November, 2013: Symphony No. 2 / Swarowsky (??) / South German Philharmonic

Click to enlarge Back in its heyday, Ampex, Inc. tried its hand at producing its own classical label. The recordings were made available on (no surprise) Ampex 1/4 track tapes and cassettes, both processed in "Dolby B." This short-lived venture offered one Bruckner recording with Hans Swarowsky conducting the South German Philharmonic Orchestra. As many readers of this website know, the South German Philharmonic Orchestra was the invention of producer Alfred Scholz. Scholz used this pick-up orchestra for a wide range of recordings including a series of Bruckner Symphonies (2, 5, 6, and 9). It has never been determined just who conducted all of these recordings. They have been offered on various labels with imaginary and real conductors. What we now know is that this performance was conducted by Erich Schmid leading the Southwest German Radio Symphony Orchestra. It was recorded in Baden-Baden on September 25, 1965. This recording derives from the Ampex 1/4" 7.5ips tape and is available in lossless .flac files. ================================== ANTON BRUCKNER: Symphony No. 2 (Haas Edition) -Pseudonym: Hans Swarowsky (Actually Erich Schmid) -South German Philharmonic Orchestra (Actually the SW German Radio Symphony Orchestra) -Ampex 4 Track Tape AMP X6016