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In 1956 he made his first recording (monophonic) for the Vanguard label in Vienna, returning to America for good shortly thereafter to become Vanguard’s chief engineer for eight years from 1958 to 1965.

In the 1970’s, when the recording world went batty for multi-miked, multi-tracked productions, Aubort and his then producer, the late Joanna Nickrenz, who passed away in 2002, remained true to their belief that simply miked productions, though often more difficult, time consuming and expensive, created more spacious, dynamic, natural-sounding recordings that were more pleasing to the ear and more importantly, true to the composer’s intentions. Their production company was appropriately named “Elite Recordings.”

Because Aubort and Nickrenz maintained their minimal miking technique long after the commercial mainstream had abandoned it, their recordings during the ‘70s and ‘80s tend to have the same sonic caché as the treasured 1950s and ‘60s recordings from RCA, Mercury, UK Decca and EMI labels, most of which by then had abandoned those original techniques in favor of multi-miked productions that allowed them to save money by “fixing in the mix” rather than adding expensive session time to get the live orchestral balance correct. Ironically, the advent of digital recording saw a return to simple mike techniques with producers using the excuse of “digital” to say they could now hear the problems and sonic degradation wrought by multi-miking—problems that audiophiles began complaining about with the inception of multi-miked, multi-tracked recordings.

Therefore, when you see the Elite Recording team Aubort/Nickrenz production team on a record, chances are it will be a great sounding recording. More importantly, it will be a recording that attempted (and usually succeeded) to bring to the listener the intentions of the composer based on the score. Both Aubort and Nickrenz were trained musicians.

The duo eschewed studio recordings in favor of good halls that produced pleasing, natural ambience, though not every hall in which they worked proved ideal for recording. They worked together for 32 years, averaging some 20 projects annually.

Ironically, most of their greatest sounding recordings were made for budget labels like Nonesuch, Vox/Turnabout and Candide. These were inexpensive when new and most can now be found for a pittance, though some well-regarded ones have achieved collector status and can cost plenty, though sometimes the recordings were better than the performances.

Unfortunately, selling records for less means making them for less and that often meant less expensive, sometimes noisy vinyl was used to press them. Still, the adventurous Nonesuch catalog is filled with great sounding, well-pressed and performed records that can often be found in used record store “bargain bins.”

For instance: Aubort’s three Vox recordings of Leonard Slatkin and the St. Louis Symphony performing Gershwin are well worth looking for. The Aubort/Nickrenz team recorded the works of many American composers including Charles Ives, Elliot Carter and George Crumb. Some of the Vox titles have been reissued on RTI-pressed180g vinyl by Analogue Productions and may still be available. Mobile Fidelity issued a surround sound SACD of Aubort/Nickrenz’s recording of Slatkin and the St. Louis Orchestra performing Gershwin’s “Rhapsody In Blue,” “American in Paris,” “Cuban Overtures,” and a few other pieces that is still available.