[78-L] Beethoven's 7th

[DAVID BURNHAM]

Ted Kneebone wrote:

There is no way I could mistake Beethoven's 7th for the "Eroica"!
Maybe when I get really old and lose my hearing I could mistake just about 
anything.
When I got my copy of the NPYSO/Toscanini on 78, I was using a record 
changer.  Those long silences at the beginnings really upset me.  I could 
not understand (at age 15) why those silences were there.  And none of the 
record reviews I read gave me a clue as to the reason.  I have just re-read 
David Hall's comments in both of the early "Record Books", and find no 
reference to the silences

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I did not intend to suggest for a second that you or anyone else would mistake the 7th for the Eroica, I was referring only to the record experience.  I don't mind admitting that I have done exactly that sort of thing.  I once talked about a disc in the Beecham set of the L'Arlesienne where he thanks the orchestra during the run-off spiral.  I later found out it actually occurred on a recording of excerpts from the Damnation of Faust.  Of course I would never confuse those two pieces of music, just the record experience.

As dl mentioned somewhere, the second side of the third movement of the AT Eroica starts half way through the run-on groove with the famous horn trio.  What he didn't mention was that the first side of that movement has about 17 revolutions before the music starts, (I've often used that section of record whenever I need some clean 78 surface noise for some reason).  I've never been struck that a similar situation occurred in the NYPSO 7th.  In fact all of the NYPSO recordings sound like they were recorded in controlled studio situations one side at a time.  If they tried live switching on a continuous perfomance, it would certainly have been obvious on the Sorcerer's Apprentice.

db