Sextette - Chi mi Frena, Lucia di Lammermoor (Donizetti)

[Valecnik]

One of the diamond discs I picked up at Union. A little bit of surface noise even though the record is very clean but I guess they sing loudly enough that it does not matter. Recorded December 20, 1916 in Edison's New York studio.

Mixed voices in Italian.

Marie Rappold, Margaret Matzenauer, Giovanni Zenatello, Arthur Middleton, Thomas Chalmers, Enrico Baroni all singing together on this one. A real rarity to hear these six on the same record.

[youtubehd]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouo_Ln9xeic[/youtubehd]

And the other side. Recorded September 14, 1917 in Edison's New York studio.


Alice Verlet, Guido Ciccolini, Arthur Middleton, Henri Scott, Merle Alcock, Enrico Baroni

Enjoy!

[youtubehd]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKmK0olnEDQ[/youtubehd]

[52089]

Thanks for putting that one up. I noticed it was "missing" from Youtube and was going to put my own video up there eventually.

This was one of my favorite "test" records but unfortunately my copy now has some wear on the really high notes and blasts even with the best diaphragms. I'll pick up a bettter copy eventually.

Even though this is a 1916 recording, I've only seen paper label pressings of this one for some reason.

[Valecnik]

Thanks for putting that one up. I noticed it was "missing" from Youtube and was going to put my own video up there eventually.

This was one of my favorite "test" records but unfortunately my copy now has some wear on the really high notes and blasts even with the best diaphragms. I'll pick up a bettter copy eventually.

Even though this is a 1916 recording, I've only seen paper label pressings of this one for some reason.

This copy looks like new but also stresses the reproducer almost to the limit on some passages. Some of the Edison operatic stuff on disc, and on the directly recorded cylinder, is really stunning quality. I've never heard a lateral cut of the day that can match them. The Pathé center starts though are comparable.

[Lucius1958]

Interesting! I wonder why they decided to put two different versions of the same selection on one disc...

And just a technical detail: isn't your reproducer set rather high? I see the pin riding near the bottom of the loop...

Bill

[syncopeter]

What is this with vertically recorded discs? Contrary to lateral ones, they really only sound right when played on original machines. I've listened to quite a few Pathé and Edison DD records played on high quality modern equipment with the correct stylus and EQ curve and they all sounded completely dull. Put them on an original machine and the music literally bursts out of the horn.
With 'normal' records the difference is much less.

[Valecnik]

What is this with vertically recorded discs? Contrary to lateral ones, they really only sound right when played on original machines. I've listened to quite a few Pathé and Edison DD records played on high quality modern equipment with the correct stylus and EQ curve and they all sounded completely dull. Put them on an original machine and the music literally bursts out of the horn.
With 'normal' records the difference is much less.

I also have modern equipment properly set up and I know what you mean. Someone who's smarter than I am will need to answer that question!

Interesting! I wonder why they decided to put two different versions of the same selection on one disc...

And just a technical detail: isn't your reproducer set rather high? I see the pin riding near the bottom of the loop...

Bill

Yes, it was set too high. I noticed it a couple of discs later when it skipped. It's since been fixed. Thanks!

[FloridaClay]

Great recording!

Clay

[Valecnik]

Great recording!

Clay

Could you imagine going via time machine to the recording studio when they were making this??? A distant second best would be a decent movie capturing it but that ain't gonna happen. It would be too difficult for them to write into the plot scantily clad women, muscular bare chested men and lot's of explosions, fire etcetera...

[schallplatte]

Victor Talking Machine Company
Lucia di Lammermoor : Sextet - Chi Mi Frena (Donizetti)
1917

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14tdvxUvxFU[/youtube]

[52089]

Victor Talking Machine Company
Lucia di Lammermoor : Sextet - Chi Mi Frena (Donizetti)
1917

I recommend reading Michael Sherman's "Collector's Guide to Victor Records" as he devotes several pages to the Lucia Sextette. The 1917 version linked above is the third one to feature Caruso and was priced at "only" $5, the two earlier versions (1908 and 1912) having been sold for the then-astronomical price of $7 at a time when $5 when a fairly respectable week's pay.

There are other versions on Victor on the purple and blue seal labels as well, plus an electric verion from 1927.