The De Reszke Record

[Starkton]

This looks like an interesting book for record collectors:



Murder, madness and mystery in the bizarre world of high-end record collecting [sic!].
An asylum escapee with a dangerous secret, on the run from the master criminal who has murdered his only friend.
Both seeking that rarest of all records, the long-lost 1905 Fonotipia disc said to bear the only recording of the legendary voice of the great tenor Jean De Reszke.
Out of this mix, a darkly comic thriller that revives a hundred year old mystery.

http://www.zeus-publications.com/the_De ... Record.htm

Note:
In fact, Jean De Reszke is said to have recorded TWO large size (13 ¾") Fonotipia discs on April 22, 1905, both assigned a catalogue number but apparently never sold:
Cat. no. 69000 Roméo et Juliette: La scène du tombeau
Cat. no. 69001 Le Cid: O souverain, o juge, o pere

[phonogfp]

Looks like we'd all better stick to the Columbia Grand Opera recordings of De Reszke!

It's kind of cool that record collecting should be the background for a murder mystery. Music box & phonograph collector Larry Karp has written several good murder mysteries where music boxes/collecting have played a pivotal role. If you like Scott Joplin and ragtime, there's a trilogy on that too. Check them out.

Thanks for the heads-up, Stephan!

George P.

[bbphonoguy]

Looks like we'd all better stick to the Columbia Grand Opera recordings of De Reszke!

It's kind of cool that record collecting should be the background for a murder mystery. Music box & phonograph collector Larry Karp has written several good murder mysteries where music boxes/collecting have played a pivotal role. If you like Scott Joplin and ragtime, there's a trilogy on that too. Check them out.

Thanks for the heads-up, Stephan!

George P.

Hmmm. Reminds me of a book I read when I was about 10 or 11. It was called The Mystery of the Silent Friends. The plot revolved around three antique automatons, each of which held one clue to the location of a hidden treasure.

[estott]

Looks like we'd all better stick to the Columbia Grand Opera recordings of De Reszke!

His brother Edouard, I assume you mean. I think the only scraps of Jean are on Mapleson cylinders.

[transformingArt]

Note:
In fact, Jean De Reszke is said to have recorded TWO large size (13 ¾") Fonotipia discs on April 22, 1905, both assigned a catalogue number but apparently never sold:
Cat. no. 69000 Roméo et Juliette: La scène du tombeau
Cat. no. 69001 Le Cid: O souverain, o juge, o pere

The Le Cid recording would be a great Creator recording if it was published.I heard somewhere that Roberto Bauer actually had one pressing of this before the war, but sadly, this didn't survived the war when the Nazis smashed almost all of his record collection. By the way, I also heard somewhere that a private recording of Jean's wife, Marie, had survived, and it features no other than Jean himself as a piano accompanist! I wonder if it is available on any later LP/CD reissue. So far I've never heard a wind of it!

Well, We still have some "echoes" of him on the Mapleson cylinders; I have his "O Paradiso" snippets from Meyerbeer's "L'Africaine" on IRCC 78 dubbing, and it sounds much better compared with other later transfers of the cylinder. Even with all those surface noises and crackles, one can sense a tenor with a well-polished voice and amazing breath control.

Edouard de Reszke records on Columbia didn't seem to sound that good to me. They had that typical problems of early acoustic Columbia vocal recordings; the lower registers were not recorded properly; much like those infamous Lillian Nordica records. Also, his singing sounded little bit tired on these recordings. His Mapleson cylinder recordings, although pretty faint, is much more better musically; especially the series of cylinders that contains a duet from "Les Huguenots" with Johanna Gadski.

I never had an original Edouard de Reszke, but a friend of mine copied a transfer of the recording recently. I tried to bid on a IRCC re-recording of it on a Columbia blue shellac pressing, but that one ended up in a collection of a Japanese collector I've known for some time. He also copied it for me, but anyway, it didn't sounded well as it was a dubbing. Also, I realized that there might be at least two different takes of "In felice" from "Ernani", as there are obvious differences on the announcements and his singing.

[transformingArt]

By the way, the 1946 film noir "Mysterious Intruder" starring Richard Dix has a interesting plot; it is a murder mystery that surrounds a wax cylinder recording by JENNY LIND! Of course, there was no such thing, but I thought that was pretty much interesting that somebody came up with such idea to use a valuable old recording as a plot device as early as 1946!

[estott]

Edouard de Reszke records on Columbia didn't seem to sound that good to me. They had that typical problems of early acoustic Columbia vocal recordings; the lower registers were not recorded properly; much like those infamous Lillian Nordica records. Also, his singing sounded little bit tired on these recordings. His Mapleson cylinder recordings, although pretty faint, is much more better musically; especially the series of cylinders that contains a duet from "Les Huguenots" with Johanna Gadski.

I can hear good technique on them, but the recordings (and perhaps the old LP transfer) strip much of the resonance and tone from the voice making him sound more like a baritone than a bass. He also sounds a bit reticent in spots, understandable in his first encounter with a recording horn. Halfway through the Don Juan aria by Tchaikovsky he catches fire a bit and things improve.

[Nat]

I've got an IRCC pressing of one of the Mapleson cylinders, and find it a lot better than the CD issue I have (I'm at the ranch, so I can't go look up the details), which makes for pretty heavy weather. At the same time, I'm astonished at some of the restorations done by Andrew Rose and Ward Marston on Pristine. I do wish they'd address themselves to some of these older, rarest recordings.

Nat

[Nat]

I tried to order a copy of the book, but they want twenty dollars for shipping! I guess a copy of the record comes with each book?

[Starkton]

By the way, I also heard somewhere that a private recording of Jean's wife, Marie, had survived, and it features no other than Jean himself as a piano accompanist! I wonder if it is available on any later LP/CD reissue. So far I've never heard a wind of it!

I have a transfer of this record which is one of the nicest Fonotipia ever recorded! I will forward it to you. The specimen I have seen bears a regular label, therefore I doubt that it was a private recording.

Also, I realized that there might be at least two different takes of "In felice" from "Ernani", as there are obvious differences on the announcements and his singing.

Yes, there are two takes. Take 1 of Ernani (Columbia 1221-1) and also the Porterlied from Marta (Columbia 1222-1) were never reissued in double sided form and are thus the rarest records of Edouard de Reszke.