Alfred Scholz

Classical Music Conductor and Producer

Alfred Scholz was a prolific producer of budget recordings, who fraudulently sold recordings credited with non-existing artists and orchestras. Sometimes the names of real people were given credit for performances which were not theirs. Working as a conductor, he performed under the guise of Alberto Lizzio as well as many other names. "Alberto Lizzio" was a pseudonym used by Scholz and attached to older recordings which he obtained and then credited to non-existing artists like Hans Swarowsky (2) (who was a real conductor and also Scholz's teacher, but was never on any of Scholz's recording) or himself. "Hans Zanotelli" (the name of a real conductor and also Scholz's fellow student) was another name fraudulently used on Alfred Scholz's records, as are Milan Horvat and Carl Melles. It is not clear if Alfred Scholz was a real conductor who was also a fraudster, or the perpetrator of the fraud, who was using his name as well as many others, real or imaginary as "conductors" on his recordings. The most common orchestra used by Scholz in his falsified productions was the Süddeutsche Philharmonie or "South German Philharmonic". If the attribution is correct, this was originally a short-lived pick-up ensemble assembled by Scholz from members of the Czech Philharmonic in Prague and the Bamberg Symphony around 1968. Other non-existing orchestras conducted by non-existing conductors include Philharmonia Slavonica, London Festival Orchestra (2) and New Philharmonic Orchestra (2). Many dozens of budget labels use the recordings originally obtained from Alfred Scholz, who had a catalog of about 2000 titles. Most of these were old analogue recordings made between 1968 and 1970 for Polyband and Primaton and by the Austrian Radio prior to 1977. The recordings by the Austrian Radio were sold in 1977 to PREMIS, a company owned or controlled by Scholz. His catalog also includes a limited number of legitimate digital recordings made in England (London), Slovenia (Ljubljana), Slovakia (Bratislava), and Hungary (Budapest). The catalog subsequently passed into the ownership of Musikförderung and is now owned by Point Productions.