An 1889 Edison Cylinder with Johannes Brahms at the Piano

[Starkton]

I have written an article in English about Johannes Brahms at the piano on an Edison cylinder of 1889. This is probably the most important recording of the 19th century of a musical giant. The cylinder still exists, but after bad treatment sadly little is left of the grooves today.

The "Hungarian Dance No. 1", the first track on the Brahms cylinder, then already in an advanced state of decay, was dubbed on shellac disc in 1935 in the Lindström recording studio. Of the handful of pressings for archival use none seemed to have survived the Second World War, until one specimen surfaced in surprisingly good condition on a German flea market. The disc went to an important collector from whom I traded it. I heard all available sound files, but the Lindström pressing, despite its shortcomings, stands out for richness of detail of Brahms' musical performance.

Norman Bruderhofer kindly transferred the Lindström pressing and made room for my illustrated article with soundfile on his website: http://www.cylinder.de/deeplink_resource_brahms.html

This is Brahms at the same piano where he was recorded in December 1889.

[Swing Band Heaven]

Very interesting. I first heard about the Brahms cylinder back in the 1980s when it was discussed on a radio programme which covered rare recordings. They didn't play it, in fact I thought they indicated that it had been lost and might somewhere be waiting to be discovered - but I heard the show along time ago and that's my recollection.

Very interesting to at last hear the contents of the cylinder.

S-B-H

[Lenoirstreetguy]

Interesting article indeed. Now something just struck me: it IS just Brahms playing the solo version, is it not? The Hungarian Dances were originally written for piano duet, I believe. The two voices in the introduction to the cylinder could possibly be Brahms and the second pianist.
Probably not, but just a thought. If it had been the duet version someone would surely have discovered that by now.
Jim

[Starkton]

Now something just struck me: it IS just Brahms playing the solo version, is it not? The Hungarian Dances were originally written for piano duet, I believe. [...] If it had been the duet version someone would surely have discovered that by now.
Jim

You raise an interesting point. Much has been written about the Brahms cylinder in the last three decades, and this anomaly was detected and made clear by musicologists. I cite from Michael Musgrave and Bernard D. Sherman, Performing Brahms, Cambridge 2003, page 304: "Brahms was improvising on the basis of the duet original [...] rather than from his simplified solo piano version [...]."

This shows that even in bad condition the recording allows definite conclusions about Brahms' piano playing.

[transformingArt]

Again, Thanks a lot for the article and the soundfile, Starkton. It was really interesting.

[Starkton]

I have revised my article and placed Brahms, playing his Hungarian Dance, on youtube, now with correct speed: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRcMPxba ... re=channel

During an autopsy of the spoken introduction I could clearly distinguish two voices: At first Theo Wangemann spoke "Dezember 1889." Then the recording was stopped for an unknown period of time. When it was restarted, another person, very likely Brahms himself, spoke "im Haus von Herrn Doktor Fellinger, bei [by?] Herrn Doktor Brahms, Johannes Brahms."

Here is my revised article: http://www.cylinder.de/deeplink_resource_brahms.html

[Wolfe]

Very interesting. I first heard about the Brahms cylinder back in the 1980s when it was discussed on a radio programme which covered rare recordings. They didn't play it, in fact I thought they indicated that it had been lost and might somewhere be waiting to be discovered - but I heard the show along time ago and that's my recollection.

Very interesting to at last hear the contents of the cylinder.

S-B-H

I think I first heard it on the Yale University Archives Treasures (or whatever it was called, I don't have it anymore) CD set nearly 20 years ago. But it's been extant longer than that.

It's poor sound is often attributed to playing wear from over the years.