William Kapell Mephisto Waltz, Cover oddity?

[larryh]

Yesterday I recorded a two record 78 album of Mephisto Waltz and Evocaion. I put it on You Tube, I found it an amazing performance as are so many of Kapell's selections. The detail and excitement level is thru the roof to my ear. The oddity is that I used the Cover to put up the listing. I couldn't find it under normal searches somehow. Then I realized the other few choices on You Tube of the same records were spelled differently. I got the album back off the shelf and sure enough, inside the selection title is spelled differently. There must be some reason why if this is really a mistake it was passed by the editing process? Here is the cover and inside page. Also I am linking the video in case you piano fans haven't heard this artist or selection.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2g7wyieJeU ( the second side of the records are part II which should show up on the right side of the video.)

[alang]

In German the PH and F are pronounced the same as they are used here. The PH is usually the older spelling and has often been replaced by an F later on. So both are correct and are pronounced the same. Even different editions of Faust use different spelling. Why they would not be consistent on the same album without anyone noticing is beyond me though.

Andreas

[larryh]

Thanks for your expertise, I knew someone here would have the answer.

Larry

[drh]

Well, now, that's just downright weird. Not disputing the explanation above, I've never before seen the title of piece given as "Mefisto" in practice. I did a bit of Google searching out of curiosity, and, leaving aside a few hits for the Kapell album that started the discussion, those few instances in which it showed up being spelled with the "F" also had "waltz" in the French form, Valse. It would seem our friends in the Victor album cover design department were seriously confused.

When Victor reissued the set on LP (LM 2588), the "ph" spelling appeared throughout.