The recording begins at the Allegro section of the overture, though this is not noted on the labels.

Download – Wagner – The Meistersingers – Overture – Goossens

(mp3 file – right click the link, then select “Save as”)

Both sides play at almost 82rpm.

There is a gap of several bars between the two sides. The first side finishes on the first beat of bar 96 (with an E major chord), and the second starts at bar 122 (with an E flat major chord). This prevents an adequate side join.

Goossens made a later electrical recording of this work for Australian HMV in 1952

Mediafire link for Wolf-Ferrari, Sibelius, Auber, Delibes – LSO, Goossens

(These are zip files – left click the link, download the files, then unzip when downloaded)

The Sibelius work is a premier recording, and was in fact the only acoustic recording of this work. It has several small cuts, removing bars 7-10, 5 after D to 9 before E, 13 after F to H, 7 after I to 6 before L.

Mediafire link for Wolf-Ferrari, Sibelius, Auber, Delibes – LSO, Goossens

(These are zip files – left click the link, download the files, then unzip when downloaded)

Mediafire link for Wolf-Ferrari, Sibelius, Auber, Delibes – LSO, Goossens

(These are zip files – left click the link, download the files, then unzip when downloaded)

Goossens recorded this again in 1930 with the LSO, for HMV (see below)

This acoustic recording was replaced in September 1926 with an electrical remake conducted by Percy Pitt. It is interesting to note that although the two versions deal with the same four numbers from the score, the precise musical content of the two recordings is actually different.

His Master’s Voice D 684
Matrix: Cc 2215-IV (single-side number 3-0829)
Recorded 24th January 1923, Hayes

This pioneering recording of the Brandenburg Concerto No.3 was on 3 sides, with Air on the G string filling the 4th side of the set. There are two slight omissions in the concerto – between the first and second sides of the first movement, a figure of 4 bass notes is omitted which links the two sides, though the omission does not really affect the flow of the music. Also, the two chords of the 2nd movement are entirely omitted.

In the acoustic era, only one Brandenburg Concerto made it into the record catalogues – Concerto No.3 in G. This recording by Eugene Goossens in 1922 was its first – there was another acoustic recording with George Hoeberg conducting the Berlin State Opera Orchestra.

In the electrical era the Brandenburgs received many more recordings – complete sets from Anthony Bernard in the late 1920s (of which no complete set is known to survive), Busch and Cortot in the 1930s, and Boyd Neel in the 1940s; as well as accounts of various individual concertos from the likes of Stokowski, Wood and Koussevitzky.

Delius – Brigg Fair – RAHO, Goossens
Delius – On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring – RAHO, Goossens

(mp3 files – click to play, or right click the link, then select “Save as”)

Brigg Fair is complete, but the Cuckoo is slightly abridged, losing 23 bars in total (from 2 before fig 5 to 4 after fig 6, and from 4 after fig 9 to 3 before fig 11.)

The set of Victor records used for this transfer was in good condition except for the first record which has a chunk broken off which takes about 9 cm of the circumference of the record and stretches about 1 cm into the playing surface. This took some considerable effort to repair, and means that the first 25 seconds and from about 4:00 to 4:30 of the First Tableau suffer some thumping and interruptions to the sound.

This recording is one of Goossens’s earliest, and was a significant gramophone premiere. Goossens was the conductor of the first recording of Stravinsky’s Petrouchka in late 1923 and early 1924. This was the only acoustic recording of the work, and this recording was superseded just four years later by Albert Coates’s electrical HMV recording and Stravinsky’s for Columbia (both with the London Symphony Orchestra). Goossens history with the work goes back to 1913, when he was a deputy violinist in the orchestra for the Ballet Russe performances at Covent Garden. In May 1925 he once more worked with Diaghilev when he conducted performances of Petrushka at the Teatro Liceo in Barcelona. In summer 1931 he again conducted the work for Beecham’s company at the Lyceum Theatre. Goossens brought Petrushka to the recording studios once more in 1959 – and didn’t take kindly to the criticism which the recording received, making it clear that he remembered all the details of the 1913 performances.

The performance is virtually complete. The First Tableau uses the concert ending, omitting the 10 bar passage between figures 47 and 48 in the score which link it to the Second Tableau. At about 2:40 in the Third Tableau, in the bar before figure 69, the introductory drum roll which links into the Dance of the Ballerina is omitted, as this is at a side join. The Third Tableau also includes one of the most notable instrumental fluffs in the recording, in an exposed bassoon part. The final side of the Third Tableau ends with the first two bars of the drum figure which begins the Fourth Tableau. The remaining two bars of this drum figure are not included at the start of the next side, so I’ve repeated them to make the passage complete.

It is remarkable how much detail of the scoring is contained within this late acoustic recording. Although some passages for cellos and basses alone are supplemented noticeably by bassoons, the recording seems overall to keep fairly close to the original scoring. A full range of percussion (including harp) is heard, along with cor anglais and bass clarinet. The playing (despite the bassoon fluff noted earlier) is remarkable – there are a few other misplaced notes, and one or two examples of inaccurate rhythm. Bear in mind that this new and difficult score was premiered just 12 and half years before this recording was made.

Among the horn players is Aubrey Brain – he also played on the Coates 1927/8 recording, and Stravinsky’s 1928 recording.

The notes from this Victor album are available here.

Download – Puccini/Tavan – Tosca – selection – Goossens

(mp3 file – right click the link, then select “Save as”)

Mediafire link for Rimsky-Korsakov – Scheherezade – Goossens

(These are zip files – left click the link, download the files, then unzip when downloaded)

This abridged recording by Eugene Goossens uses almost the same cuts as Landon Ronald’s account, simply adding one or two extra passages that Ronald decided wouldn’t fit on. These include the opening twelve bars of the first movement, a section between A and B in the third movement, and in the fourth movement, the section between A and B, and from W to a little before X.

The parts of the score included in the recording are given below. Page references are to Hawkes Pocket Score – section letters appear common to all scores.

First Record: start (p3) to end (p4); E (p19) to 6 after F (p26); 5 after H (p30) to M (p38); 11 after M (p39) to end (p41)

Second Record: start to bar 4 (p42-3); A (p44) to B (p45); C (p47) to D (p50); H (p62) to 16 after I (p68); 6 before L (p73) to L (p74); N (p79) to P (p87); R (p92) to end (p96)

Third Record: start (p97) to B (p101); C (p105) to H (p116); I (p119) to K (p120); P (p133) to end (p134)

Fourth Record: 24 before A (p140) to bar before E (p147); K (p158) to N (p168); P (p173) to bar before Q (p176); W (p197) to 10 after X (p213); 15 after X (p216) to 10 after Y (p221); Z (p222) to 6 after Z (p224)

(records provided by Paul Terry)

This was Goossens’s second recording of this score – he previously recorded it in September 1928 with the Hollywood Bowl orchestra, available on a Cambria CD.

(records provided by Paul Terry)

(records provided by Paul Terry)

(records provided by Paul Terry)

Mediafire link for Svendsen – Carnival in Paris, Tchaikovsky – Polonaise – Landon Ronald, Eugene Goossens

(This is a zip file – left click the link, download the file, then unzip when downloaded)

This side was the filler to Sir Landon Ronald’s recording of Svendsen’s Carnival in Paris.

(records provided by Paul Terry)

(records provided by Paul Terry and myself)

(records provided by Paul Terry)

Coupling for Vaughan Williams’s A London Symphony (February 1941)

I. Lento – Allegro risoluto (3 sides)
II. Lento (2 sides)
III. Scherzo (Nocturne) (1 side)
IV. Andante con moto – Maestoso alla Marcia. (1½ sides)
Epilogue – Andante sostenuto (1½ sides)

Cincinatti Symphony Orchestra, Eugene Goossens

Mediafire link for Vaughan Williams – A London Symphony – Eugene Goossens

(These are zip files – left click the link, download the files, then unzip when downloaded)

Coupled with Bizet’s Farandole, LSO (9th May 1938)

For the 50th anniversary of Vaughan William’s death, there were many reissues, including, from Symposium, Dan Godfrey’s premiere recording of A London Symphony – both his earlier recording of the first (abridged) and third movements, and the “complete” recording that followed. The abridged first movement was one of the records recommended by Percy Scholes in his “Second Book of the Gramophone Record”. Godfrey’s recording used the 1920 version of the score. Vaughan Williams published an updated version of the score in 1936, and it is this that was used by Sir Henry Wood in his recording the same year. However, by a curious quirk, when Eugene Goossens recorded the work in 1941 with the Cincinatti Symphony Orchestra, he used the 1920 version. It is also noteworthy, that both Wood and Goossens omit the repeat of the first section of the Scherzo, which Godfrey included in both his acoustic recordings of the movement. There can be no doubt that both conductors would have had room for it: Wood’s side lengths are fairly short, and breaks between movements occur during sides; and Goossens’s recording takes 9 sides, with the 10th taken up by a 1938 recording with the LSO of Bizet’s Farandole!

These recordings, then, by Wood and Goossens provide an opportunity to compare the two versions of the work. It’s also an instructive comparison of recording styles. Wood rarely approaches a true pianissimo, particularly where the lower instruments are concerned, perhaps continuing the habits from around 1916 when he started conducting for records. Goossens for Victor has a much more natural recorded sound, allowing for a wide dynamic range.

Delius – Walk to the Pardise Garden – Cincinnati SO, Goossens

(mp3 files – click to play, or right click the link, then select “Save as”)

Available to download from Historic Recordings

Available to download from Historic Recordings

Goossens made an earlier acoustic recording of this work for Edison Bell Velvet Face in 1921.

Available to download from Historic Recordings

Matrices 2AA455-462

Recorded 21-22 April 1952, in the Great Hall of Sydney University

It was noticeable in transferring these records how much better the quality was on these Australian 78s compared to British 78s of the same period – there was virtually no crackle.