All posts in category Piano/Keyboard

Organ and Orchestra

After my annual Albert Coates post which included a couple of Handel organ concerto sides, I received some feedback prompting me to transfer some other 78rpm sides for organ and orchestra. The first has Sir Hamilton Harty conducting his own arrangement for organ and orchestra of movements from Handel’s Concerto in D major, HWV 335a […]

Albert Coates’s birthday

Albert Coates’s birthday This year for the anniversary of Albert Coates’s birth I’ve selected several discs conducted by Coates (and a couple of related items not conducted by Coates.) To begin with, two of Coates’s less familiar recordings. In 1932 Coates two movements from Handel organ concertos, played by Herbert Dawson on the organ of […]

Walter Rehberg plays Soirée de Vienne and Voices of Spring

A pair of brief Viennese arrangements for New Year, in the form of Alfred Grünfeld’s arrangement of themes from Johann Strauss II’s Die Fledermaus, “Soirée de Vienne”, and Roderich Bass’s arrangement of Voices of Spring, both ably played by Walter Rehberg. The second record is rather more worn than the first, but still sounds quite […]

Easthope Martin – Godard and Grieg; Albert Coates – Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet, Rimsky-Korsakov’s Dance of the Tumblers

There are two parts to this latest addition to my site. First, a performer who has appeared already as a composer: Easthope Martin, whose popular “Come to the fair” has been heard here performed both by Julie Andrews, and her stepfather Ted Andrews. However, in the period before the First World War, Martin recorded a […]

Lilian Bryant conducts and plays the piano

This update is by way of tribute to one of the significant contributors to the UK recording industry. Lilian Bryant was a pianist and conductor, and was the musical director of the Pathéphone Company, Ltd. in London. There are numerous orchestral recordings on which she is the conductor, including several popular overtures. She is likely […]

Brahms Intermezzi played by PM Ireland; Vocal gems from Balfe’s The Bohemian Girl; Lulworth Cove – Queen’s Hall Light Orchestra – Charles Williams

While a big project slowly progresses, I’ll be posting occasional smaller updates. This latest includes three very different records, embracing opera, orchestra and piano. Balfe – The Bohemian Girl – Vocal Gems: Light Opera Company: Sopranos: Della Baker, Helen Clark, Erva Giles, Emily Stokes Hagar, Olive Kline, Lucy Isabelle Marsh, Gladys Rice Contraltos: Edna Indermauer, […]

Works by Lumbye, Warschawsky, Kremer and Waldteufel on early Gramophone Concert records; Chimes and sounds of London, with Stanley Roper, organ

Here in London, it’s traditional that the chiming of Big Ben rings in the New Year. The following recordings, from November 1926, includes that distinctive bell, and other bells of Westminster, together with Stanley Roper playing the organ of St. Margaret’s Church, Westminster. St. Margaret’s Chimes, Westminster. “O God, our help in ages past” Impressions […]

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 […]

Gordon Jacob’s William Byrd Suite – Coldstream Guards Band (1925); Stanley Chapple – Brahms Hungarian Dances, Elgar Pomp and Circumstance No.1; Franz André – Eric Coates, Elgar, Gershwin; Frieder Weissmann – Strauss’s Tod und Verklärung; Arthur Meale – Thalberg’s “Home Sweet Home”, Ascher’s “Alice, Where Art Thou?”; Capiton Zaporojetz – The Song of the Flea, Drinking (In cellar cool); Early recordings by Julie Andrews

It’s been more than a month since my last update, so there are quite a number of items to add this time. The recordings range from acoustic 78s through to mono LP, and include military band, orchestra, piano and vocal recordings. Gordon Jacob – Suite by William Byrd Mediafire link for Jacob – William Byrd […]

Dan Godfrey – Mozart’s Jupiter (new transfer); Hamilton Harty – Mozart Divertimento No.17; Jean Witold – Eine kleine Nachtmusik; Pauline Aubert – Rondo alla turca; Robert Veyron-Lacroix – Piano Concertos K107 (after JC Bach), with Roland Douatte; Lener Quartet – Eine kleine Nachtmusik; Don Giovanni excerpts in English – Tudor Davies, Peter Dawson, Eleanor Jones-Hudson

The focus this time is on Mozart, with a new transfer of Dan Godfrey’s recording of Symphony No.41 “Jupiter” K551, and a selection of orchestral and keyboard items, including Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, from the 1950s as presented on a French “Mode disques” LP from some time later. For a different take on Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, […]

Landon Ronald – Glazunov Chopiniana, Mendelssohn Songs without words,Grieg Lyric Suite (1925 & 1933); Arthur De Greef, Landon Ronald – Liszt Concerto No.1, Saint-Saens Concerto No.2; Daisy Kennedy, Hamilton Harty – Beethoven Romance in G

The flurry of Landon Ronald recordings continues, again with accompaniments for Belgian pianist Arthur de Greef (1862 – 1940). De Greef’s recording of Liszt’s 1st Piano Concerto was not the first ever (that honour fell to Anderson Tyrer on Edison Bell Velvet Face, with Adrian Boult conducting), but is important as a recording of a […]

Landon Ronald and Arthur de Greef in Grieg and Liszt; Thor Johnson conducts Grieg

Yet more from Landon Ronald now – this time conducting accompaniments for the Belgian pianist Arthur de Greef (1862 – 1940), in music by Liszt and Grieg. As a bonus there’s also a disc of two De Greef solos, by the same composers. The recordings are of some significance, as De Greef was one of […]

Benno Moiseiwitsch and John Drinkwater

Regular visitors to this site will not be surprised to find a recording conducted by Landon Ronald. In this case, for the anniversary year, it’s Mendelssohn’s Piano Concerto No.1 with Benno Moiseiwitsch. The other item is a spoken word recording – the poet and playwright John Drinkwater reading some of his own works. The two […]

Mark Hambourg’s Tchaikovsky 1st Concerto, Rodzinski conducts Mozart concertos, Howard Barlow conducts Haydn’s Surprise, creators of Der Rosenkavalier, Vladimir Golschmann conducts Sibelius and Mozart

There’s quite a mixture of items for mid-January. Firstly, I’ve had another attempt at Mark Hambourg’s recording of the Tchaikovsky First Piano Concerto – the HMV surfaces are rough, and the recording isn’t the easiest to deal with, but I’ve certainly improved on my previous attempt. It also brings the name of Landon Ronald to […]

Pauline Aubert plays music of the Couperin dynasty

Pauline Aubert has appeared here already in a number of Anthologie Sonore recordings. The present set is slightly later, probably about 1950, on a Classics Club LP. Aubert plays music of “The Couperin Dynasty”. Mediafire link for Pauline Aubert recordings of Couperin dynasty (These are zip files – left click the link, download the files, […]