All posts tagged Wagner

Albert Coates’s birthday

This year’s celebration of the anniversary of Albert Coates’s birth brings more Wagner, and some familiar Stravinsky. When the Gramophone company was recording its sets of excerpts from the Ring of the Nibelung (in English) in 1922 and 1923, Tudor Davies was the singer for Siegmund. He initially made 2 takes of Siegmund’s “Spring song”, […]

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 […]

Albert Coates and “The Rhinegold”

The anniversary of Albert Coates’s birth rolls round again. This year I’ve opted to transfer a disc from HMV’s acoustic Ring cycle excerpts in English of the early 1920s. “The Rhinegold” was rather short-changed in the set, meriting just one record, featuring scenes with Alberich. (HMV did also have a 1920 recording in the catalogue […]

Albert Coates day

April 23rd is the anniversary of the birth of the wonderful Albert Coates. To celebrate, I’ve transferred a pair of his Wagner recordings. Wagner – Lohengrin – Act 3 Prelude – Symphony Orchestra, Albert Coates HMV D 1054 Matrix Cc 7083-II (4-0751) Recorded 27th October 1925, Studio B, Hayes Wagner – Tannhäuser – March – […]

Coates and Shakespeare

April 23rd is Shakespeare day, and also the birthday of the great Albert Coates. Firstly, two songs by Peter Warlock, the first to a Shakespeare test, sung by Parry Jones. Warlock – Take, o take those lips away (Shakespeare) Warlock – There is a lady sweet and kind (Thomas Ford) Parry Jones, tenor with piano […]

Good Friday Music

As a quick Easter update, the Good Friday Music from Parsifal seemed apposite, here with Hermann Jadlowker and Paul Knüpfer. Wagner – Parsifal – Charfreitagszauber Orchestra, Bruno Seidler-Winkler Hermann Jadlowker, tenor Paul Knüpfer, bass Wagner – Parsifal – Good Friday – Jadlowker, Knüpfer (mp3 file – click to play, or right click the link, then […]

A festive feast of Wagner and Verdi

To round off the Wagner and Verdi bicentenary year, I’ve gathered a varied selection of music by these two operatic greats, in various guises. Dajos Béla recorded extensively in many genres. The following abridged version of the Tannhäuser Overture is one of his more straightforwardly classical recordings, though the scoring is adapted for his band […]

Adrian Boult and Stanley Chapple conduct Wagner on Vocalion

More Wagner for the bicentenary year, this time with rarely head Vocalions from Adrian Boult in the overture to the Flying Dutchman and the Procession of Masters from Die Meistersinger (both 1927), and from Stanley Chapple in the Act 3 Prelude from Lohengrin (1927) and the Siegfried Idyll (a late acoustic recording from around 1925) […]

Percy Pitt conducts Wagner

It’s quite some time since any of Percy Pitt’s recordings appeared here. I’ve therefore opted to share one of his acoustic HMV recordings. It’s an orchestral recording, unusual in his HMV output, which was mainly devoted to accompanying singers either as pianist or conductor. Wagner – Götterdämmerung – Siegfried’s Journey to the Rhine Symphony Orchestra, […]

Albert Ketelbey – Massenet’s Angelus and Luigini’s The Voice of the Bells; Hamilton Harty – Wagner’s Die Meistersinger Overture, overtures to Stanford’s Shamus O’Brien and Rossini’s Barber of Seville

Now we head back to the early 1920s for three English Columbia acoustic discs, featuring two of Columbia’s regular conductors: Albert W Ketelbey and Hamilton Harty. The reason for grouping these together is a little confusion in the catalogues as to who is conducting on one of the records. Massenet – Angelus from “Scenes Pittoresques” […]

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 […]

Carmen excerpts: 1920 Columbia abridged recording; highlights on LP from Walter Goehr and Erasmo Ghiglia; orchestral and choral excerpts – Weingartner, Pitt, Maclean, Ronald, Sabajno, Matacena, Mackenzie-Rogan, Weissmann, Coates; excerpts from 1911 Pathé recording; other vocal excerpts in French, English, German, Italian and Russian

It has taken a long time to prepare this update, which focuses on Bizet’s Carmen. The centrepiece is the abridged 1920 Columbia set on 10” records. This is complemented by two LPs of excerpts from the 1950s, and then a wide selection of 78s of orchestral and vocal excerpts, whether in more or less their […]

Shakespeare recordings by pupils of the Guildhall School of Music, Basil Maine and John Gielgud; Albert Coates conducts Siegfried’s Funeral March

Today marks the anniversary of Shakespeare’s birth and death, and is also St. George’s Day. To mark the first of these, there are two quite different Shakespeare recordings from 78s, which are linked by a review in Gramophone magazine. Then there’s a set of Linguaphone recordings of John Gielgud performing Shakespeare. This is different to […]

Landon Ronald – Tchaikovsky, Schumann, Wagner, Svendsen Bizet; Eugene Goossens – Tchaikovsky; Mary Law; Il Trovatore – Carrie Lanceley & Gwilym Richards; Daisy Kennedy interviewed

People are probably starting to wonder just how many Landon Ronald recordings I have. There are still plenty more to come, and a few early transfers which I’m keen to revisit. So, for the summer, a selection of Tchaikovsky, Svendsen, Wagner and Bizet, including a bonus side by Eugene Goossens. Schumann – Carnaval Mediafire link […]

Albert Coates conducts Wagner, Kletzki’s Beethoven and André Gertler in the Berg Violin Concerto

I couldn’t let Albert Coates’s birthday pass without a transfer of at least one of his recordings, and rather than go for his more common early electrical recordings, I’ve chosen his acoustic recording of the Meistersinger Overture. The other items for this update feature the conductor Paul Kletzki: his recording of Beethoven’s Leonore Overture No.3, […]

Mendelssohn with Harty, Mendelssohn’s Walpurgisnacht, Golschmann’s Shostakovich, Raybould, Goossens, Heger, Frank Mullings and Salvatore Salvati

This latest update sees a site redesign, and a number of new transfers on site. In the orchestral arena, we have Harty’s sparkling account of Mendelssohn’s Italian Symphony (afflicted by swish), Golschmann’s early 1950s LP recording of Shostakovich’s 5th Symphony, overtures conducted by Clarence Raybould (on Regal), and Eugene Goossens (on Edison Bell), and a […]