EMG Gramophone Review
David Sternlight
name, put out by the EMG Gramophone shop in London.
Their taste was impeccable, and I found the guide supremely reliable.
Regrettably, they ceased publication about 25 years ago.
Does anyone know what became of the reviewers. Did they end up at The
Gramophone? Are they (or their successors) publishing under other names.
David
Simon Roberts
: Many years ago there used to be a monthly British publication of the above
Oh, they could never get jobs at Gramophone (at least, not at the time the
magazine died); the number of sacred cows they took ruthless swipes at (I
fondly remember very negative reviews of Karajan/Eschenbach Beethoven
concerto 1 criticizing the bad wind playing and of Solti's Beethoven set)
and of unfavored recordings they championed (they had the nerve to insist
--rightly -- that Maazel's was the best available Fidelio) was, I should
have thought, a career killer.
Simon (who would like to know the answer to your questions too)
Jeffrey Smith
Roberts) wrote:
Sorry, I don't know the answer either. However, I do remember reading
that both Gramophone and EMG were at one point on different floors in
the same building in Soho Square and by the end of their co-habitation
they were not even on speaking terms with each other.
Jeffrey Smith.
Derek Haslam
Jeffrey Smith <jrs...@beckman.demon.co.uk> wrote:
> Sorry, I don't know the answer either. However, I do remember
> reading that both Gramophone and EMG were at one point on different
> floors in the same building in Soho Square and by the end of their
> co-habitation they were not even on speaking terms with each other.
Maybe so, but EMG always had an ad in 'Gramophone'. BTW, I think the
publication in question was called 'EMG monthly letter'.
Derek
--
__ __ __ __ __
/ \ | ||__ |__)/ | | |_ Derek Haslam: Acorn Computer Enthusiast
\_\/ |__||__ | \\__ |__| __| que...@argonet.co.uk
\ Mastery of the rules is a pre-requisite for creatively breaking them.
David Sternlight
Jeffrey Smith wrote:
>
> On 25 Feb 1999 13:12:59 GMT, si...@dept.english.upenn.edu (Simon
> Roberts) wrote:
>
> >David Sternlight (da...@sternlight.com) wrote:
> >: Many years ago there used to be a monthly British publication of the above
> >: name, put out by the EMG Gramophone shop in London.
> >
> >: Their taste was impeccable, and I found the guide supremely reliable.
> >: Regrettably, they ceased publication about 25 years ago.
> >
> >: Does anyone know what became of the reviewers. Did they end up at The
> >: Gramophone? Are they (or their successors) publishing under other names.
> >
> >Oh, they could never get jobs at Gramophone (at least, not at the time the
> >magazine died); the number of sacred cows they took ruthless swipes at (I
> >fondly remember very negative reviews of Karajan/Eschenbach Beethoven
> >concerto 1 criticizing the bad wind playing and of Solti's Beethoven set)
> >and of unfavored recordings they championed (they had the nerve to insist
> >--rightly -- that Maazel's was the best available Fidelio) was, I should
> >have thought, a career killer.
> >
> >Simon (who would like to know the answer to your questions too)
>
> Sorry, I don't know the answer either. However, I do remember reading
> that both Gramophone and EMG were at one point on different floors in
> the same building in Soho Square and by the end of their co-habitation
> they were not even on speaking terms with each other.
I was so taken by EMG that on one visit from the US to London, I
made a pilgrimage to the EMG Handmade Gramophones shop, on two
floors of that building in Soho Square. I came back with some
treasures that were not only unavailable in the US, but also at
a better price than comparable label pressings in the US.
David
chris_...@my-dejanews.com
straight on a couple of points.
It's true that EMG and The Gramophone were both at 10a Soho Square for a
while, but this was before Mick Ginn got into either his record shop or the
Monthly Letter. He rented the top floor of the building to make record
players and speakers under the EMG name.
I'm not at all sure about the rift you describe. It's fair to say that Mick's
cash flow wasn't always too hot, and that a number of pieces of EMG kit were
given to Gramophone by Mick in lieu of rent, but Mick's friendship with my
grandfather certainly continued after he'd moved on (they used to go
shooting, but nobody's too sure what they shot at...or if they hit it).
So far as the Monthly Letter was concerned, much of it was written by Bob
Simpson (the composer), Robert Layton and Stuart Lockhart. I'm unsure why
Simpson never wrote for Gramophone (other than the odd article) but obviously
Layton did for many years and I did ask Lockhart to contribute but he
declined as he wanted, as I recall, to retire.
Later, the Letter was taken on by Jonathan Cadman as Editor under the aegis
of the Beecham Trust, but sadly fizzled out after about 18 issues.
Given the co-habitation mentioned above, you may be amused to know that in
1985 I was living in a semi-detached cottage in a place called Chalfont St
Giles in Buckinghamshire (famous as Milton's birthplace and for a piece of
uncomfortable Cockney rhyming slang). The other half of the cottage was
occupied by Jonathan Cadman so both Gramophone and The Monthly letter were
then being edited from the same little cottage!
With best wishes
Chris Pollard
Gramophone
n article <36d5a43...@news.demon.co.uk>,
jrs...@beckman.demon.co.uk (Jeffrey Smith) wrote:
> On 25 Feb 1999 13:12:59 GMT, si...@dept.english.upenn.edu (Simon
> Roberts) wrote:
>
> >David Sternlight (da...@sternlight.com) wrote:
> >: Many years ago there used to be a monthly British publication of the above
> >: name, put out by the EMG Gramophone shop in London.
> >
> >: Their taste was impeccable, and I found the guide supremely reliable.
> >: Regrettably, they ceased publication about 25 years ago.
> >
> >: Does anyone know what became of the reviewers. Did they end up at The
> >: Gramophone? Are they (or their successors) publishing under other names.
> >
> >Oh, they could never get jobs at Gramophone (at least, not at the time the
> >magazine died); the number of sacred cows they took ruthless swipes at (I
> >fondly remember very negative reviews of Karajan/Eschenbach Beethoven
> >concerto 1 criticizing the bad wind playing and of Solti's Beethoven set)
> >and of unfavored recordings they championed (they had the nerve to insist
> >--rightly -- that Maazel's was the best available Fidelio) was, I should
> >have thought, a career killer.
> >
> >Simon (who would like to know the answer to your questions too)
>
> Sorry, I don't know the answer either. However, I do remember reading
> that both Gramophone and EMG were at one point on different floors in
> the same building in Soho Square and by the end of their co-habitation
> they were not even on speaking terms with each other.
>
> Jeffrey Smith.
>
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