I’ve gone for a cellos and French works theme for the latest update to my site:
Franz André conducts Saint-Saëns’s Carnival of the Animals (1952) and Ravel’s second Daphnis and Chloe suite (1950). The Ravel suffers some crumbling of sound in climaxes, but otherwise sound is good. The double bass player in the Saint-Saëns isn’t as secure as one would wish. (Telefunken LP)
François Ruhlmann conducts Chabrier’s España (1931 Pathé).
Maurice Maréchal plays the Lalo cello concerto impressively, conducted by Philippe Gaubert (1932 Columbia) – there are a few small cuts in the first movement.
W.H. Squire plays Saint-Saëns’s Cello Concerto No.1 with Hamilton Harty and the Hallé Orchestra (1926 Columbia).
Arnold Földesy plays Bruch’s Kol Nidrei with piano accompaniment (c1930 HMV). There is a minor cut between the two sides. Földesy’s cello is now owned by Daniel Müller-Scholl, who has also recorded Kol Nidrei on it.
Antonio Janigro plays Dvorak’s Cello Concerto, with Dean Dixon and the Vienna State Opera Orchestra. (c1953 Westminster recording, reissued by World Record Club)

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In other musical news, I purchased the Historic Masters repressing of Francesco Tamagno’s 10” recordings. These were an absolute joy to listen to, his voice ringing out clearly more than a century after the recordings were made.

I’ve also had the pleasure of the final instalment of Marston’s Conchita Supervia edition. There’s very much a Spanish focus on the recordings included, apart from some Lehar in French. Even greater joy than listening to Tamagno. In addition, the package included the latest Lagniappe disc, a bonus to subscribers. This time it was a selection of recordings by Paul Payan. This wonderful French bass displayed great flexibility and variety of colour. There were times when his timbre reminded me of Ezio Pinza.

I’ve been working through the EMI Classics 10CD Stokowski box. Of course, it includes some less familiar works, which make a great impression, but it’s when you get to the more familiar stuff that Stokowski’s choices can be frustrating. There are tweaks to the orchestration of Holst’s Planets, and his Carmina Burana cuts out middle verses of many parts of the score, and plays around with tempos and pauses outrageously. There are some tender and affecting parts, but as a whole it was disappointing.

I’ve also enjoyed Reginald Goodall’s EMI recording of Parsifal, though I think I prefer my Parsifals a little brisker than his.

There are still piles of 78s, LPs and CDs which I haven’t listened to. Among those that reached my turntable today were another National Savings promotional record, recorded just a few days before VE Day (when the outcome of the war in Europe was pretty much known) and paying tribute to all of the British armed forces and volunteers who contributed to the war effort. It’s a fascinating snapshot, with solos from baritones Thorpe Bates and Walter Saull. Joseph Batten conducts the London Symphony Orchestra. I hope to get this transferred soon. I’ve also just listened to Marie Novello’s recording of Liszt’s 2nd Hungarian Rhapsody, somewhat abridged on two sides of a 10” Winner disc. It’s an unusual performance – it isn’t the hackneyed barnstorming approach, and is perhaps the most rhapsodic version of the rhapsody I’ve heard. I’ve also listened to the violinist Daniel Melsa (on Broadcast Twelve), Stanley Chapple conducting Brahms and Elgar (again Broadcast Twelve), Virgilio Ranzato in two violin solos (Pathé), and assorted other things that may make it to my site soon. But my half-term holiday has just finished, so it’s back to work next week, with less time for transferring recordings.

The National Savings record is probably the next item on my list for restoration, though, for its unusualness.

Damian

http://www.damians78s.co.uk/index.html

Damian

As well as this, I’ve included restorations of 8 sides recorded in 1916 and 1917 by the Australian violinist Daisy Kennedy (who has her own dedicated page at my site), featuring a number of rare photographs, and a radio recording of an interview she gave with the BBC. 6 of the sides I’ve newly made available are from the collection of Cheniston Roland. He has kindly allowed me to make them available at my site.

There are other things in the pipeline – many, in fact. The trouble is that it’s a very long and slow moving pipeline. I’ve just digitised Franz André’s mid 1950s account of Bizet’s L’Arlèsienne Suites, which are delightful, and show off the French system woodwinds (and saxophone) of the Belgian National Radio Orchestra. I have a feeling that this may be the next item to appear on my site. There’s so much more, including several more André LPs. There are of course post 1959 LPs which I’ll transfer for my own enjoyment, and will not be available online for copyright reasons (such as “Introducing Patricia Routledge” from 1973 – songs by Rodgers, Porter, Coward, Novello and so on; a far cry from Routledge’s famous TV characters of Hyacinth Bucket, Kitty and Hetty Wainthrop)

From time to time, the faults or flaws in my restorations of 78s or LPs force me to revisit the transfer in question. In this case, my previous transfer of Walter Süsskind’s late 1950s Pye recording of Handel’s Messiah was hampered by the poor quality LPs I worked from. I’ve since acquired a rather better set, and I’m working on restoring this recording once more. Frustratingly, on my first restoration, I neglected to make a note of those areas where the pitch was a problem. For example, the last section of “But who may abide”, beginning at the final Prestissimo, needs to be slowed down by 2.5%, presumably the result of a poor edit in the original recording.

I also have a number of Daisy Kennedy sides to work on, thanks to Cheniston Roland of Violinland, and my own collection. I hope to get all of these recordings onto my site within the next few weeks.

On the listening side of things, I’m steadily working through the complete Brahms set from Brilliant Classics, now enjoying his many choral works. I’ve also listened to the first of Malibran’s issues of Mengelberg’s 1944 Paris live recordings – thrilling performances, though the sound has lots of room for improvement

I’ve also been restoring a few LPs over the last couple of weeks, as they’re often a bit of light relief compared to restoring 78s. The two I’ve worked on most recently are an LP of Rameau excerpts conducted by Nadia Boulanger (almost ready for the website now), and Rousseau’s “Le Devin du Village”, a seminal opera in its day, and satirised in Mozart’s Bastien et Bastienne.

This includes Landon Ronald’s acoustic recording of Dvorak’s New World Symphony (a slightly abridged recording made between 1919 and 1922), and several items mentioned in recent posts here: Albert W Ketelbey conducting a medley of Irish jigs, David McCallum snr playing Scottish fiddle pieces, and actor Peter Miles singing two songs, including one he wrote himself.

As to what I’ll work on next, well it’s up in the air a bit. There’s Wagner from Landon Ronald and Percy Pitt, two solos by Daisy Kennedy, Columbia History of Music. So many things that I’m not sure where to start at the moment!

Yesterday I listened to the first CD of the latest issue from Marston Records – a historical anthology of Meyerbeer recordings. Marston’s aim is to identify all vocal sections of Robert le Diable, Les Huguenots and Le Prophète that were recorded in the acoustic era, and give at least one representative version of each, preferably in French. There’s also an appendix of additional versions of some items. What astonishes me, apart from the singing, is the exceptional condition of so many of the records that Marston has used. So many 78s one finds are in a very worn state.