The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

This is my current wishing list of 10 old recordings that I really want to get a decent transfers; Does anybody have any good transfers or reissues of these recordings? I have most of these in a not-so-good acoustic playback versions or very early primitive-sounding LP reissues - something that I can barely tolerate. About three of them, I have never heard a bit of the recordings at all.

I hope any of my collectors friend out there would shed some light on this matter.
If anyone of you has any decent transfers of these, then I will be extremely grateful if you can share it with me.

1. Jacques Urlus - "In fermen Lande" from "Lohengrin" (1927 Odeon Electric)
- I really want to know how he sounded like in front of a microphone! I have found a Dutch website that provides some 30 second clip of this, but, alas, no more!

2. Leon Melchisedec - "Stanza" from "William Tell"
- According to what I have read, this Zonophone recording is in a form of vocal lesson - which interests me a great deal.

3. Robert Blass - "Du sieh'st, das ist nicht so" from "Parsifal" / "Dichterliebe" pieces.
- IRCC coupling. I have lost my bid on eBay few years ago and never found a copy of this. I have one Blass recording which is very remarkable, so I assume this would also sound good as well. So far, I have a very primitive transfer of this from someone who played this on a Birch portable.

4. Jacques Thibaud - Saint-Saens Introduction & Rondo Capriccioso (1916 Pathé)
- Actually have this one, but impossible to play on my modern setup since it skips endlessly. I have tried some 30+ or more variants of playing methods, none of which worked. I have made an acoustic transfer, which sounds just dreadful.

5. Marguerite Namara - Morenita (Buzzi-Peccia) (1920 Edison DD)
- Her only published record. She was a remarkable personality and according to the contemporary notes, a capable singer. Anyway, I guess she would sound better (and interesting!) than Anna Case or most of female operatic singers recorded on Edison.

6. Geraldine Farrar - The Four Marguerites
- Two special sides on IRCC 144, an Aircheck recording from 1936 ; from one of her famous Metropolitan Opera intermission talks. It occasionally showed up on eBay, although I was too busy to notice or failed my bids.

7. Maurice Renaud - "Couplet de Toreador" / "Voici de Roses"
- Actually, I have this one on Pathé Etched label pressing, but it is impossible to play this properly with any of my modern equipment as the record keeps skipping. I have made a primitive transfer of this record with a Pathéphone, but the result is not that satisfying.

8. Any of Wanda Landowska's Victor acoustics (1923)
- So far, I have never came across with any of Landowska acoustics on a decent transfers. I have one quite worn record, and it is very interesting indeed.

9. Alfred Tennyson reciting "The Charge of Light Brigade"
- Longer version which lasts about more than 2 minutes. all I have heard of this version is a very harsh sounding acoustic playback transfer. Apparently HMV dubbed this cylinder recording to a 12-inch matrix in 1935, and it was issued on vinyl by Symposium Records in 1989. I have the Symposium Vinyl pressing of "Charge of Heavy Brigade", which sounds vastly superior to all the other transfers of this I have ever came across on the web.

The Farrar aircheck is from March, 1935.

The recordings I would most love to hear don't even exist. Why, oh why, didn't Mark Twain make commercial recordings? After his bankruptcy publishing the Grant memoirs, recording royalties might have provided much needed income. Instead, he went on speaking tours.

The Melchisedec recording was on Larry Holdridge's list last year (which you can still see online at www.holdridgerecords.com). It's a fascinating record. BTW, the new annual list should appear later this year. He often has many of the records you're seeking.