Connoisseur Society

[ybschr...@gmail.com]

Does anyone know the situation regarding the Connoisseur Society record label? There’s no active website that I could find. It would be great to have the Antonio Barbosa Chopin recordings available again along with so many other treasures from their catalog…

[Bozo]

>On Wednesday, May 16, 2018 at 6:01:56 AM UTC-5, ybschr...@gmail.com wrote:
> Does anyone know the situation regarding the Connoisseur Society record label?

I do not.

Here is a pricey CS cd of him playing Debussy and Milhaud, not Chopin :

https://tinyurl.com/y7nhf4dk

[Frank Berger]

I have that and have probably never played it.

On LP I have Barbosa on CS-2036 (Chopin Waltzes, I think never on CD),
and 3 LPs with him paired with the lamentably recent departed Wanda
Wilkomirska,

1. CS-2038 Ravel & Grieg sonatas & Ravel Piece en forme de habanera
2. CS-2050 Franck (sonata) & Szymanowski (Mythes)
3. CS-2069 Delius sonatas

IIRC 1 has never been released on CD. 2 & 3 have. In fact I just found
a CD identified on e-bay as the Frank & Szymanowski and bought it for
$6. Problem is the picture didn't match the text, so I won't know what
I bought until it arrives.

There's a CS Barbosa/Wilkomirska Brahms Sonatas CD that I've had my out
for but never seen.

[sfr...@nycap.rr.com]

On Wednesday, May 16, 2018 at 5:13:44 PM UTC-4, Frank Berger wrote:
>
> On LP I have Barbosa on CS-2036 (Chopin Waltzes, I think never on CD),
> and 3 LPs with him paired with the lamentably recent departed Wanda
> Wilkomirska,
>
> 1. CS-2038 Ravel & Grieg sonatas & Ravel Piece en forme de habanera
> 2. CS-2050 Franck (sonata) & Szymanowski (Mythes)
> 3. CS-2069 Delius sonatas
>
> IIRC 1 has never been released on CD. 2 & 3 have. In fact I just found
> a CD identified on e-bay as the Frank & Szymanowski and bought it for
> $6. Problem is the picture didn't match the text, so I won't know what
> I bought until it arrives.
>
> There's a CS Barbosa/Wilkomirska Brahms Sonatas CD that I've had my out
> for but never seen.

I have Barbosa playing the Chopin Mazurkas on CD. I believe it's OOP but available used on Amazon. Wonderful disc, by the way.

MIFrost

[Frank Berger]

I have that too, but didn't think about it because it's not on CS.

[operafan]

On Wednesday, May 16, 2018 at 7:01:56 AM UTC-4, ybschr...@gmail.com wrote:
> Does anyone know the situation regarding the Connoisseur Society record label? There’s no active website that I could find. It would be great to have the Antonio Barbosa Chopin recordings available again along with so many other treasures from their catalog…

I think they are defunct. Some of the recordings they issued have been reissued now and then on other labels, e.g., some of the Moravec recordings made in New York were re-eissued on Supraphon, coupled with Czech recordings by Moravec.

[Russ (not Martha)]

On Wednesday, May 16, 2018 at 6:01:56 AM UTC-5, ybschr...@gmail.com wrote:

> Does anyone know the situation regarding the Connoisseur Society record label? There’s no active website that I could find. It would be great to have the Antonio Barbosa Chopin recordings available again along with so many other treasures from their catalog…

Some years back I remastered a good deal of Antonio Barbosa's Chopin to CD: 7 Polonaises, My Joys and the Maiden's Wish (arr Liszt), the 4 Scherzos, Sonatas #2 & 3 (all from LP), and 14 Waltzes (from BOTM cassette). Also did Beethoven 'Waldstein' and Op 109 Sonatas from Connoisseur Society LP.

Russ (not Martha)

[cooper...@gmail.com]

On Wednesday, May 16, 2018 at 5:13:44 PM UTC-4, Frank Berger wrote:

All of the Wilkomirska/Barbosa recordings were available (briefly) on Connoisseur Society CD except (afaik) their Beethoven "Spring" Sonata, which was the CS 2080 LP coupling for Brahms' VS #3. The Beethoven was orphaned when the Brahms sonata was reissued along with its two counterparts on CD 4042. The Grieg/Ravel coupling was reissued as CD 4035. There also was a collection of Kreisler bonbons (CD 4039). Rips of the CDs are on Symphonyshare.

Many have lamented the unavailability of Barbosa's great Chopin and Beethoven recordings (aside from the Mazurkas on Centaur, which are wonderful). In addition to Russ's fine transfers (mentioned in this thread), others of variable quality have appeared on the blogs from time to time. There are several at pqpbach (http://pqpbach.sul21.com.br/?s=Guedes+Barbosa&submit=Pesquisa), but when I checked the site a few minutes ago to see if the links are still active, uBlock Origin warned me about an attempt to load adware.

There also used to be CD reissues of Barbosa recordings listed by Kuarup in Brazil. When I discovered the site, I filled a shopping cart with them only to learn that they were not available for export. A friend who actually owned one of them told me that he had acquired it on a trip to Rio, which I was not prepared to undertake :-) Another nice person who lives in Brazil and provided a large batch of Moreira Lima recordings for upload on Symphonyshare told me that he had some Barbosa issues as well, but then he fell out of touch. So it goes....

Anyway, here is a good-sounding mp3 transfer of Barbosa's Chopin Waltzes from CS LP that I uploaded about a year-and-a-half ago: http://www.mediafire.com/file/fwjroxff3da/Barbosa_Chopin_Waltzes.zip. One of my favorite sets (as is Moreira Lima's, btw).

AC

[Frank Berger]

I see that discogs.com has a listing of the CS releases. As you say,
more were released on CD than I thought.