Vanguard Bach Guild Szigeti Solo-Violin Bach: Audiophile Early Maroon-Label LPs

$

255

Vanguard Bach Guild Szigeti Solo-Violin Bach: Audiophile Early Maroon-Label LPs

Vanguard Bach Guild 3-LP set Vanguard BG 627/9

Here we have on offer a very nicely preserved set of violinist Joseph Szigeti’s legendary (and rare) Vanguard Bach Guild LP recordings of J.S. Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas for unaccompanied violin, Vanguard BG 627/9. Many critics and well-informed listeners consider these performances never to have been surpassed in terms of depth of musical understanding. Szigeti’s d-minor Chaconne is a wonder.

This particular set is the first item I am offering from a collection of approximately 2,000 classical LPs in singles and boxed sets that has been donated to our community library. Other items to follow. If you have particular “wants” (especially opera boxes) please let me know. The collection dates back to the early 1950s and is long on European rarities—I will shortly put up as one bulk lot 15 European 10-inch LPs and two 45-rpm classical EPs!

As far as I can determine, the music lover who assembled this collection might have been a US armed-forces service member stationed in Europe after the Second World War. This set, of course, is from the US label Vanguard, which was founded in 1955 by the Solomon brothers. Vanguard made both popular recordings, such as by the folk group The Weavers, as well as many classical recordings, often under the Bach Guild imprint. Online reference sources state that the recordings for this Bach set were made in 1955 and 1956. The inside surfaces of the set box are lined with some of the best solo-violin Bach liner notes ever, by the way.

I was pleasantly surprised to discover in researching this set that demand for it is remarkably robust. An ex-library set with magic-marker handwritten library IDs on the non-maroon labels went for $165 on eBay; Popsike says the median is $250 and that the mean is $267, with an outlier at $795 (woo hoo). This is a no-reserve auction.

NOTES ON CONDITION AND DISCOGRAPHIC INFORMATION

I am selling this set to benefit the Knight Memorial Library in the North Elmwood neighborhood of Providence, Rhode Island. The Friends of Knight Memorial Library have an inventory of approximately 4,000 used books, etc. for sale. Individuals donated many items such as this one, and so they are not “ex-library.”

To restate, this is NOT an ex-library item; it does not have a card pocket, library stamps or embossings, or a discard stamp. This set is one of the absolute “picks of the litter” of a music collection of approximately 1,300 items.

Of course, these photos are of the actual set for sale. Please examine the photos carefully.

These photos were taken before the LPs were carefully washed by a helpful friend on his VPI record-cleaning machine. The LPs have been put into new high-quality poly inner sleeves, with the original unlined paper ones included. The set box itself has been put in a heavy clear archival outer sleeve.

My impartial LP-collector friend who washed them and play-checked them rates the LPs EX and the box EX. He commented that after cleaning, the LPs played better than they looked, and also that he was captivated by Szigeti’s playing.

The set is I think in very good shape for a set that is approximately 50 years old that was owned by a music lover and not an LP collector. The lower-right corner of the upper lid of the set box is parted; and there is some shelf wear, some fading of the spine gilt, and a couple of scuffs, as shown in the photos.

One thing that might escape one’s notice that I want to point out is that the cover text that is printed in green is out of registration; it was printed too low.

I surmise that the cover “slicks” were printed one-up or two-up/one-up on a high-quality sheet-fed two-color printing press such as a Heidelberg (my North Star and JMR LP projects were printed that way). It seems that for this one slick, the sheet fed improperly on the second pass, so the single color green was printed low on the page. Then, it was not caught in Quality Control.

It is what it is—not quite the “Inverted Jenny” of LP-dom; but, try to find another one just like it!

The dead-wax areas of the LPs have the small “R” scribe or stamp that I am told indicates contract pressing for Vanguard  at RCA’s Rockaway, NJ plant, and I am told that indicates they these are early-vintage LPs of this particular set. However, I am not an expert, so I do not purport to say with any confidence exactly how early.

Dead-wax-area stamper indications are as follows:

LP 627 Side A:

(Stamped) N8 OP8644- 1C     (Scribed) A (with a faint superscript 2?)

Two stamped or scribed R s 90 degrees apart on the opposite side across label

LP 627 Side B:

(Stamped) N8 OP8645- 1     (Scribed) C    1

Two scribed R s 90 degrees apart on the opposite side across label

LP 628 Side A:

(Stamped) N8 OP8646 - - 1D      (Scribed) A superscript 1

Two scribed R s 90 degrees apart on the opposite side across label

LP 628 Side B:

(Stamped) N8 OP8647-1     (Scribed) A1

Two scribed R s 90 degrees apart on opposite side across label

LP 629 Side A:

(Stamped) N8 OP8648-1     (Scribed) A1

Two stamped or scribed R s 90 degrees apart on the opposite side across label

LP 629 Side B:

(Stamped) N8 OP8649 - - 1     (Scribed) A2

By the way, please check back for my upcoming auctions! We will be putting up, from the same donated collection: the Vanguard Szigeti/Arrau Beethoven Violin Sonatas 4-LP set and some other very choice items including Rosalyn Tureck’s complete Decca Bach “Well-Tempered Clavier” (DX 127/128, 2 x 3-LP boxed sets), the Sándor Végh solo-violin Bach set, Rudolph Koelman’s rare d-minor Partita, etc. single LP recital (my hat is off to this collector!), and Artur Schnabel’s complete Beethoven sonata and concerto Angel deluxe slipcase sets, also in very nice shape.

PAYMENT AND SHIPPING

Insured US shipping in a Bags Unlimited 13 x 13 x 3-inch high-quality reusable LP mailing box will be $24, not $4. Please wait for my invoice. Foreign shipping will be billed at cost plus the cost of the box. We absolutely will not ship anywhere without insurance and door-to-door tracking and delivery confirmation. We realize that this may mean that shipping to foreign countries could therefore be prohibitively expensive.

After deducting eBay and Paypal charges and shipping costs, 100% of the net proceeds of this sale will support the programs of the Knight Memorial Library. That’s because the Friends group is run entirely by unpaid (but relentlessly cheerful) volunteers.

WHO IS THE RIGHT BUYER FOR THIS ITEM?

While this is not, on its face, a “sonic spectacular” recording, the autumnal intensity that Szigeti conjures obviously has put this set on many LP collectors’ short lists of LPs they want to acquire. Early sets seem in short supply. I myself bought this music on a later, “floral wallpaper” color-cover Vanguard BG LP set while I was studying violin at Brown University.

As it turned out, after college I began shepherding classical-music recording projects, my first being violinist Arturo Delmoni’s Songs My Mother Taught Me, which is still in print on CD, and my (oop) JMR LP of it fetches amazing money right here on eBay. Dr. Delmoni, no surprise (in retrospect at least), briefly was a student of: Joseph Szigeti’s.

Small world.

If you have had enough audiophile bang and boom for now, and if you want to turn your attention to the riches of music’s inner world, please think about letting Szigeti be your guide. If you don’t love this set, you can always put it back up for sale.

If you are just a window shopper here and don’t yet know Szigeti’s artistry, searching on YouTube along the lines of “Joseph Szigeti Bach Partita for solo violin No.2 D minor BWV 1004 Chaconne 1955 recording” should bring up a good audio-only YT.

This is a no-reserve auction. If there is only one bidder, the marketplace is saying that it’s your lucky day. If there are two bidders: Please have at it for a good cause.

I think that that just about covers it.

THE FINE PRINT

Please pay within 3 days. PayPal only. I never go around behind eBay. In view of the totality of the circumstances (including the extensive photography and listing of all stamper numbers and the independent washing and grading and new inner sleeves), this sale will be final, and there will be no returns or refunds.

Any question, please ask.

Please keep in mind that your purchase helps make important community-library programs possible!

All the best,

John Marks

# # #