[78-L] Mark Hambourg and Victor Discographys

[David Lennick]

One problem is that all these Victors are Canadian-only issues. They're in Ed 
Moogk's book but rarely in US publications, although WERM was known to list the 
odd Canadian recording IF IT HAD A US NUMBER as a couple of Sir Ernest 
MacMillan's records did. I guess the complete HMV discographies would have this 
info. Canadian issues rarely figure in the grand scheme of things, and Victor 
wasn't well informed either..their 1930 catalogue gives a nice bio of Mark 
Hambourg and refers to him as a great Canadian artist. Nope, he was the one 
Hambourg brother (as far as I know) who never lived here.

Aha! The HMV you have is an entirely different recording. Claude Arnold 
provided the discography in Eric Koch's book "The Brothers Hambourg" and even 
he doesn't list the Canadian issues of these recordings, but he does provide 
matrix numbers and dates. And he has the Beethoven Sonata and Variations on 
consecutive masters Cc 13837/40, recorded November 1928. But Mark rerecorded 
both the Moonlight and the Variations in 1933, on HMV C 2551/2. The original 
1928 recording is C 1549/50 and that's what's on Canadian Victor.

dl

On 9/28/2010 12:37 AM, DAVID BURNHAM wrote:
> I hope someone has the information about these records.
>
> As I've referred to in other postings, I'm trying to find out something about
> Mark Hambourg recordings.  I have the "Moonlight Sonata" complete on two Victor
> records, 29005&  29006;  I also have the second record only on British HMV
> C2552, (Plum label with coloured dog).  In both cases, the 4th side filler is
> Beethoven's Variations on "Nel Cor Piu".  These records - both the Victor and
> the HMV appear to be late 20s pressings but, as dl pointed out, Victor was using
> this label and groove style into the 30s.  There is certainly nothing in the
> John Bolig Discographies, which only go to the end of 1929, about either of
> these pieces.  The HMV, which only has the second part of the third movement of
> the Moonlight on it marries perfectly to the Victor 29005 which has the first
> part of the movement.  The pickup sounds the same and the tempo matches.  But
> the Beethoven Variations are so different on the two recordings you wouldn't
> even believe it's the same pianist - the Victor version is much faster and the
> dynamics are completely different.  (WERM mentions only the HMV pressings, not
> the Victor.)
>
> I have another Mark Hambourg record which is a single sided acoustic, Victor
> Number 177008.  This contains Waltz in D flat and Etude in C flat by Chopin.
>   This should certainly be in the Bolig Discographies since they purport to cover
> the entire acoustic era, but it's not listed there and there are no numbers
> anywhere near 177008.
>
> Does anyone out there have a more reliable source than I do and know how to find
> out details about these records?
>
> Thanks!
> db
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