Stan Goodall - Senior Recording Engineer

The Decca Record Company

 

My name is Stan Goodall and I was a Senior Recording Engineer for the Decca Record Company – also known as London Records in the USA. I joined Decca as a young lad in 1949 assigned to General Duties. I then moved on to cutting 78, 45, mono LP’s and finally Stereo LPs. I cut the first Decca Stereo release.  

 From there, I had a spell in the pop studios, working with Decca Artists such as Mantovani, Ted Heath’s Big Band, Frank Chacksfield, and Edmundo Ros. I finally ended up in Classical Recording.

For my series of presentations, I will play excerpts and talk about recordings I worked on, featuring such well known Decca artists as Luciano Pavarotti, Dame Joan Sutherland, Sir George Solti, and Vladimir Ashkenazy to name but a few.

Classical recording is an art in itself, and I have many anecdotes to recount about how, when and where various recordings were made as well as what happens behind the scenes. For instance why Sir Neville Marriner’s Gold album of The 4 Seasons was moved from Kingsway Hall Holborn to St Johns Church in Smith Square London, and the dancing girls story during a playback of the Ballet music during the recording of Aida in Milan.

As I said, I have a series of lectures to present, which include Famous Opera Arias Parts One and Two, Internationally Famous Conductors, including Sir George Solti, Sir Neville Marriner, Riccardo Chailly, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Herbert Blomstedt and Richard Bonynge.  I will also present Famous Orchestras, which includes the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, the Vienna Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra and the Royal Opera House Orchestra.  In addition, I will do a presentation on the Boston Pops Orchestra conducted by the famous film composer, John Williams.

All in all a wide-ranging selection of wonderful music performed by some of the worlds most revered artists.

 

TOPICS:

 

My Life in The Recording Industry, From Wax to Hard Disc

Famous Operatic Arias Vol 1 and 2

A Pot Pourri of Orchestral favourites

Famous Conductors inc Solti, Marriner, Chailly,Bonynge

John Williams and the Boston Pops Orchestra