Anna Case on a very clean 1929 Columbia Viva-Tonal record

Discussions on Records, Recording, & Artists
User avatar
Victor A
Victor I
Posts: 196
Joined: Thu Jul 07, 2016 3:45 pm
Personal Text: "Are you suggesting coconuts migrate?" - Graham Chapman

Re: Anna Case on a very clean 1929 Columbia Viva-Tonal recor

Post by Victor A »

This is a lovely performance, and sounds great. Thanks for posting!
SOUSA, The March King, says:

"Your 'VICTOR' and 'MONARCH' Records are all right."

User avatar
Henry
Victor V
Posts: 2624
Joined: Thu Jan 08, 2009 11:01 am
Location: Allentown, Pennsylvania

Re: Anna Case on a very clean 1929 Columbia Viva-Tonal recor

Post by Henry »

Nobody has commented on the very prominent tuba playing the bass line on this electrical recording---and yet we all have read the explanation of such usage on acoustical recordings because (presumably) the bass string instruments didn't record strongly enough. Yet here we have tuba used. One wonders....?

BTW, the tuba is played quite skillfully and tastefully here. And to my ears, Anna Case sounds just fine in Cherubino's aria: much better than merely "workmanlike," whatever that is supposed to mean. At this level, competence is assumed as a given (pardon my redundancy).

Mozart (1756-91) never used tuba in any of his compositions for the simple reason that the tuba didn't exist in 1786 (the year he composed Le nozze di Figaro). In fact, there is at least one Mozart piece (that I know of) in which he used the string bass to reinforce the bass line of an otherwise exclusively wind piece: the Serenade no. 10 in Bb for 13 instruments.

Post Reply