. They were sold with the names of the artists pseudonymed. As CDs now are cheap secondhand there is no need for this sort of thing


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## Merl (Jul 28, 2016)

The pseudonyms were for a few reasons. Firstly some of the performers were contracted to other labels so couldnt be named. Secondly, it's alleged, a fair number of these recordings were gained illegally from various sources, bootlegged and through some dodgy one-off payments to secure old radio recordings. Thirdly many of the recordings were done with pick-up orchestras made up of various members of other orchestras, students and teachers so they were unnamed anyway.


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