100th Recording Anniversary of World's First Electrically Recorded Symphony Orchestra to be Commercially Issued

[Governor Flyball]

Could not let this date pass as it is such a landmark recording. Exactly 100 years ago, Victor experimentation with the new technology was progressing well.

The sound of this first recording is a little cramped as it was recorded in a Camden NJ studio that must have been just outfitted with he electrical equipment. Victor was still making acoustic recordings in Camden and this must have been about almost the last studio conversion as from May most recordings were electric. Acoustic recording continued at Camden until late July. And this week in April 1925,Victor and Columbia signed the final agreement with Western Electric which led to the first electrical releases at the end of this month.

The Saint Saens Danse Macabre on this landmark record is interesting. Notice the tympani is missing and is substituted by the comical snorts of bass sarrusophone, a brass double reed woodwind instrument. The violin solo was too distant from the microphone which demonstrates Victor engineers were struggling the with balance of the instruments. And lastly the strange dead room acoustic. The sound is similar the Philadelphia Orchestra's recording of Dvorak 's New World Symphony made a little over a month later. The New World includes the tympani which suggests the Western Electric microphones had an issue with the Danse Macabre. Although that is only my conjecture.

https://youtu.be/PzuyW9rjejk?si=4m9IAk_4nqqexSG7