An open letter from Peter
Christ, Founder and President of Crystal Records
56-year anniversary. The years roll on and we are still thrilled that
Crystal Records is still here and active, and healthy, even with the pandemic
that has scourged the entire world. In 1966, when I was in my 20s putting the finishing touches
on an LP album which was to become Crystal Records S101, I could not imagine that
56 years later, with over 600 albums (LP and CD), Crystal Records would still
be alive and kicking, having survived the demise of LPs, cassettes, and into
the digital age with CDs competing with downloads and streaming.
We are finding that unfortunately
many people no longer have CD Players, so we are making the unusual offer that we will give you $50 to buy a CD Player if you purchase just $220 or more of CDs. See the
New Release page
for more information.
56 years! (1966-2022) 2020 and
2021were the most extraordinary years most of us can remember. Live music was
hit especially hard, with most concerts cancelled and venues closed. But in the
time of a pandemic, music can be a source of comfort and great joy. Recording
was also diminished, and we could not do as many new recordings as we usually
would, but we did release new recordings by Susan Nigro on contrabassoon
and Kenneth Tse on saxophone. As we did last year, we had many CD
reissues of some of our best LP recordings, including the Annapolis Brass Quintet
and Fine Arts Brass
Quintet. It is to our satisfaction that our customers continue to explore all of the amazing artists and composers in the catalog,
eschewing streaming and downloads to purchase high quality CDs for their
collections. This provides better music quality, and
keeps us in business so that we can continue to produce the music that gives
you comfort and joy. Thank you for an amazing 56 years.
Alan Hovhaness recordings continue to be best-sellers.
The beauty of Hovhaness’ works never fails to impress everyone who listens to
them. And we are delighted that more and more people are discovering our Reicha
series and taking advantage of our 12-CD set of the 24 Reicha
Woodwind Quintets. Our instrumental solo and ensemble collections are
unmatched anywhere else.
THANK YOU, our customers, for
keeping the vision alive, making it possible for Crystal Records to be in its 56th
year!
When Crystal Records was started in 1966, there
were almost no recordings available of top-quality woodwind and brass
soloists and ensembles, and even very few of strings. As a professional oboist
and founder of the Westwood Wind Quintet, I had been frustrated trying to find
recordings of the music that I loved. The major record labels (there were very
few independent labels) had a few of their “stars” on a smattering of
instruments, but they were seemingly not very interested in the less common
solo instruments or ensembles, or in adding to their rosters some of the
fabulous players in the major orchestras around the world. When one walked into
a record store (which is how most people bought records back then), it was
almost impossible to find a choice of flute, oboe, horn, or trumpet albums, and
it was impossible to find tuba or trombone. Much of the
repertoire that I and my friends were playing was nonexistent, as far as the
major labels and the record stores were concerned.
I had gotten the
recording “itch” a few years earlier, when Columbia Records, urged by Robert
Craft, produced a Schönberg series, on which they
included the Schönberg Wind Quintet. The Westwood
Wind Quintet had performed this several times, and Craft asked my group to do
the recording. Rehearsals at Igor Stravinsky’s house added to the excitement
for me, still in my early 20s, and when the record came out, it was thrilling
to hear it on radio stations around the country. I was hooked on recording and
wanted to do more of the wonderful ensemble pieces that were unknown to the
general music-loving public. A few letters to major record labels proved that
they were not interested in this type of music, and a few calls to some of the
players I knew in the Los Angeles area proved that there were others who wanted
to record and let the public know about the music they were playing. Among my
peer group I was fortunate to know players who would become some of the most
respected on their instruments. With more enthusiasm than knowledge of the
industry, I started Crystal Records.
The first record we
released (and they were black vinyl records in those days, not CDs) was of my
own group, the Westwood Wind Quintet. But my idea from the start was to have
recordings of many different instruments and ensembles, and to get the best
players we could from around the globe. The Los Angeles Brass Quintet and Los
Angeles String Quartet albums came quickly, and then we moved to ensembles and
artists from New York, Cleveland, Dallas, Berlin, and other major cities, in
addition to Los Angeles. Roger Bobo did his first solo album, which has become
a “classic” amongst tuba players. Tom Stevens on trumpet and Harvey Pittel on saxophone did solo albums that many considered
exemplary for their instruments. Since this beginning, many other fine artists
have joined the Crystal roster, and it is gratifying to see the reputations of
the Crystal artists expand throughout the world.
In 1975 another
milestone occurred when trumpet player Tom Stevens suggested that Crystal do an
all-Hovhaness album as part of a Ford Foundation grant. In this way I was
introduced to some of the most beautiful and unusual music I had ever encountered and met the composer, a warm,
remarkable man. When Crystal was later offered the chance to purchase the
Poseidon catalog of Hovhaness music, all conducted or supervised by the
composer, I jumped at the chance. Since then we have
recorded many more Hovhaness works and I am pleased to have had a part in
reintroducing this marvelous music and extending the popularity of this
extraordinary composer.
The recording
industry has changed somewhat from those early days. There are many independent
labels and the majors have even tried their hand at instrumental music. But at
Crystal we still try to do what we have always tried to do: find world-class
artists to play repertoire that is not frequently done by others. In our small
way, we hope we are helping to enrich the music community with excellent music
and performances that would otherwise be ignored. We thank our customers for
supporting our efforts through the past 56 years.
Since
its inception in 1959, the Westwood Wind Quintet has been performing the
quintets of Anton Reicha for some of its concerts. Several
years ago, Charles David Lehrer edited the original publications of these 24
quintets and made parts and scores that he put on the International Double Reed
Society web site. I was delighted to find these and contacted “Chick” Lehrer,
who convinced me that it would be a grand project for the Westwood Wind Quintet
to record all 24 of the quintets, a feat that had only been done once (many
years ago) and never by an American ensemble. In working on the Reicha quintets, I found Reicha to be even more profound
and enjoyable than I had previously thought. These are fantastic pieces of
music by a major composer of the period. They are not just good pieces by an
average composer; they are excellent pieces by a composer of the first rank.
They have been described as “symphonies in miniature” with “some
of the finest music ever penned” (Ritter, Audiophile Audition). I am
pleased to say that we finished recording all of these wonderful works and all
24 are now available on 12 CDs. The CDs are available either individually or in
a box set at a discount price. See Reicha for
more information.
Sincerely,
Peter
Christ
President, Crystal Records, Inc.