From: Kai Czepiczka <[log in to unmask]>

>Last week I got a recording of Cecil Armstrong Gibbs' Symphonies Nos.  1
>[op.70] and 3 ["Westmorland, op.104] on Marco Polo.  This is nice music,
>but that's not the reason I'm writing now.  The reason is the following
>sentence:
>
>"Marco Polo thanks Elida Gibbs Ltd. for their generous financial
>assistance which made this recording possible."
>
>Hmm..., is this just a funny coincidence or is there any link between the
>Gibbs family and "Elida Gibbs Ltd."? Just curiosity again...

You can bet your bottom dollar on it; in exactly the same way a significant
number of Lyrita recordings credit _Ken Russell Prod._ (& speaking of Crazy
Kenny:  wasn't he tied up in an earlier Gibbs recording? The one by the
student orchestra who also put together a disc of Wm.Havergal Brian) or
why the British music industry went into catatonic shock when Gerry Garcia
literally became a deadhead....

Virtually all alternative repertoire is subsidised by someone or other;
whether it be by the composer's family (presumably the situation here;
but certainly the case with the Frankel cycle on cpo); from funds - not
uncommonly royalties - accumulated by a trust (Rawsthorne on Naxos; Bax &
Scelsi just about everywhere); advocacy groups (the Havergal Brian Society
with Marco Polo); & the just plain weird (Garcia's band, The Grateful
Dead sponsored all kinds of interesting music recordings through its Rex
Foundation).  Governmental & civic organisations have also be known to
kick in to get their ensembles a more global profile (which is why the
startlingly good Tenerife Orchestra has a significant recording history;
usually of intriguing stuff like Gerhard); as do broadcasters (the
(Australian) ABC has put money into a number of cpo cycles featuring its
own orchestras, including Frankel (again) & Hindemith).  Committed fans
with more money than financial sense (why does the eg of Ken Russell again
spring to mind here?) have been note to write checks to get things on disc;
as have performers themselves (names withheld to protect the ambiguously
guilty).

Welcome to the murky world of financial recording....

All the best,
Robert Clements <[log in to unmask]>