T h e s to ry o f
A u d io F id e lity
- a p io n e e rin g
A m e ric a n LP la b e l
David Patmore
T
he founder of the Audio Fidelity label, Sidney
Frey (1920-68) had the ambition in his
youth to become an opera singer. His introduction
to the world of classical music on records was via
the Music Appreciation series o f 78s produced by
the New York Post in the 1940s. During the late
1940s and early 1950s he worked for a mail order
business where he met a man who held the rights
to several recordings of Israeli folk music, but did
not know how to exploit these. Frey offered to help
him and moved into the record business with these
recordings. He proved to be an effective distributor
and marketer, and was soon handling several
different labels. In 1951 he released records on the
Kinor label. An idea of Frey s quick entrepreneurial
spirit may be gained from his production of an
anti-McCarthy satire called The Investigator,
at the time of the McCarthy trials of US citizens
accused of being Communist sympathisers. The
recording sold briskly, making an immediate return
of $17,000.
The name Audio Fidelity was first used in 1954
for an LP called Merry Go Round Music, which
was devoted to mechanical instruments. Kinor
Records was renamed Audio Fidelity in 1956. One
of Freys earliest releases on the Audio Fidelity label
featured a traditional jazz band called The Dukes
of Dixieland. The band proved to be surprisingly
popular, and within three months Frey had sold
20,000 copies of its first LP, which retailed at
$5.95. By 1958 Frey estimated that his enterprise
had earned royalties o f approximately $100,000
from Audio Fidelity issues. Interestingly the same
figure appeared as a payment made by Frey to the
Dukes o f Dixieland Band as advance royalties.
Frey presented the payment to band members in
January 1959 at a dinner in New York where he
was honoured by the Friars Club (which largely
24
Sidney Frey
comprised show business personalities) as Man of
the Year for 1958, in celebration of Audio Fidelitys
introduction o f the stereo LP disc (for more on the
fascinating history o f the Dukes of Dixieland, see
www.thedukesofdixieland.com/history.htm).
By the late 1950s interest in stereo recordings,
which had been commercially available in the USA
since around 1954 through releases on reel-to-reel
tape, became intense, spurred on by consumer-
orientated audio magazines such as High Fidelity.
In 1957, spotting another opportunity, Frey
commissioned Westrex, the owner o f one of the
two rival stereo disc-cutting systems, to produce
a stereo LP disc for release ahead o f any issues
from the major record labels. In fact this record,
number AFLP1872, used preliminary test
masters provided by Westrex to Audio Fidelity for
evaluation. Other manufacturers had purchased
the Westrex equipment required for stereo but
had not yet produced any stereo releases. They
had also received test masters but were waiting for
the Recording Industry Association o f America
(RIAA) to decide on which o f the possible stereo
reproduction systems to use. Frey thus led the
industry and may even have influenced the decision
on which system to use.
T h e fir s t s te r e o LP
The first side o f Freys stereo evaluation disc
consisted of tracks performed by the ubiquitous
Dukes o f Dixieland, and the second comprised
railway sounds. At Freys request Westrex pressed
500 copies of this disc and on 13 December 1957
Frey organised a demonstration at the Times
Auditorium in New York City to introduce it to the
public. In addition he took advertising space in the
issue of Billboard magazine of 16 December 1957,
offering a free copy o f his new disc to anybody in
the record industry who wrote to him on headed
notepaper. The combination o f a new product for
which the public was hungry and the publicity
associated with both the demonstration and this
free offer triggered enormous general interest in
stereophonic sound on disc. As no other stereo
discs were then available, the equipment dealers
had to use Audio Fidelity discs to demonstrate
the wonders of stereo in their showrooms. Frey
further exploited his unique position by prompdy
releasing four new stereo discs during March 1958.
These were all popular titles and featured Lionel
Hampton, Johnny Puleo and his Harmonica Gang
as well as The Dixieland Dukes and railway sounds.
A further four releases were scheduled for release at
the end of the same month. The consumer interest
in stereo was further stimulated when the price of
stereo cartridges fell from $250 to $29.95 in June
1958.
By the summer o f 1958 it seems that Freys
initiative was producing spectacular results. As
he reported to Roland Gelatt in the January 1959
issue of High Fidelity. Wed been so successful that
we ran into a tax problem. We had to plow some
profits back into the company. His solution was
to create a recording programme of classical music.
He explained his reasoning for this to Gelatt:
Basically, the record business has been carried by
pops. Now we see a change coming. People who
buy pops are getting exposed to Scheherazade, the
Bolero, and music like that. They begin to recognise
these pieces, and a whole new world o f music is
opened up. So, to cut the story short, we decided to
bring out some classical stuff for this new market.
So the cost o f recording classical music could be
written off against profits from the pops.
Reginald Kell
Marie Goossens. Most o f the wind and brass
players were recruited from the Philharmonia
and Royal Philharmonic orchestras. To produce
these recordings Frey recruited Emmanuel Vardi
(1915-2011), a member o f a highly musical
Jewish family that had had fled Europe for
the USA in 1920. Vardi had made a name for
himself in American musical circles both as an
outstanding viola player (he was one of only two
viola players ever to give a solo recital at Carnegie
Hall) and as someone with very wide musical
sympathies, equally at home in the world o f jazz
and the N BC Symphony Orchestra, in which
he played under Toscanini. He obviously suited
Freys plans.
Conducting duties were to be shared between
Alfred Wallenstein and A rthur Winograd,
both experienced figures. Wallenstein (1898-
1983) had been a cellist with the New York
Philharmonic Orchestra (he recorded Strausss
Don Quixote under Beecham in 1932) and was
later active as a conductor, notably with the Los
Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra from 1943 to
1956. W inograd (1920-2010) had been the

Marie Goossens
R eco rd in g s in L o n d o n
Frey took the unusual step o f deciding to create
a new orchestra in London for his classical
recordings. The artists agent Joan Ingpen of
Ingpen and Williams was engaged to form the
new body, to be called the Virtuoso Symphony of
London. According to the London critic Andrew
Porter, quoted by Gelatt in High Fidelity, she
took the title seriously and engaged about as
starry an orchestra as you could hope to get on
one platform. Among the instrumentalists were
the cellist Anthony Pini, viola player Frederick
Riddle, clarinettist Reginald Kell and harpist
25
 founding cellist o f the Juilliard String Quartet,
the first American quartet to attain international
status. H e left the quartet in 1955 to pursue a
conducting career, becoming music director of
the Hartford Symphony Orchestra in 1964. He
is perhaps best remembered today for the large
number o f recordings that he made for the MGM
label. Wallenstein and Winograd were engaged to
record six long-playing records each, with Vardi
himself conducting one.
The recordings took place from mid-
September to the end o f October 1958 at
Walthamstow Town Hall. Q uoted by Gelatt in
High Fidelity, Porter gave a vivid account o f these
sessions: I was impressed by Vardis exceptionally
acute ear for imprecise attack and for the ragged
sound that comes when one part o f a tutti chord is
sustained too long. Everything seemed quick and
businesslike. Porter then revealed the very high
volume level used by Audio Fidelity: The sound
from the loudspeakers was at least twice life-size.
Vardi explained that only thus would distortion
be sure of registering. The dynamic range that got
on to tape seemed extraordinary. The pointers
indicating recording levels kept peaking off the
dials all the time. Frey told me that he was getting
about twice as much out o f the equipment as
the manufacturers ever envisaged. According
to the record sleeves in which Audio Fidelity
packaged their original LPs, the equipment used
for the recordings consisted o f Telefunken stereo
microphones (no further details given) fed into
an Ampex 300-2 recording machine. The masters
were cut with a Scully lathe mounting a Westrex
45-45 cutter with special feedback circuitry
driven by custom built 200 watt amplifiers. The
26
frequency range claimed by Audio Fidelity on
their record sleeves was from 16cps to 25,000cps,
with crossover o f 500cps and roll-off of 13.75db
at 19kc. Gelatt made much o f seeing the final
recording tapes packed in wooden crates at Freys
New York base, describing the scene thus: Frey
looked at them soberly. That little box cost us
$150,000. By the time we get finished records on
the market we will have invested about $300,000.
Maybe well lose our shirts but I wont cut corners
and chisel on quality.
The rep erto ire
Wallenstein had handled what Frey probably saw
as the serious part o f his recording programme:
Brahmss Fourth Symphony ( FCS50.001),
Tchaikovskys Pathetique Symphony (
FCS50.002), Berliozs Symphonie fantastique (
FCS50.003), the Mussorgsky/Ravel Pictures at
an Exhibition ( FCS50,004), Ravels Bolero
and a suite from Bizets Carmen ( FCS50.005)
and Tchaikovskys Romeo and Juliet with The
Nutcracker Suite ( FCS50.006). W inograds
programmes were clearly aimed at the popular
end of the classical music market, with Marches
for Children ( FCS50.007), Marches from
Operas ( FCS50.008), Russian Comp oser
Masterpieces by Rimsky-Korsakov, Mussorgsky,
Borodin and Gliere ( FCS50,009), suites
from Tchaikovskys Swan Lake and Sleeping
Beauty ( FCS50,010), Popular Overtures by
Reznicek, Thomas, Glinka, Smetana, Weber and
Rossini ( FCS50.011), and finally another disc
entitled simply Overture with works by Mozart,
Beethoven, Verdi, Wagner and Brahms ( FCS
50,012). Vardis one LP consisted o f four waltzes
by Johann Strauss II ( FCS50.013). And that
was the full extent of Audio Fidelitys classical
music recording programme for several years.
The company set up its own office in Crawford
Street, London and announced the first release
o f its classical recording programme through a
full page advertisement in the September 1959
issue o f The Gramophone. This promoted five of
the new classical LPs, together with a selection
o f mono releases, such as Fiesta in Mexico,
Honky Tonk Piano, and Bawdy Songs and
Backroom Ballads, which are probably the types
o f recording for which the label is now best
remembered. The advertisement was also notable
for two factors that almost certainly contributed
to the labels eventual demise in England. Firstly
it recommended that potential customers did not
buy the stereo records unless your equipment is
of the first rank, thus putting off the vast majority
of the magazines readership who had yet to
convert to stereo by purchasing the then expensive
playing equipment. Secondly the stereo records
were priced individually at 47 shillings, or about
10 to 15 per cent above the usual highest retail
price point. Given the largely unknown quality
of the performances, the completely predictable
and already highly recorded repertoire and the
relatively ungenerous playing time of each record,
this pricing now looks to have been extremely
optimistic, to say the least.
Each issue was extremely lavishly packaged,
with a laminated gatefold sleeve, on which were
printed full programme notes by highly respected
AUDIO FIDELITY
SYMPHOAIE WEI FCS 60003
AXTASTIQIK STEREO
BERLIOZ
COMPONENT
SERIES
cotidadfJ />u Q//A
F I R S T C O M P O N E N T S E R I E S
American annotators, artists biographies,
technical details o f the recording equipment,
and a paragraph explaining the principles of
stereophonic recording. The front o f each sleeve
was adorned by a specially commissioned painting
with a musical theme by the artist Roger Lersy
(1920-2004), who is now described as a mid
century modernist. These paintings were set
alongside very bold typography advertising the
contents o f the disc and above all the fact that it
was a stereo recording. Much use was made of the
strap-line First Component Series, although the
exact meaning of this phrase was not explained
anywhere.
E a r ly s u c c e s s
The label seems to have progressed quite
satisfactorily for several years. Nearly 21 months
after the appearance of that first advertisement,
in the May 1961 issue of The Gramophone, Denis
Stevens gave Wallensteins recording o f the Berlioz
Symphonie fantastique a very good review indeed,
describing the performance as first class and full-
blooded. He particularly praised the contribution
o f the Virtuoso Symphony of Londons woodwind
section, noting that it included players o f the
calibre of Richard Adeney, Reginald Kell,
Roger Lord and Cecil James. The quality o f the
recording itself was also highly praised: Stevens
felt that it combined crystal clarity with adequate
reverberation. He concluded his review with the
following encomium: If superlative orchestral
sound were the main aim and object of my quest,
POPULAR
A UDIO FIDELITY
WEI fcs soon
OVERTURES STEREO
RE/..M CEK"Donna Diaua" T H O M A S ' 1 // "
H U N K A "Russian amt 1.min,ilia" COMPONENT
SM ETAA V I Bartered Bride U'EBER Obentn" m SERIES
R O SSI S I " Barber o f Seville"
A R T H U R W IN O G R A D
F I R S T C O M P O N E N T S E R I E S
27
 I would certainly invest in this blue-chip Audio
Fidelity disc.
Frey sold Audio Fidelity to Herman Gimbel in
1965, and died in his late forties just three years
later in 1968. Gimbel changed the companys
name to Audio Fidelity Enterprises around 1971,
and later purchased Chiaroscuro Records in 1976.
The last known releases on the Audio Fidelity
label were published around 1984. Gimbel may
have sold the label to an English company called
Phoenix. Audio Fidelity was renamed Milestone
Records in 1985, and then seems to have gone
out of business around 1987 after losing a law
suit concerned with the attribution of some
Jimi Hendrix recordings that it had released.
Some Audio Fidelity recordings did emerge on
cassette tape releases under another label name,
possibly issued by Milestone. Ten years later, in
1997, Audio Fidelity Records was purchased
out of bankruptcy by the Colliers Media Group,
which many years previously had purchased the
Musical Masterpieces Society (Concert Hall and
La Guilde Internationale du Disque in Europe).
Herman Gimbel expanded the labels classical
music catalogue quite considerably, but did
so through leasing recordings made by other
companies in Europe, some of which used artists
associated with the bargain basement end of
the market, and whose presence did nothing to
enhance the reputation of Freys initial recording
programme. For instance in 1965 the label
released Brahmss Piano Concerto No. 2 played
by Eduard Mrazek and the Vienna State Opera
Orchestra conducted by Hans Swarowsky (
FCS50, 016). This fine recording, now available
as a free download in a superb transfer by David
Gideon at the excellent Re-Discovery website
(www.rediscovery.us/) was made originally by the
American Recording Society, whose recordings
appeared successively on the Music Treasures of
the World and the Philharmonic Family Library
labels, before some reappeared on Audio Fidelity.
In the UK this particular Brahms recording
enjoyed a large circulation in both mono
and stereo when published by World Record
Club. Several other Swarowsky-conducted
titles emerged on Audio Fidelity, alongside
performances conducted by the young Michael
Gielen, including Beethovens Symphonies
Nos. 1, 3, 7 and 8. Confusingly some of these
28
performances, notably Symphonies Nos. 1 and
8, were coupled with recordings emanating from
another source, Concert Hall. Amongst much
else were Beethovens Symphonies Nos. 2 and
9 conducted by Walter Goehr ( FCS 50,021
and FCS21). From about 1967 recordings
originating from the Italian label Angelicum
started to appear on Audio Fidelity, such as Emilio
Suvinis popular Vivaldi concerto collection
( FCS50,027), which enjoyed considerable
circulation in Europe. But the label probably hit
rock bottom at the beginning of the 1970s when
it began to issue recordings from the infamous
Alfred Scholz stable, such as the coupling of
Schuberts Symphonies Nos. 5 and 8, with Scholz
sharing conducting duties with Alexander von
Pitamic, the orchestra being the pseudonymous
Siiddeutsche Philharmonic ( FCS50.042),
possibly the Austrian Radio Symphony Orchestra
in disguise. The last classical title seems to have
been issued on the Audio Fidelity label in 1976,
after which no more was heard of it.
Audio Fidelity stands alongside other labels
such as Everest and Command Classics as one of
the small but intrepid pioneering enterprises of
the early stereo boom years. The small number
of 13 classical recordings that it made itself was
too small to make any real impact, and Frey, after
his initial 1958 London foray, stuck to middle of
the road repertoire: he understood this market
and it seems to have sold well. According to the
invaluable website devoted to the label, compiled
by Donald Reichle and held at the Belfer Audio
Archive of Syracuse University, New York State
{library.syr.edu/digital/afdd/HOME.HTM), the
label sold in Canada, Mexico, Brazil, the UK, the
Netherlands, Germany, Israel, Spain, Argentina
and elsewhere. In his researches Reichle identified
over 1,400 different label numbers, giving an idea
as to the full extent of the labels considerable
range and activities.
In parallel with this article CRQ Editions have
issued a CD containing a representative cross-
section of Audio Fidelity's classical music stereo
recordings conducted by Alfred Wallenstein, Arthur
Winograd and Emmanuel Vardi - please see the
advertisementfor CRQEditions on page opposite.
With many thanks to Edward Johnson for his
initial idea o f this article and CD. CRQ.
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