All posts for the month December, 2010

Albert Whelan – Dickens; Bransby Williams – Dickens and others; Wilhelm Backhaus – Chopin, Schubert, Beethoven, Brahms, Bach; Vladimir de Pachmann – Chopin; Mark Hambourg – Chopin, Schubert; Irene Scharrer – Chopin; Moritz Rosenthal – Chopin 1st Piano Concerto

This Christmas update brings a batch of Dickensian spoken word recordings and related items. A few of these have appeared here before, but are presented here in new transfers. There are more items for the Chopin anniversary from various pianists, and some recordings by the same pianists of other composers, including a little festive Bach. […]

Albert Sammons – Vieuxtemps’s Ballade et Polonaise; Adela Verne – Chopin’s Polonaise in A flat major Op.53

Albert Sammons (1886-1957) was a much loved violinist, nicknamed the English Kreisler. He made several concerto recordings which are still highly regarded. The recording below was the first orchestrally accompanied version of Vieuxtemps’s Ballade et Polonaise, though with wind band accompainment. British military pitch at this time was A=452Hz, so this is the standard I’ve […]

Ferdinand Grossmann conducts two masses by Palestrina (1956)

I mentioned to Nick Morgan a litle while ago that I had a Vox LP of 2 Palestrina masses. As he’s uploaded some 1950s Palestrina, it prompted me to get on with completing the restoration of this recording. Ferdinand Grossmann has featured here as a conductor before – with the Viennese Men’s Singing Club in […]