My half-century old monaural (what was that?) LP recording of Moussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition contains a notice at the base of the back of the album cover that many Columbia records of the time carried: “This Columbia High Fidelity recording is scientifically (love that word!) designed to play with the highest quality of reproduction on the phonograph of your choice, old or new. If you are the owner of a new stereophonic system, this record will play with even more brilliant true-to-life fidelity. In short, you can purchase this record with no fear of its becoming obsolete in the future.”
Ignoring the imponderable “When might it become obsolete if not ‘in the future’?” I wonder what company today might promise any product would never become obsolete? Or want to do so? Who’d buy stock in a firm that produced items that would never become obsolete?
One thing not obsolete to my ears: Bernstein’s performance with the NYPhil!
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