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Posted by Robin O'Connor on February 10, 2007, 2:20 pm But the most abiding memory of that session is the smell of disinfectant. We'd had to put the recording gear as far away from the artists as possible, which meant taking refuge in the ladies loo at the far end of the hall. Overcome by the glamour of the occasion the caretaker had done a thorough cleaning job in there, sprinkling liberal amounts of Jeyes Fluid around the place, so we crouched over the ancient Ampex machines trying not to breathe too deeply while all those heavenly sounds were coming from Janet Baker and Martin Isepp at the far end of the hall. Every time I hear it I smell Jeyes Fluid! But what a voice. And I still feel a little twinge of pride at the small part I played in that recording - disinfectant or not! Incidentally, in those days Saga was responsible for recording many other interesting artists in the early stages of their careers. Clive Lithgoe did a fine Liszt B minor sonata, I remember, there was John Shirley-Quirk's 'Songs of Travel' again with Martin Isepp, which I edited one afternoon and far into the evening, whereupon Shirley-Quirk drove me home to Maidenhead where both he and I then lived. Maurice Cole, unjustly neglected in my opinion, did some wonderful Bach recordings and Albert Ferber is an almost unknown pianist now. Then there was Hugh Bean, at that time leader of the Philharmonia, partnered by David Parkhouse and Eileen Croxford in trios by Ravel, Debussy as well as some modern pieces. I remember sitting in a pub with Hugh Bean after one session and asking him whether he enjoyed playing this tuneless modern stuff. 'No,' he said, 'But you have to do it to prove you're a serious musician.' All these were usually done in the basement studio of Saga in Maresfield Gardens just off the Finchley Road, (opposite Freud's house, incidentally, where I once met Anna, his widow, when I popped across the road to deliver a letter which had been wrongly delivered to us). It was all very far from state of the art, technically, but I think we made some small contribution to music nevertheless. And our disks only cost 12s6d! I've often toyed with the idea of doing a radio piece on the Saga of Saga Records. There are lots of good stories!
84.68.12.182
Seeing your Janet Baker review brought back memories. I was a refugee from EMI working for Saga and a highlight of my time there was her recording of 'Frauenliebe und leben' which is stiill reckoned to be one of the finest. Most unromantically, the sessions were held in a small Church Hall in Acton, chosen for its good acoustics though we hadn't reckoned on the sparrows outside which still make their contribution in the quieter passages if you listen carefully.
Robin O'Connor
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