[78-L] classical stuff

[Maria Fletcher]

And I would really welcome any discussion on classical 78 recordings - as it
is the main area I am interested in!

That and music hall...

Maria




2009/11/6 DAVID BURNHAM <burnhamd at rogers.com>

> 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
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