GG Edition "First authorized release"

["Bradley Lehman" <bpl@umich.edu>]

Does the phrase "First authorized release" on various GG Edition releases
actually mean anything beyond being marketing fluff, a superiority claim to
sell to the unsuspecting public?  ("We wish you'd be paying us instead of
somebody else....")

Sure, there are some cases where Sony's clearly taking a poke at other
labels (some legit, some pirate) that released non-Columbia performances
first, but does the "authorized" have any weight?

For example, the CD with the Schumann quartet and the Brahms quintet claims
that the Brahms is "CBC Radio Broadcast, Montreal, Canada, August 1957 ...
First authorized release."  Uh huh.  Then what about the Radio Canada
International LP 614 from 1986 that contains this same performance (plus the
1954 CBC Bach partita #5)?  And 614's own notes claim it's a reissue: first
issues were 1956 and 1958.  With RCI, the tape owners, having released this
at least twice themselves, what's Sony's claim to its own issue being the
First authorized release?  (This Brahms was also on CD legitimately as Music
& Arts 285.)

Or the "Hammerklavier," the "Emperor" with Ancerl, and Strauss' "Burleske"
with Golschmann: their discs claim these are all "First authorized release".
So much for Music & Arts 617 and 639 (legit) and Nuova Era 2310 (probably
pirate)....

So, do we trust Sony?

Bradley Lehman, http://www-personal.umich.edu/~bpl
Dayton VA