1925: Landmarks from the Dawn of Electrical Recording
rec. 1924/25
Pristine Audio PASC734 [2 CDs: 140]

1925 was a pivotal year in recorded music. It was the year that electrical recording displaced the older acoustic system and the microphone replaced the horn. That said, not all companies were in a position to modernise and of course for some time to come people would listen to electrical recordings on non-electrical reproducers. Advances in studio reproduction were not always matched by similar advances in home listening, largely for economic or practical reasons – why get a new electrical reproducer when you still have plenty of acoustic records? 

Pristine Audio celebrates the centenary of the changeover with a twofer that selects important examples of the new system but also delves back a little to look at experimental electrical recordings. It offers a panorama largely focusing on American recordings but also including a major symphonic statement recorded in London and the focus is not solely on the classical repertoire. There is popular music, quite aptly.

The famous 1920 experimental English Columbia recording of Abide with Me and the Recessional starts things off. Recorded on Armistice Day at the funeral ceremony of the burial of the Unknown Solider this is widely agreed to be the first issued ‘electrical’ recording though it was a primitive system and you’ll be hard pressed to hear the band of the Grenadier Guards let alone to discern any of the words sung by the choir or congregation at Westminster Abbey. In America, Orlando Marsh was releasing his own brand of ‘electrical’ recordings in Chicago in 1922. Anyone who has heard examples of his Autograph label will appreciate that they are variable sonically and such is the case here – a fine sounding organ solo from Jessie Crawford and a more constricted recording, made a year later, of Dell Lampe’s dance band.

Mischa Levitzki and Giuseppe De Luca represent the competing companies, Columbia and Victor, and both sides were unissued at the time on 78s. Art Gilham has the honour to be the first person to have a recording released made by the new Western Electric system and his vamp piano and parlando singing, a kind of proto-crooning, comes over loud and clear. The following day Victor recorded a roster of its leading popular artists in a two-sided vaudeville review disc – if you’re a nostalgic soul you’ll appreciate such as pianist Frank Banta, the Sterling Trio, Henry Burr, Billy Murray, the virtuosic saxophonist Rudy Wiedoeft and the Peerless Quartet. A forward-looking instruction appears at the end of the first part of this disc: ‘We’ll see you on the other side.’

Victor was busy in February and March 1925 recording its artists. Studio pioneer Nathaniel Shilkret recorded obscure music from an even more obscure show but at about the same time Victor enticed contralto Margarete Matzenauer to their Camden, New Jersey studios to sing an aria from Meyerbeer and, rather more improbably, a Mexican folk song.  Three days later in came Alfred Cortot to record Schubert and Chopin and two days after Cortot it was the turn of the Victor Concert Orchestra, directed by Josef Pasternack, to record Bizet’s Petite Suite, from which we hear two movements. Other movements were recorded and were issued.  The first disc ends with the Associated Glee Clubs of America singing, all 850 voices of them, John Peel and Adeste Fidelis, apparently sung by the choir and audience of 4,000, though as Mark Obert-Thorn notes in the booklet, you could hardly hear more than the 850. In situ recordings of this kind liberated performers from tiny studio choruses – for example Joseph Batten’s 1924 The Dream of Gerontius with its chorus of eight – and soon led to an arms race, with the monstrous Handel recordings of some of the choruses from Messiah made by a chorus of 3,500 voices at the Crystal Place in London and conducted, if that’s the right word, by Henry Wood.   

The second disc is much more focused. Gennaro Papi conducts the Prelude to Cavalleria rusticana with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra using Brunswick’s cul-de-sac ‘Light Ray’ system. Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra play Danse macabre with violin soloist Thaddeus Rich – though macabre is appropriate as acoustic reinforcements were still necessary as you’ll hear tubas to reinforce the bass and a sinuous snake-charmer contrabassoon. The main work in the twofer is Landon Ronald’s July 1925 recording of Tchaikovsky Fourth Symphony, something I have reviewed in the past (review) but which is here in a fine restoration. The disc ends with the live recording made in Washington D.C. on 4 March 1925 of Calvin Coolidge’s inauguration. This is historically valuable and is representative of the clarity of spoken word even in live circumstances, such as this. That said, I actually found it hard always to understand what Coolidge is saying but that’s more to do with his manner of speaking than the reproduction. However, 20 minutes of this was more than enough for me but I daresay Americans will find it of interest. 

Uniquely in my experience, Pristine Audio has issued a 12-page booklet with some illustrations, including a full-page one of the label of the Westminster Abbey recording and a smaller one of Jessie Crawford’s Autograph disc. Mark Obert-Thorn’s text is very readable and a thoroughly accomplished piece of work and will support your listening pleasure.

Jonathan Woolf   

Contents
CD1
1. MONK Abide with me (2:50)
2. DYKES Recessional (3:34)
Choir, Congregation and Band of H. M. Grenadier Guards
Recorded 11 November 1920 in Westminster Abbey, London ∙ Matrices: unknown ∙ First issued on unnumbered Columbia “Memorial Record”
3. JONES & KAHN The one I love belongs to somebody else (3:17)
Jesse Crawford, organ
Recorded c. December, 1923 in the Chicago Theater, Chicago ∙ Matrix: 447 ∙ First issued on Autograph (no catalog number)
4. BERLIN All alone (2:52)
Dell Lampe Orchestra from the Trianon Ballroom/Al Dodson, vocal chorus
Recorded c. November, 1924, Chicago ∙ Matrix: 658 ∙ First issued on Autograph 604
5. CHOPIN Waltz No. 14 in E minor, Op. Posth. (2:51)
Mischa Levitzki, piano
Recorded 19 November 1924, New York ∙ Matrix: 6466-1 ∙ Columbia (unpublished on 78 rpm)
6. CIMARA Stornello (Son come i chicchi) (3:03)
Giuseppe De Luca, baritone/Orchestra conducted by Rosario Bourdon
Recorded 17 February 1925, Camden, New Jersey ∙ Matrix: WER-3719 ∙ Victor (unpublished on 78 rpm)
7. SMYTHE & GILLHAM You may be lonesome (2:55)
8. STANLEY, HARRIS & DARCEY I had someone else before I had you* (3:17)
Art Gillham, piano and vocal
Recorded 25 February 1925 in New York ∙ Matrices: 140125-7 & *140394-2 ∙ First issued on Columbia 328-D
9. THE EIGHT POPULAR VICTOR ARTISTS A miniature concert (9:29)
Opening Chorus; “Strut Miss Lizzie” – Frank Banta, piano; “Love’s old sweet song” – Sterling Trio; “Friend Cohen” – Monroe Silver, speaker; “When you and I were young, Maggie” – Henry Burr, tenor; “Casey Jones” – Billy Murray, tenor and Chorus; “Sweet Genevieve” – Albert Campbell, tenor and Henry Burr, tenor; “Saxophobia” – Rudy Wiedoeft, saxophone; “Gypsy Love Song” – Frank Croxton, bass; “Carry me back to old Virginny” – Peerless Quartet; “Massa’s in de cold, cold ground” – Chorus
Recorded 26 February 1925 in Camden, New Jersey ∙ Matrices: CVE 31874-3 and 31875-4 ∙ First issued on Victor 35753
10. GILPIN Joan of Arkansas – Medley (3:15)
Mask and Wig Glee Chorus; Orchestra conducted by Nathaniel Shilkret
Recorded 16 March 1925 in Camden, New Jersey ∙ Matrix: BVE 32160-2 ∙ First issued on Victor 19626
11. GILPIN Joan of Arkansas – Buenos Aires (3:37)
Arthur Hall, tenor; Bernard Baker, cornet solo; International Novelty Orchestra conducted by Nathaniel Shilkret
Recorded 20 March 1925 in Camden, New Jersey ∙ Matrix: BVE 32170-2 ∙ First issued on Victor 19626
12. MEYERBEER Le prophète – Ah, mon fils! (4:36)
13. MEXICAN FOLK SONG Pregúntales á las estrellas* (3:23)
Margarete Matzenauer, contralto; Orchestra conducted by Rosario Bourdon
Recorded 18 March 1925 in Camden, New Jersey ∙ Matrices: CVE 31632-3 and *BVE 31629-4 ∙ First issued on Victor 6531 and *1080
14. SCHUBERT (arr. Cortot) Litany (3:29)
15. CHOPIN Impromptu No. 2 in F sharp major, Op. 36* (4:41)
Alfred Cortot, piano
Recorded 21 March 1925 in Camden, New Jersey ∙ Matrices: CE 22512-11 and *31689-5 ∙ First issued on Victor 6502
BIZET Petite suite (from Jeux d’enfants)
16. 1st Mvt.: Marche (2:09)
17. 3rd Mvt.: Impromptu (1:03)
Victor Concert Orchestra conducted by Josef Pasternack
Recorded 23 March 1925 in Camden, New Jersey ∙ Matrix: BE 32179-3 ∙ First issued on Victor 19730
18. METCALFE (arr. Andrews) John Peel (2:53)
19. WADE Adeste fideles* (2:43)
Associated Glee Clubs of America
Recorded 31 March 1925 in the Metropolitan Opera House, New York ∙ Matrices: W98163-1 and *W98166-1 ∙ First issued on Columbia 50013-D

CD 2
1. MASCAGNI Cavalleria rusticana – Prelude (4:45)
Metropolitan Opera Orchestra conducted by Gennaro Papi
Recorded 8 April 1925 in Room No. 3, 799 Seventh Avenue, New York ∙ Matrix: XE 15472 or 15473 ∙ First issued on Brunswick 50067
2. SAINT-SAËNS Danse macabre, Op. 40 (7:19)
Thaddeus Rich, solo violin
The Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Leopold Stokowski
Recorded 29 April 1925 in Camden, New Jersey ∙ Matrices: CVE 27929-2 & 27930-2 ∙ First issued on Victor 6505
TCHAIKOVSKY Symphony No. 4 in F minor, Op. 36
3. 1st Mvt.: Andante sostenuto (17:38)
4. 2nd Mvt.: Andantino in modo di canzona (7:51)
5. 3rd Mvt.: Scherzo: Pizzicato ostinato (5:22)
6. 4th Mvt.: Allegro con fuoco (8:45)
Royal Albert Hall Orchestra conducted by Sir Landon Ronald
Recorded 20, 21 & 27 July 1925 in Hayes, Middlesex ∙ Matrices: Cc 6374-2, 6375-3, 6376-3, 6377-2, 6378-2, 6379-2, 6381-1, 6410-1, 6380-5 & 6382-2 ∙ First issued on HMV 1037/41
Inauguration of Calvin Coolidge as President of the United States
7. Oath of Office (given by Chief Justice William Howard Taft) (0:57)
8. “My Countrymen . . .” (2:04)
9. “It will be well not to be too much disturbed . . .” (3:28)
10. “Our private citizens have advanced large sums of money . . .” (3:33)
11. “There is no salvation in a narrow and bigoted partisanship” (3:25)
12. “. . . they ought not to be burdened . . .” (3:34)
13. “Under a despotism the law may be imposed . . .” (3:24)
14. “. . . built on blood and force” (0:51)
15. Ruffles and Flourishes/Hail to the Chief (U.S. Marine Band) (1:11)
Calvin Coolidge, speaker
Recorded 4 March 1925 in Washington, D.C. ∙ Matrices: 51175/81 ∙ Columbia (unpublished on 78 rpm)