Classic Pick Switzerland - Classical QS LPs

steelydave · Jan 26, 2020

Continuing my excavations of Swiss classical quad output (talk about a niche within a niche!) this is, I believe, almost everything that the Classic Pick (a subsidiary of regular ol' Pick) put out between 1974 and 1977. All the album sleeves credit Hellmuth Kolbe for doing the mixes, usually as "Recording supervisor and sound engineer" and most of them also state something along the lines of "A multichannel Quadraphonic Dolby-system recording".

Only a handful of these are listed in @Mark Anderson 's quad discography, and probably only half of them have discogs entries, so a good chunk of this represents "new" information, I believe.

70-104 definitely represents the start of the QS encoded titles (I checked 100-103 and they're all stereo only), but I'm not sure if 70-122 is the final entry - I can't find any information at all about what 70-123 is, and while I know 70-124 is called Maria Livia Sao Marcos plays Baroque Music, I can't find any pictures to verify if it's not QS-encoded or not, though I suspect it probably isn't as it was released in 1978.

I'm also looking for information on what 70-120 might be as I can't find anything at all about it online.

Additionally, based on the fact that 70-108 has a cassette equivalent with catalog number MC 7108, I suspect that some (or possibly, all) of the titles in this series have a cassette counterpart in the MC 71xx series although I couldn't dig up any other pictures online.

Catalog numbers in this table are linked to either discogs (if an entry exists) or whatever other site I found photographic "proof of life" of thes titles.

CAT. NUMBER	CONDUCTOR / ORCHESTRA	COMPOSER / WORK	YEAR	NOTES
70-104	Camerata Bern	Vivaldi - Locatelli - Müller - Pergolesi (Ricciotti?)	1974
70-105	Armin Brunner Orchestra / Wiener Kammerensemble	Franz Joseph Leonti Meyer Von Schauensee ‎/ Eine Engelberger Talhochzeit	1974	Double LP
70-106	Camerata Bariloche	Marcello - Grieg - Hindemith - Gandini	1974
70-107	Luciano Sgrizzi (Cembalo-Harpsichord)	Bach - Scarlatti - Englische Virginalisten	1974
70-108	Edith Peinemann (violin) / Helmuth Barth (piano)	Josef Suk / Bela Bartok / Ernest Bloch	1975	Cassette: MC 7108
70-109	Chumachenco Streichquartett	Debussy: Quartett Für 2 Violinen, Viola Und Violoncello, Op.10 / Brahms: Quartett In B-Dur Für Zwei Violinen, Viola Und Violoncello, Op. 67	1975
70-110	Baroque Strings - feat. Peter Grummer (cello) Frank Gassmann (violin)	Vivaldi / Hindemith / Albinoni / Pergolesi	1975
70-111	Gilbert Schuchter (piano)	Schubert: Zwolf Walzer op.18a / Schumann: Davidsbundler Tanze Swiss	1975
70-112	Annette Weisbrod (piano)	Lizst: Etude de Concert No. 2/No. 3/Consollations / Rossini: Quelques Riens Pour Piano	1975
70-113	Margarita Schack (soprano) / Cornelius Eberhardt (piano)	Ost Trifft West	1975
70-114	Felipe Ledesma / Mexikanischer Kinderchor	Niños Cantores De Puebla	1975
70-115	Räto Tschupp / Camerata Zürich	Othmar Schoeck / Elegie Op. 36	1975
70-116	Anton Diakov (bass) / Harry Rodmann (piano)	Mussorgsky / Tchaikovsky / Rimsky-Korsakov	1975
70-117	Lux Brahn (clarinet) / Neues Zürcher Quartett (Chumachenco)	Brahms: Klarinettenquintett h-mol op.115 / Stamitz: Klarinettenquintett Es-dur op.84	1976
70-118	Maria Livia São Marcos (guitar) / Solisti di Zagreb	Vivaldi / Kohaut / Brouwer / Martin	1976
70-119	Anton Diakov (bass) / Annette Weisbrod (piano)	Russische Lieder (Rimsky-Korsakov / Glazunov / Glinka / Tcherepnin)	1976
70-120	UNKNOWN
70-121	Yoan Goilav (contrabass) / Streichensemble Winterthur	Musik Für Kontrabass (Montag / Bloch / Mortari / Lancen / Sperger)	1976
70-122	Neues Zürcher Quartett ‎(The New Zurich Quartet)	Debussy: Streichquartett G-moll Op. 10 / Ravel: Streichquartett F-dur	1977
70-123	UNKNOWN
70-124	Maria Livia São Marcos	Barockmusik auf der Gitarre	1977
70-128	Solisti di Zagreb	In Concert (Tchaikovsky / Vivaldi / Britten)	1976
70-130	Camerata Bariloche	Telemann / Bach / Handel	1977

Mark Anderson · Jan 26, 2020

I found one more to add

As for the cassette releases I have only seen MC 7108

Pick 70-124 Might be quad

J. PUPSTER · Jan 26, 2020

Anyone actually have any of these titles, and if so, how does it sound?

ubertrout · Jan 26, 2020

Man, this is in the weeds indeed. The Zagreb Soloists recorded a lot for Vanguard, are we sure these aren't licensed recordings from them? Also interesting they recorded the Debussy String Quartet twice in only a few years.

jefe1 · Jan 26, 2020

Thanks

Who wants to plan a trip to Switzerland and start looking for these in their used music and thrifstores. Doubt will ever see one of these here.
The cassette Dolby symbol likely refers to the noise reduction not surround d but who knows.

steelydave · Jan 27, 2020

Mark Anderson said:
Pick 70-124 Might be quad

It is indeed, I managed to dig up the corresponding back cover which has the QS notation:

So I've added that one, along with 70-128 (Solisti di Zagreb In Concert) which you provided, and I found a further one, 70-130 (Camerata Bariloche) which I've also added to the first post. 70-125, 70-126, 70-127 and 70-129 are definitely marked as stereo only, so that only leaves us to determine if 70-120 and 70-123 (the ones I can't find a trace of at all) are QS or not.

ubertrout said:
Man, this is in the weeds indeed. The Zagreb Soloists recorded a lot for Vanguard, are we sure these aren't licensed recordings from them? Also interesting they recorded the Debussy String Quartet twice in only a few years.

I'm not sure, but if there was licensing here I would think it was the other way around (ie Vanguard licensing from Pick) because these were all recorded in Europe by Pick's engineer, Hellmuth Kolbe.

jefe1 said:
Who wants to plan a trip to Switzerland and start looking for these in their used music and thrifstores. Doubt will ever see one of these here.
The cassette Dolby symbol likely refers to the noise reduction not surround d but who knows.

I think the Dolby logo on the tape itself is referring to noise reduction, but the front of cassette sleeve has the QS logo in the bottom left hand corner just below the [PICK] logo. In any event these recordings are single-inventory I believe, so they should all be QS encoded no matter if the artwork in any other subsequent reissues or different formats state it or not.

J. PUPSTER said:
Anyone actually have any of these titles, and if so, how does it sound?

No idea (classical is really outside the limits of my know-it-all-ery) but I always feel like the first step with these obscure quad recordings is to dig up proof of their existence so people can check them out and report back. It's the reason I did the same thing with some of those Japanese QS jazz recordings like the Toshiba Pro-Use Jun Fukumachi ones and the Crown Shigeru Suzuki and Huckleback cassette - amazing that they've basically been "hiding in plain sight" of Western quaddies for 40 years and we only just found some of this stuff this decade. I'm not sure how aggressive these Classic Pick quad mixes might be, but I would expect the sound quality to be good - Hellmuth Kolbe has a ton of classical recording credits to his name, including the location recordings (I think Ray Moore did the actual quad mixes) in East Germany for the E. Power Biggs Six Organ-Concerto Sinfonias LP that was one half of one of the recent Dutton Epoch SACD 2fers.