Nonesuch goes vinyl at 60
NewsThe determinedly independent label is using its big birthday to mark the return of the long-playing record.
Throughout 2024, Nonesuch will reissue a selection of its most beloved albums on vinyl, beginning in January with Gustavo Santaolalla’s Ronroco and also including Kronos Quartet’s Black Angels, Wilco’s A Ghost is Born, and Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker. Additional reissues will be announced throughout the year.
Founded by Jac Holzman, Nonesuch has had the following chiefs – the late Tracey Sterne (until 1979, Bob Hurwitz, and since 2015 David Bither.
When Jac Holzman and Tracey Sterne started Nonesuch in 1964-5, lacking a catalogue of their own, they licensed many European recordings and reissued some of the Stuyvesant Quartet’s celebrated 1950s Philharmonia recordings, establishing the Nonesuch’s reputation as a budget label of quality recordings. Hopefully none of their echoic ‘Electronic Stereo’ LPs will be among the reissues.
The Nonesuch recordings sitting in my cabinet of Mahler 3 and Nielsen 5 conducted by Jascha Horenstein were produced by Unicorn, in the UK.
More importantly, their albums were $1.99 or $2.99 in the 1970s, allowing many young people to build up a collection and educate their ears on classical composers, from Machaut to Mendelssohn. But Vox Turnabout did the same, Columbia’s Odyssey, and even Musical Heritage Society. They all took responsibility for educating the baby boomer generation in classical music. Have any labels done that since, or perhaps only Naxos is equivalent?
I hope the Karl Ristenpart set of the Brandenburgs makes the cut.
It remains a vivid sounding recording.
Nope. They don’t have licenses to all that old stuff any more.
The Ristenpart stuff was released on a box set in France on Accord, but I think it is out of print now.
Seems unlikely. The Ristenpart recordings were licensed from (IIRC) Musidisc, and they belong nowadays to Universal.
Will they use Direct Metal Mastering or Direct-To-Disc?
They should reissue Heidi Lehwalder’s landmark solo recording of music by her teacher, Carlos Salzedo, which was in the classical top 40 for over a year, and nominated for a Grammy. I know. I was there.