[78-L] classical stuff

[DAVID BURNHAM]

I realize that while there is an abundance of knowledge about classical recordings on this list, there isn't a huge amount of discussion about classical music here.  I have come across a lot of interesting facts about pop recordings during the last few years here but it really isn't a forum for indepth discussions on the classical side of things.

The reason I mention this is because I just received a shipment of interesting classical 78s from e-bay and I would like to share my delight with these items.  Included is a mint copy of the, (in my experience), rare recording of W. H. Squire performing the Elgar Cello Concerto with Hamilton Harty.  I think this recording received little attention even in its day because the composer's own recording with Beatrice Harrison was much more in demand, but Squire was a very well respected artist amongst cellists.  Another set which arrived today is the Schubert Octet on, (once again), near mint Viva~Tonal discs.  I had never heard of this recording before and stretching as it does across 6 discs, it would have been a rather expensive purchase at the time.  I also got the Schubert "Unfinished" conducted by Franz Schalk on Columbia Blue pressings.  It's curious that Columbia would have issued two recordings of this work at the same time, this one and Sir
 Henry Wood's;  I don't know which one came first but they must be very close in age.  Another first for me was Felix Weingartner's Beethoven 7th with the Royal Philharmonic.  I have both the acoustic and the later Vienna recordings but it has been a long time since I've been able to add a new Weingartner recording to my collection.  He was the first, and on 78s, the only conductor to do a complete Beethoven cycle, (most of them recorded two or three times or more), as well as a complete Brahms cycle.  The most interesting Weingartner Beethoven recording is the rare 5th Symphony recording by an unnamed Symphony Orchestra.  This was apparently never released in Europe and, (so I've heard), released by accident in the US.  I've never heard the definitive version of the story about this recording.  The notes with a CD release of the recording states that it wasn't released for technical reasons - that it was recorded at too low an amplitude - but
 another Weingartner recording of the Symphony with the Royal Philharmonic is recorded at the same level.  Another story is that the orchestra didn't play well so they decided to re-do it.  It's like the many stories abounding about the Toscanini Philadelphia recordings.  Anyway, the rest of the records I received were Enrique Arbos conducting Images on Viva~Tonal; Albert Coates doing the Eroica on Victor Scrolls, (very shiny and new looking), and what looks like an also near mint copy of Cavalleria Rusticana conducted by Mascagni.  All of these records arrived in excellent condition.  In fact, I've only ever received one disc from e-bay which was broken when it arrived - of Hanson's Nordic Symphony.  The seller refunded the money without discussion and shortly thereafter, I found another copy of the work.

Anyway, that was a day in the life of a classical record collector.

db