Budget recordings of Alfred Scholz

There is a subset of "classical" releases which are credited to performers who have never been seen or heard in a live performance. Many of these performers are pseudonyms. Why would a release be published under a pseudonym? It could be because the performer has a restrictive contract with a different record label. It could be because the performance has been "borrowed" from its owner. Or perhaps the pseudonym is considered more marketable - for example the well-known pianist M. Bergerich. In the case of an ensemble, it could be a "scratch" ensemble brought togther just for the recording, and which does not have a name.

The most prolific producer of such budget recordings was Alfred Scholz. Scholz sometimes used his own name, sometimes made-up names, and sometimes the names of real people were given credit for performances which were not theirs.

It is not correct to assume any correspondence between the real and fictitious performers - names were mixed and matched liberally. Scholz sold the same recordings to different labels as different artists, and there are examples in MBz of the same performance being credited in two or more distinct ways.

The recordings are usually found on labels including Point and PILZ (as Vienna Masters).

The following lists are of artists known to be used by Scholz:

Conductors

• Alberto Lizzio. A wikipedia biography of Lizzio states that he is Alfred Scholz's father.
• Hans Swarovsky. Scholz's conducting professor, a real person with some genuine performances of his own on record, his name was also used by Scholz on recordings which he did not conduct.
• Cesare Cantieri
• Denis Zsoltay
• Hans Zanotelli. Another real person whose name was used.
• Henry Adolph.
• Eugen Duvier. Probably - needs further investigation.

Ensembles

• Süddeutsche Philharmonie (South German Philharmonic). According to Berky this "was a short-lived pick-up ensemble assembled by Scholz from members of the Czech Philharmonic in Prague and the Bamberg Symphony around 1968".
• Norddeutsche Philharmonie. You can probably see the pattern here.
• Philharmonia Slavonica. According to one unsourced WP article, the "performances attributed to them are often by the Austrian Radio (ORF) Orchestra."

Soloists

• M. Bergerich (piano)

Question

What is the best way to record these performances in the database? In particular, where a single performance, with identical acoustic fingerprint, is credited to two or more sets of performers, how should they be credited?

References

• Pseudonyms: Alfred Scholz and the South German Philharmonic by John F. Berky, March 12, 2003 (revised January, 2009)
• wikipedia:Alberto Lizzio
• Naxos bio of Hans Swarovsky
• rec.music.classical.recordings for some relevant discussions