Design records were Pickwick's first LP record line. The initial releases were had liner notes, jackets with the album title printed on the spine, and inner sleeves. 1957-1958 was the golden age for budget record labels. In an era where the Tops/Mayfair record label was king, every budget label had to match the high production standards, high-quality pressings, and quality jackets and sleeves to complete.
That being the case, Design Records was trying to release the best possible products for the exceptionally competitive budget record market. The stereo recordings were true stereo, and the quality of the recording was excellent.
This album is an example of how the budget labels made their albums in the 1957-1958 era. This album features extensive liner notes, blurb after blurb about how high quality the album was. In short, this album is one of the better budget Classical releases. After this time period, all across the board, budget labels issued albums in shoddy jackets and noisy vinyl because collectively, every label began cutting corners, especially after Tops was sold to Precision Radiation Instruments around this time, wherever they could to increase their tiny profit margins by lowering production costs as far as they could get away with.
The album features two timeless classical compositions; Beethoven's 5th Symphony and Schubert's 8th "Unfinished Symphony." The first side has almost the entire Beethoven's 5th symphony. They decide to trim the 2nd movement with no explanation provided in the liner notes, likely due to space limitations imposed by the stereo record mastering processes used at the time.
Beethoven's 5th part one (0:04) -The complete 1st movement
Beethoven's 5th part two (6:31) -Portion of the movement 2 and the complete movements of 3 and 4.
Side 2
Schubert's Unfinished 8th Symphony (18:19)
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