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This record I bought at Nauck's years ago, was recently rediscovered when playing some 12-inchers randomly extracted from the shelves. I was testing and comparing soundboxes (5A, 5B and Meltrope III) with bamboo needles.
Only to say that this is a good hard trial for needles and soundboxes. The beautiful song starts more or less quietly, but in a mezzo forte tone. As it progresses in crescendo and intensity towards the end, the powerful voice of the Dame gets mixed with orchestral accompaniment equally intense, evolving to a great finale. Near the end, the first fortissimo high note of Kirsten and the Philarmonia orchestra breaks the bamboo point. I find very difficult to surmount this point in the record, except using hard extra fine bamboo, and a counterweight.... Still trying to pass this Rubicon...
A good record for demonstrations and testing. Would like to know how grandious would it sound on one of those EMG/Expert machines...

HMV DB21020 dates from about 1950, well into the electrical pick-up era and not recorded with acoustic soundboxes in mind.

Having said that, I am sure my Expert could play it successfully, but probably with an Extra Soft Tone steel needle rather than a thorn or a fibre.

Epi, you're right, and I'm aware of it. But those late 78s are very well recorded, and sound so beautiful... I'm especially fond of Nessun Dorma by Gigli on DB 21138, recorded in 1949, in a softer vein. Anyway, the orchestral sound in those 21000s is spectacular.
Still, my experiments with 21020 continued, and I believe that this record has finally become 'educated' to fibres, for I almost got it right. I must tell you I'm using Spanish pressings, whose shellac surfaces are quite different from the British ones, more similar to the one we used during the forties, it is very good, and has no crackle, only a light hiss when in good condition. We didn't change to the more modern shellac composition, this late softer, until 1953 or so. So in these records, the bamboo behaves very well.

it is also that my bamboo needles are self-made from scrap bamboo sticks I collect from the trash here and there. so their quality is quite irregular. Anyway I inspect carefully the bamboo sticks before picking them and I choose those that seem to have hardwood surfaces. once I found in a container several sticks of black bamboo with a very hard surface. I always test the surface on site with my nails, and if the bamboo resists a good pressure exerted with the fingernail, and this leaves no mark on the surface, I pick it. I'm very fond of those black bamboo needles, and they are pretty good. The problem is that my bamboo are all mixed from different sticks, good and bad, and I must sort them and separate the good ones, and cut more needles!

When trying with one of those better black bamboo needles, and the narrower ones, they work better in those high level recordings.

Thanks for your kind comments.