The Longines Symphonette Society

Biography - The Longines Symphonette Society

USA

The long running radio programme sponsored by the Longines company first put out classical recordings in late 1958 with the aid of Columbia's Harmony label using tapes from the programme.The co-operation with Columbia continued during the 1960's
In late 1968 it was announce that Longines had bought The Capitol Record Club giving the access to Capitol master recordings for their direct mechandising business.

November 1974, Owners Westinghouse announce that The Longines Symphonette Society is being phased out and the Capitol Record Club id up for sale

Reminiscences from Angela Morley (Wally Stott) about working on Longines music productions:-

Sometime in the middle 1960s, I received a letter from an old friend of Norman and Betty Luboff called Gene Lowell, asking me if he could produce records for the Symphonette in London.
We did all the recordings at the old CTS Studios in Westbourne Grove with Eric Tomlinson and later John Richards as recording engineers. The first package was a Christmas album and I managed to do it all myself. After this, the work became so heavy that I couldn’t do.
The work continued until about 1970. None of us were ever credited for either arranging or conducting, the name on the records was, I believe, just made up to look impressive. Maybe the lack of recognition was the reason why I didn’t rank it with Reader’s Digest.

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