Dave:

>But it brings up an interesting question: who was the first to record
>Pachelbel's Canon for strings? Another candidate might be I Musici.
>Anyone know any dates?

My first encounter with it was hearing it on the radio in 1973 and
buying the same performance by the Munich Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra
conducted by Kurt Redel, who appears to have done the arrangement for
strings.  The Erato LP's label has Arrangement: Kurt Redel after the
titles of the tracks, but whether this refers to all the tracks on Side 1
or merely the last track is unclear: I'd guess he did them all.  Nowhere
on the cover or the label are any recording dates mentioned.  The LP was
one of the Fiori Musicali series of which there were at least 42 releases
listed on the cover, and most of them conducted by either Redel or the then
ubiquitous Jean-Francois Paillard.  I suspect this was a midprice series,
which suggests an earlier recording date.  This also seems to be the time
when the Pachelbel Canon became very popular, so maybe this was the first.

I can't resist making listers wince with the idea that a circular Parisian
garden in honour of Jean-Francois should be arranged.  Naturally, its name
would be Paillard Square.

Richard Pennycuick
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