Is there any interest in early albums of classical 78s?

[marcapra]

Who would have guessed that the first company to put out a complete classical work was Odeon's Nutcracker Suite from around 1907! Never knew it was that early. Marc.

[CarlosV]

Who would have guessed that the first company to put out a complete classical work was Odeon's Nutcracker Suite from around 1907! Never knew it was that early. Marc.

Pathé issued complete operas very early in the 20th century, but I don't know if before 1907. Some of these sets were in 35 cm discs, others in 50 cm discs, which required a physically well fit listener to haul a set of 30 of such beasts near the phonograph, and replace them every five minutes (on top of the rewinding). I have partial sets of operas in 35 cm (90 rpm), and some individual 50 cm discs (120 rpm).

[bfinan11]

50 cm, 120 rpm discs?! What phonograph were those for? Did they play longer than the standard 12" record? They would certainly have been louder!

[CarlosV]

50 cm, 120 rpm discs?! What phonograph were those for? Did they play longer than the standard 12" record? They would certainly have been louder!

These discs were designed to be played on a series of machines that Pathé called Concert, and on other large horn machines like the Pathé 17. Indeed they were designed to play louder, not longer than the other more standard records that played at around 90 rpm: the duration of the play is around 3 minutes. I have half a dozen of these, they are very heavy and unwieldy to handle and store, but very impressive, as far as I know these were the largest discs produced commercially, being larger than the 16 inch transcription discs made for radios in the 40s.

Pathé however made other type of 50 cm discs that played at much lower speed, about 40-50 rpm, mostly for recordings of theater stage plays: these played for several minutes on each side. The same machine that played the 120 rpm also should play the lower speed ones, but since I don't have one of these discs I could never check them out.

See the photo below (for some reason it uploads upside down...) - the phonograph is a Pathé Concert

[52089]

And to think that the seller of the Edison 12" needle cut records with the beautiful gold labels with lightning bolts called me a week before the APS auction offering me the records for $200. At the time I didn't realize the rarity or the beauty of those records, so I turned him down!

3 12" Edison laterals of classical music sold on ebay today (4/23/17):
47001 - Carl Flesch - $362.99
47004 - Moriz Rosenthal - $412.00
47006 - Quartet parts 1 and 2 - $227.89

I was interested in the Rosenthal myself - he was a student of Liszt - but I wasn't willing to pay more than $200 or so myself.

Seller is "hanks-parts" should you wish to see these in detail.

[OrthoSean]

3 12" Edison laterals of classical music sold on ebay today (4/23/17):
47001 - Carl Flesch - $362.99
47004 - Moriz Rosenthal - $412.00
47006 - Quartet parts 1 and 2 - $227.89

I was interested in the Rosenthal myself - he was a student of Liszt - but I wasn't willing to pay more than $200 or so myself.

Seller is "hanks-parts" should you wish to see these in detail.

I wasn't at all surprised to see the Rosenthal sell for that, it's been known to go higher when it does turn up, which is almost never (of course). A friend of a friend bought it, in fact. The Flesch also went for less than I expected to see it go for. The Quartet went higher than I would have expected also, this is one of the most frequently encountered of all of them, not that ANY of them really turn up. The seller has no experience in shipping 78s, so I really hope he takes the suggested packing instructions I told my friend to pass along, what a shame it would be if any of these ended up smashed in shipping!

Sean

[Menophanes]

Reverting to the original poster's query: – Some weeks ago I was bidding on a Columbia (British) set, dating from the late 1920s, of a Beethoven quartet played by the Capet Quartet, a French ensemble formed in 1891 which is said to have been among the last major string groups to play with little or no vibrato in the nineteenth-century fashion. It sold for over GBP50.00, a figure which may seem trifling by comparison with some of the sums recently cited for Edison sets but which was nonetheless a little too much for my enterprise. I do not remember any other instance of a post-1925 non-vocal album actually selling at this sort of level; however, it is already clear to me (this is only my second posting) that there are people here whose experience is much wider than mine, and they may yet have something to add.

I have many such sets and still play them, albeit not as often as I would if (a) they were not so awkward to haul off their shelves and (b) I were not down to the last thousand or so of the 5000 Songster 'pick-up' needles (advertised, and for the most part truthfully, as good for fifteen sides each) which I bought as a bulk lot in 1981. But my impression is that they would be the very devil to sell at any price. I dread to think what will become of them once I have, in Sir Thomas Beecham's phrase, 'gone on tour with V.W.'

Oliver Mundy.

[marcapra]

I dread to think what will become of them once I have, in Sir Thomas Beecham's phrase, 'gone on tour with V.W.'

I'm not familiar with that quote from Sir Thomas. Can you explain the meaning of that idiom? thanks, Marc.

[miker2001]

I think this is the quote about the late Beethoven quartets: "Written by a deaf man and should only be listened to by a deaf man!"

It is a reflection on Beecham's ignorance.

[Starkton]

I dread to think what will become of them once I have, in Sir Thomas Beecham's phrase, 'gone on tour with V.W.'

I'm not familiar with that quote from Sir Thomas. Can you explain the meaning of that idiom? thanks, Marc.

The complete phrase is: "I'm afraid Malcolm Arnold won't be joining us for the concert. He's recently gone on tour with Vaughan Williams", meaning that Arnold recently died.