Re: Belf Orchestra recordings

[Ari Davidow <ari...>]

 From Kurt Bjorling, muziker (at) aol(dot)com

>To Fans of the "Romainian Orchestra Directed by V. Belf"



>I've recently received several quotations from the Jewish Music Mailing List
>about 'Belf's Romanian Orchestra.'  Considering the amount of interest and
>activity surrounding this, I'd like to point out that my collection of 
>recordings
>by the Belf Orch. has recently undergone a major revision.  As of August on
>2003, the collection is now enlarged and improved:
>? There are 5 entirely new pieces.
>? Almost all the pieces from the old edition have been replaced by nnewer,
>better transfers from the original disks.
>? There are 3 pieces by another, identically configured band which recorded
>for a competing record label and which produced 'covers' of pieces 
>recorded by
>the actual Belf Orchestra.  (Musicians of today who model their performance
>style on the Belf Orchestra might find it interesting to discover that this
>practice goes back to 1913!  The Belf records were apparently so popular 
>in their
>own time that they inspired imitators almost immediately.  This doesn't
>necessarily mean that other musicians actually wanted to imitate them, but 
>other
>record COMPANIES definitely wanted to imitate the Syrena Company's success.)
>All in all, there are 40 pieces - 37 recordings* by the Syrena record company
>of the actual belf Orch. plus 3 'covers' by the Stella record company of
>Syrena records which have not been found (yet).
>
>More detailed information can be found at my resource recordings web page:
>www.muziker.org/resrec
>Orders can be placed there or by contacting me directly.  I recommend the
>latter for anyone with questions or wanting to haggle.
>
>For those of you who have "unauthorized copies" of these and other of my
>resource recordings, let me point out that this project is largely a 
>self-funding
>archive and resource - the fact that it is not issued on a commercial label
>does not mean that the income from selling the products is not 
>important.  This
>new revision to the Belf edition
>involves more than a thousand dollars of costs and hundreds of hours of time.
>  If you have received a privately-made copy of one of my products AND FOUND
>IT USEFUL OR INTERESTING, I urge you to please pay for the priveledge of 
>having
>access to this rare (and commercially un-viable) resource by ordering your
>own 'authentic (and better-quality) copy.  I thank you for doing so!
>
>* a digression: I don't know if I can convey in just a few words the am
>azement I still feel when I write or speak of such a wealth of recordings 
>by this
>unique little band.  The Belf Orchestra's recordings were a profound 
>influence
>on my learning of klezmer music, almost from the very beginning.  But I can
>remember when there was ONLY ONE available to most of us (from Martin 
>Schwartz's
>LP reissue of klezmer music).  Then there were two more, thanks to Hankus
>Netsky's resource tapes for 'KlezKamp' in 1986... one more from Hankus in 
>1987!
>Many of us wondered how many of these there could be.  And if there were 
>more,
>would we EVER get to hear them?!  In ones and twos they trickled out from
>pioneering enthusiasts like Hankus and Martin Schwartz or appeared at the 
>YIVO
>archive.  Jeffrey Wollock's wonderful research article of 1997 documenting 
>over
>80 Belf pieces, recorded by three record companies, was a revelation - both
>about the quantity of material that had once existed, and about the industry
>behind its production.  The story goes on, but anyone still reading at 
>this point
>can perhaps get a slight idea that the fact that we have found so many of
>these recordings is still a little hard to comprehend.  I wish each of you 
>could
>get them all from me but somehow 'taste' each one the way many of us did when
>we found them one or two at a time, year by year ...
>
>Thanks for your interest,
>Kurt Bjorling
>Klezmer Music Resource Recordings at: www.muziker.org
>(847) 475-3905

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