Oldest Recording in Your Colletion

[Marc]

[about Oskar Fried's 2nd of Mahler]
it's well worth another listen.

Yes, tomorrow the r is back in the month.... autumn and winter are on their way.
To me, that means: less Bach and Mozart, more Schubert and Mahler. 

I already started in this last weekend of August: yesterday I listened to Mengelberg's performance of the 4th, in 1939, and enjoyed it (again). Especially the wonderfully played third movement. And Jo Vincent is superb in the Wunderhorn song at the end.

Another 'historical' Mahler I like: Carl Schuricht in and with the Concertgebouw (again.... I do apologize, I'm a male chauvinistic Dutch pig), autumn 1939 (just after the war had started), replacing Mengelberg (who was taken ill) in a concert with Das Lied von der Erde.
Ofcourse, this perfomance was also very historic in another way, because after about 20 minutes in "Der Abschied" a lady from the audience walked to the rostrum and said with a loud voice: "Deutschland über alles, Herr Schuricht!" to the poor conductor. After some murmuring and hissing, everything went 'quiet' again. But it certainly adds to the tension of this great performance. Schuricht and the orchestra did'nt seem to be disturbed, btw, they continued without a hitch.

Well, 'nuff said. After all, this is not a Mahler-thread.

EDIT EDIT: After posting, I discovered a site about this Schuricht-performance, with more information about the incident, but also about the reviews in the Dutch papers, with some comments about the differences between Mengelberg and Schuricht.
http://page.freett.com/Schuricht/concertgebouw.htm

[jochanaan]

The first ever recording of Mahler's Second Symphony: Eugene Ormandy/Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra, recorded on June 1, 1935.

Uh, better check your sources, Keemun; I believe (but I could be wrong) that the first M2 is actually the aforementioned Oskar Fried/Berlin State Opera Orchestra recording.  Certainly that one's older than the esteemed Ormandy/Minneapolis.

[Superhorn]

   I  have  a  real  dinosaur.  It's  a   recording  of  Weber's  Oberon  overture  with   members  of  the  London  Symphony   made  around  1914 !  An   acoustic  recording,  not  electric !
   It's part  of  the  EMI  boxed  set  which  accompanies  the  PBS  series  about  legendary  conductors,  which  was  shown  a  few  years  ago.
   It  also  features  recordings  by  Furtwangler,  Walter,  Koussevitzky,
Weingartner,  Stokowski, Beecham, Barbirolli,  Szell,  Bernstein  and   Karajan, and  was  dirt  cheap.  It's  probably  not  available  now,  though.
   What  a  pity  that  Nickisch  died  in  1922,  just  before  the  invention  of  electric  recording.  He  made  the  very  first  recording  of a  Beethoven  symphony,  the  fifth.  The  recording  technology  was  primitive  in  the  extreme.  The  PBS  series  has  been  available  on  DVD  and  is  worth  seeing.

[otterhouse]

The oldest is a brown wax cylinder, around 1899.

Further, a 1902 7#:
http://nl.youtube.com/watch?v=pCMGHNECGRU

And my 1905 Edison Bell phonograph:

http://nl.youtube.com/watch?v=aoP9R3QK36Q


Untill october 1st I have a 1909 record of Der Freischutz overture on-line:

http://docent.cmd.hro.nl/otter/Freyschutz-1909.mp3

"l'Orchestre de l'Opera (PARIS)" Odeon\Fonotipia record, conductor unknown.


have fun!!

Rolf

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Until october 1st I have a 1909 record of Der Freischutz overture on-line:

http://docent.cmd.hro.nl/otter/Freyschutz-1909.mp3

"l'Orchestre de l'Opera (PARIS)" Odeon\Fonotipia record, conductor unknown.

Thanks for the link, Rolf!

[jochanaan]

The oldest is a brown wax cylinder, around 1899.

Wow! What's on it?  Can it be played at all?

[otterhouse]

It's a marching band. No slip in the cylinder box, and I can't make anything of the spoken introduction...

But it's the only brown wax cylinder I have.

My first ever cylinder (bought when I was 13) was Watching and Waiting by Bryon G Harlan and Frank C Stanley.
That one was recorded in 1902. The USCB cylinder archive has a copy of it too:

http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/mp3s/2000/2675/cusb-cyl2675d.mp3

Greetings,
Rolf