Deryk Barker wrote:

>The Reader's Digest recordings from the 1960s include some truly great
>examples of the gramophonist's art.  Some have been reissued on other
>labels.....
>
>I am, however, unaware of any straight reissues of the original sets.
>Can you recall what was in it?

My parent's set still resides at their house, but I can try to make a pass
at recalling some of what was on it--

Mostly, it was what we might call orchestral "concert Pops" pieces, almost
all from the 19th century (Mozart's "Figaro" overture and "Eine Kleine
Nachmusik" were the only nods to the previous century that I can recall).
Lots of concert overtures and operatic excerpts (non-vocal), including:

Rossini's "William Tell", maybe the Barber too.
Mendelssohn's "Fingal's Cave"
Tchaikovsky "1812", "Capriccio Italien", "Nutcracker" suite, etc.
Wagner's "Lohengrin" Act III prelude, "Ride of the Valkyries", perhaps more.
Liszt Hungarian Rhapsody #2, Liebestraum etc.
J. Strauss II waltzes (the usual suspects, plus the "Radetzky" by Strauss pere.
Berlioz "Damnation of Faust" excerpts.
Bizet "Carmen" excerpts.
Mascagni's Intermezzo, maybe some other stuff by Gounoud.
Other "hit" overtures by composers such as Auber, etc. which I can't recall.
I think there may have been some Debussy (e.g. "En bateau"), but not Ravel.
No Beethoven or Brahms that I can recall.

Orchestras/conductors that I can remember include the Concerts lamoureaux
with Leibowitz, the New London Symphony(?) with Alexander Gibson, probably
some other pickup bandes from France and Austria which I can't place.

All of this is fuzzy memory, but I nearly wore out those disks 30 years
ago....

Bill H.