1990s BIS catalogue hoax about a mysterious composer

[Wheesht]

Some time in the early to mid 1990s a new recording of orchestral works by a composer whose name I had never heard before was announced in the printed BIS label catalogue. I cannot recall the name now, but if memory serves me right, his dates were given as 1862 - 1945. I was intrigued at first, and then amused when I read the description: The orchestra playing on that CD was the Symphony Orchestra of the Hungarian Refuse Collection Services... At the back of the catalogue, among the list of recordings planned for the future, there was that name again: apparently, BIS were planning to record the complete orchestral works, provided the mislaid scores could be found! Unfortunately, it never occurred to me at the time to order that CD and see what would happen, nor did I keep the catalogue. Does anybody here at UC remember that catalogue entry and did they perhaps even act on it and order the CD? If so,  I would like to know what happened? Were the people at BIS just having fun with people like me who are always on the lookout for really obscure composers? Nowadays one would of course not be fooled quite so easily what with all the search options that have since become available.

[kolaboy]

Was the date of the issued catalog April the 1st?

[Wheesht]

Not as far as I can remember
It was a full-size, A4 colour catalogue for that particular year, around 1995 or so.

[kolaboy]

Records International did a parody mini-catalog of "newly discovered" works, included with their April 1990 catalog. Wish I still had it. I remember a Wagner opera on the subject of Ludwig's decaying teeth...

[Wheesht]

Wouldn't Anna Russell have been great in that...

[kolaboy]

Tell me about it 

[kootenay]

I remember that, I had/have an LP of "the work" and it is appropriate that Bis never released the complete (non-existent) works of Ovsianniko-Kulikovsky, a pen name of the Russian violinist Mikhail Emmanuilovich Goldstein.

[eschiss1]

I think you mean existing works by a nonexistent composer. One work of his - perhaps the only one that ever "came to light" - was recorded back in LP days, after all...

[jerfilm]

Yes, a Soviet era Melodiya.  Listed as Symphony #21 in g.  Wonder why he picked 21?  Or did he also write 20 other symphonys using that name??

Jerry

[eschiss1]

At a guess, it sounded impressive, and a good number for a Classical-era composer, not as yet intimidated by The Ninth (or, more seriously, by the felt need to make of a symphony more than a brief diversion between the real matter- concertos, opera arias, or even acts of an opera- of an evening- before the center of gravity of music shifted some*) - to have written.

*Alfred Einstein talks a bit about concerto vs. symphony in the classical era, btw, in his book on Mozart, and makes some interesting points of greater relevance- or that would be of greater relevance if the concerto hadn't soon after (after Mozart/Beethoven) (mostly/mostly entirely) become a bit of utter fluff. The -potential- of the medium for drama, especially the piano concerto, is much greater than that of the symphony alone, because of the built-in contrast between two forces that really can hold their own against each other (piano and orchestra, that is...)