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Oldest recording you play regularly?

Barrymagrec

Barrymagrec

pfm Member
Like it says, what is the oldest recording you own and play regularly - obviously It may have been transcribed on to more modern media.

For me the Batten Gerontius from 1924 https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B000051TON/?tag=pinkfishmedia-21
I play it at least as often as any of my other dozen or so recordings of Elgar`s masterpiece.

I have older recordings but more as curiosities.
 
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The Lauritz Melchior stuff from the 1920s and 30s on Nimbus, and Bruno Walter's 1935 recording of Act I of Die Walkure, mainly for Melchior's unmatched singing. In non-classical, the Louis Armstrong Hot Fives and Hot Sevens from the 1920s and 30s.
 
I basically cannot bear to listen to mono recordings, so late 1950s is about as far back as I go.
Living Stereo recordings from slightly earlier that I still turn to are Munch's Daphnis et Chloe, Reiner's Also Sprach Zarathustra and Piatogorsky/Haendl in Walton's Cello Concerto.
 
Robert Johnson, probably, and the Smithsonian Folkways American Folk Music box. The earliest recording on that is 1926.

I have trouble listening to classical music recorded before about 1950 and generally avoid mono if I can. I tried listening to Kathleen Ferrier singing das Lied der Erde recently and really struggled with it.
 
Louis Armstrong Hot Fives and Sevens from 1925 - 28.

Bessie Smith - I have a few of the Frog Records Complete Recordings Series but I only start at Vol 4 which kicks off in 1925. I suspect Volume 1 would be 1923.

These are not in regular rotation but do get an occassional airing.

--- Oops - sorry just realised this was in the Classical section - apologies. ---
 
SamS said:
Louis Armstrong Hot Fives and Sevens from 1925 - 28.

Bessie Smith - I have a few of the Frog Records Complete Recordings Series but I only start at Vol 4 which kicks off in 1925. I suspect Volume 1 would be 1923.

These are not in regular rotation but do get an occassional airing.

--- Oops - sorry just realised this was in the Classical section - apologies. ---
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No need to apologise, I did not wish to limit the question but thought most older recordings still listened to would be classical and the thread would be largely ignored in the main music section.
 
Busch Quartet recordings from the 1930s/40s. I have a CD of piano music from the turn of the 20th century onwards, but it's almost unlistenable because of poor sound quality.
 
Well, now the field has been opened beyond classical, I still regularly play a recording of Jack Hulbert singing The Flies Crawled Up The Window from the 1932 film Jack's the Boy. 78rpm on HMV label. This has been a favourite since childhood and is quite easy to do again now I have managed to configure my turntable to track at the correct weight for the 78rpm cartridge without adjustment.

When I was younger I used often to play a 4 X 78rpm set of Tchaikovsky Serenade in C major, opus 48 on my parents' Monarch autochanger deck. This was because the records were set-up to work on an autochanger with just the one manual intervention to turn the stack over and it fascinated me to see the heavy 12" records being manipulated at speed. I have since inherited both the records and the deck, but alas not played either in over twenty years.
 
For classical Pablo Casals Bach cello suites 36-39 perhaps once a month. From time to time some early Jazz and vocal, Bix, Ella et all most of it on vinyl some on those bargain bin CDs that can be picked up for washers. :)
 
Dinu Lipatti's Bach, Scarlatti & Mozart disc, and his Chopin recital.

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I don't play any recording very regularly, but I routinely listen to solo piano recordings from 1925 forward. The best transfers from around the mid-90s forward generally suffice. Acoustic recordings don't work for me. I'll occasionally pop in orchestral recordings from the 30s forward. Magnetic tape recordings from the late 40s forward get regular airings, as well. I perfectly fine with mono tape recordings of all types.
 
The voices of Chaliapin, McCormack, Caruso, and Galli Curci recorded very well with the acoustic process, and their unique timbres, personalities, styles and skills come across vividly. Each can give great musical enjoyment, uncompromised by the limitations of recorded sound.
 
I've recently been listening to the Rubinstein/Heifetz/Piatigorsky 1949 trio recordings and Dinu Lipatti's Bach/Scarlatti/Schubert/Mozart disc (1950?).

I know very little about classical music but these performances are extremely enjoyable and the recording quality doesn't diminish them in my opinion.

In a similar way I really love the recordings of Charlie Christian playing jazz guitar live at Minton's in 1941 - really noisy and primitive recordings but pretty magical.
 
neilmack said:
The voices of Chaliapin, McCormack, Caruso, and Galli Curci recorded very well with the acoustic process, and their unique timbres, personalities, styles and skills come across vividly. Each can give great musical enjoyment, uncompromised by the limitations of recorded sound.
Click to expand...

I think we are singularly fortunate that the human voice fell so serendipitously within the range best suited to the old acoustic and early electric recording systems. Because of this, we can enjoy a remarkable fidelity of recording of people like those mentioned above. Modern female singers would do well to listen to and learn from Amelita Galli Curci. I regularly listen to the excellent (given the recording dates) legacies of Calve, Ruffo, Gigli and Pinza. I adore the poignance of Alma Gluck in Handel's Atalanta , think Martinelli just another Italian shouter but admire Lauri-Volpi's earlier interpretations.

There is a whole universe of pre-War recordings inhabited by wonderful singers from what, unquestionably, was the Golden Age. My oldest record is a single-sided 78 of Tamagno from 1904; probably the oldest which I regularly play is all sorts of stuff by the incomparable Tito Schipa.

Perhaps I'll just switch on the grammophone and listen to Helen Jepson . . . .

Blissykins! :D

To PsB I would suggest that Mahler is far from being the best introduction to Kathleen Ferrier. You might get on better with her singing Handel or Gluck.
 
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