[78-L] Help requested please

RUSSELL BARNES r.barnes4 at btopenworld.com
Thu Oct 23 05:01:10 PDT 2008


I’m quietly hopeful that subscribers to this site, residing in Germany, Austria and the USA, can throw light on something of a puzzle.
 
Some while ago I purchased, via a public auction here in south-west England,  a scrap book of musical memorabilia plus a collection of some three hundred 78rpm records.
 
The recordings were almost equally divided into relatively early Classical Vocal, Classical Piano - and Dance bands of the 20’s and 30’s.  Nearly all are UK pressings.
 
The somewhat untidy and aging scrap book is curious.  It appears to be a paper collection assembled by someone (a British female possibly) who circa 1910/1915 was living in, or a regular visitor to, France, Germany and Austria being a devotee of their classical music and Concert Halls, patricianly The Königliches Schauspielhaus (Berlin ?).   
 
There are five photographs of veteran operatic singer Lilli Lehmann (1848-29).  All have been signed by her, either pencil or ink, where she briefly refers in warm terms to a John BRABANSON  ( ‘To my dear Son from his mother in song’ ) dated Lagburg (Austria ?) 1925.   The name Branbanson is written by her on all of them.
 
There is a large cabinet photograph of an unidentified young woman who writes a few words in French and signs Germaine FUSENOT, Los Angeles, March 31st, 1913.
 
There are a number of 20cm x 40cm original handbills for the Königliches Schauspielhaus listing singers and musicians.  A photograph signed by Margarete Preuse-Matzenauer.  In addition, another by Rudolf FEIGERL (pianist ?) performing the music of Schubert and Liszt in the Palmengarten on the 17th January, 1911.   Any help in with background information regarding Brabanson, Fusenot and Feigrel would be most helpful
 
Thank you.
 
Russ Barnes
Dorset, UK
 
 
 



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