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Alfred Gehardt
Fictitious conductor used by unscrupulous record companies to release recordings by other artists under false names to avoid paying royalties. Here, the Quintessence / Intersound label.
He conducted the equally fictitious Royal Promenade Orchestra. His earliest appearance is on the 1985 Quintessence CD Strauss Waltzes (Quintessence CDQ 2003/Quintessence CS 2003).
Of note is that he only appeared in the CD era, even though this type of hoax dates back to the 1950s and vinyl records.
One of the benefits of timing orchestral excerpts has been to unmask a number of apocryphal conductors- for example, George Richter, Ralph De Cross, Alfred Gehardt - whose names have appeared in connection with a performance by another, real conductor.
- Jonathan Brown, Tristan und Isolde on Record: A Comprehensive Discography of Wagner's Music Drama with a Critical Introduction to the Recordings. Greenwood Publishing Group, 2000.
