From the moment famed Cellist Pablo Casals agreed to lead a 1950 Bach festival in Prades (TIME, Jan. 30, et seg.), Columbia Records began setting the stage to record it. Among other things, canny Columbia saw to it that only Columbia (or entirely unaffiliated) artists were invited to take part. This guaranteed some fine artists, but excluded such notable Bach interpreters as Harpsichordist Wanda Landowska, who happens to make records for Victor.
Nonetheless, Columbia's ten-volume Prades Festival set (20 sides LP) makes record history. The performances were tape-recorded in a schoolhouse near the...
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