# Length of time from the recording sessions to album releases



## Prodromides (Mar 18, 2012)

Most classical music CD albums are released about 12 months after the date of their recordings.

However, there are some recordings which may wait a number of years and in some cases decades before finally surfacing onto an album.

Here's an example of a long period of time between recording and its release onto disc:










Luigi Dallapiccola's opera ULISSE was recorded live on May 6th 1975 (the year of Dallapiccola's death);
yet this recording was not issued until 2003!

Do TC members have any other examples such as above in which the length of time between recordings and their commercial releases are 'extreme'?

Post some examples.


----------



## HarpsichordConcerto (Jan 1, 2010)

This is an interesting question. It all comes down to the dollar. I know of reocrding sessions that were originally intended to be released but never did to this day. And these are premium labels with well know artists. Timing has a lot to do with it.


----------



## ptr (Jan 22, 2013)

Prodromides said:


> Luigi Dallapiccola's opera ULISSE was recorded live on May 6th 1975 (the year of Dallapiccola's death);
> yet this recording was not issued until 2003!


..in principle You are correct, but this recording of *Ulisse* was originally not recorded (with a grate probability) for commercial release but rather for broadcast by Radio France. There are hundreds of similar projects released by Naïve and fx. CPO and Orfeo (in Germany) that are collaborations with local radio stations! I've seen a few discs with alternate takes as fillers on re-release, I think (have a hunch) that EMI (Testament?)has released a few things with Klemperer and Furtwängler that was originally disregarded as not good enough for release, but I'm not knowledged enough about anyone of these conductors to know for sure, and the market i flooded with live and out-takes by these two!
I believe that is very rare that a (contemporary) recording originally made for commercial release by a record label do not get released with in a few years time frame from when it was executed!

I'm really curious to see if anyone can show us a disc or several that could not be explained with with my radio theory!

/ptr


----------



## suteetat (Feb 25, 2013)

How about Keilberth's Bayreuth Ring Cycle that was recorded in 1955 and was kept in Decca's vault in favor of Solti's Cycle until it was released I think in 2008. The other one that seemed to be delayed for some reasons was Bartok's Bluebeard's Castle with CSO/Boulez/Normal/Polgar live recording. It was released finally in 1998. I was in the audience during live recording sometimes in the early 1990's and it must have been at least 4-6 years before the CD finally came out.


----------



## ptr (Jan 22, 2013)

I am not Wagner keen enough to have any knowledge outside *pure speculation*, but Solti being a more prolific conductor than Keilberth might have been a reason, seems like a purely commercial choice of the times, I don't think that any label would have thought it wise to have two full Ring cycles in the catalogue in those days?

Same with Boulez, one have to look at when he got contracted by DG (early 90's?) and what recordings were in the pipeline, I also there might be commercial reasons there? (A recording fitting the Labels release strategy) 
I know from talking to the guy's behind the Gothenburg Symphony's releases on DG in the 1990's, that there is/were a lot of red tape to cut down before You get the Yellow Label's OK, I remember them saying that some of their "finished" releases got unexplainably held back by the executive producer in charge and when this person was promoted and replaced by a younger force, there were much less politics involved.

Both are interesting points tho!

/ptr


----------



## Prodromides (Mar 18, 2012)

ptr said:


> ...but this recording of *Ulisse* was originally not recorded (with a grate probability) for commercial release but rather for broadcast by Radio France.


Thanks, ptr.

This explains why this ULISSE was not released onto any 3LP or 4LP sets during the '70s.

I'm unfamiliar with any of the regulations regarding French productions & licenses & labels, but, after Y2K, recordings such as this one became greater than 25 years old and, I hazard a guess, might have become eligible for release onto CD at a discounted cost/fee due to the age of the recording elements.


----------



## ptr (Jan 22, 2013)

BTW, has the Keilberth Ring Cycle ever been released by Decca or any of her sub labels? I only know of the one issued by Testament, and that reinforces my beliefs that it was vaulted on commercial reasons!

/ptr


----------



## Prodromides (Mar 18, 2012)

ptr said:


> ..I believe that is very rare that a (contemporary) recording originally made for commercial release by a record label do not get released with in a few years time frame from when it was executed!


Here's an example of one recording which took 8 years to appear:










This version of symphony #10 by Villa-Lobos was recorded during November & December of 1999.
Yet, CPO didn't release this onto CD until 2007.

Not as extreme as waiting for 30 or 50 years to be issued, but - still - it's probably a source of frustration for the friends and family of orchestra musicians who had to wait about 8 years for a recording such as the above to finally arrive commercially.


----------



## ptr (Jan 22, 2013)

Prodromides said:


> I'm unfamiliar with any of the regulations regarding French productions & licenses & labels, but, after Y2K, recordings such as this one became greater than 25 years old and, I hazard a guess, might have become eligible for release onto CD at a discounted cost/fee due to the age of the recording elements.


I don't have any current information, but a friend of mine had an idea of releasing some recording's made By Swedish Radio a few years back and their fee for any copyrighted media was the same no matter the age of the recording. The only thing that they wanted was a signed affidavit from the performers and/or composers if alive, agreed to have the tape made in to a commercial release.

/ptr


----------



## ptr (Jan 22, 2013)

Prodromides said:


> Here's an example of one recording which took 8 years to appear


Falls in to the "Radio" category, SWR is a German Radio Company, they cooperate with CPO in quite a lot of productions, so I think that there might have been quite a lot of commercial strategy there? 

/ptr


----------



## Vaneyes (May 11, 2010)

It's easy to jump to conclusion that recordings released many years later, and issuings recorded just a few months ago, maybe should have Buyer Beware adornment. Labels often give consumer headsups, regarding wheres and whens. Some require due diligence.

The more recently-recorded multitude on "Live" labels are a particular "blind draw" nuisance, with not many having competitive leanings.

So, one may further conclude that there's a happy in-between, with the upside being higher quality. :tiphat:


----------

