CD - Symphony No. 1: Volkmar Andreae / Niederosterreichisches Tonkuenstler Orchestra
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This is a digital transfer from the 1951 Masterseal LP production. The Masterseal LP series was founded in 1951 as an exclusive, high-priced sublabel of Remington Records. It was launched while the regular Remington range was considered a budget label for classical music with often inferior vinyl quality. The Masterseal series was overseen by the legendary Austrian dramaturge and music producer, Marcel Prawy.
The parent company, Remington, was founded by the entrepreneur Donald H. Gabor. For the recordings in Europe (especially in Vienna), he brought in Marcel Prawy as a producer. For the ambitious Masterseal series, pressings bore an emblem with Prawy's own name instead of Don Gabor's.
Unlike the typical, inexpensive Remington records, the early Masterseal LPs were pressed by RCA and had significantly better audio quality and were delivered in elaborate, thick gatefold covers. Collectors later jokingly complained that the pockets of these covers were so tight that they often scratched the records when they were removed.
The close collaboration between Prawy and Gabor ended in early 1953 when Gabor moved the main productions to West Berlin (to the RIAS Symphony Orchestra). Masterseal albums from Prawy's Vienna era ceased production at the end of 1953.
Conductor, Volkmar Andreae (July 5, 1879 – June 18, 1962) was born in Bern, he trained at the Cologne Conservatory under Franz Wüllner before settling in Zurich. He is most famous for his incredible 43-year tenure as the Chief Conductor of the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich (1906–1949), a period during which he turned down an offer to succeed Gustav Mahler at the New York Philharmonic in 1911. As a composer, Andreae was celebrated across Europe as a passionate champion of early 20th-century music and the Austro-German symphonic tradition. Above all, he is historically revered as a pioneering Bruckner specialist.
