MOZART: PIANO CONCERTOS    MALCOLM BILSON / ENGLISH BAROQUE SOLOISTS / JOHN ELIOT GARDINER

DG ARCHIV  GERMANY 1984 - 1989     8 LP  +  2 CD        NM / EX+

This must be the point at which record companies fell out of love with the record collector. Since its inception in 1948, generations of music lovers have welcomed and supported the LP and this mutually beneficial 70 year relationship has seen the industry grown very profitable and collectors given access to a great deal of wonderful music.

How strange then that ARCHIV should abandon the LP collector three quarters of the way through a complete cycle of great works. The first issue in the series was published in 1984 and LP collectors  rallied in sufficient numbers to convince the manufacturer that it might be worth recording the whole cycle. Accordingly, for the next three years the new issues were duly published and duly purchased by collectors now convinced that the whole cycle would be available on LP.

Sadly, the last four concertos were issued on CD only. ARCHIV are not the only record company to let LP collectors down in this way, but the decision is as incomprehensible as it is inconsiderate and does them no credit at all.

So my apologies for not being able to offer collectors the whole cycle on LP. Hopefully you all possess a CD player.