Historical Classical Music Recordings
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Historical Classical Music Recordings
Historical classical music recordings are generally classical music recordings made prior to the stereo era of vinyl disc recording, which began around 1957. As time passes, even later recordings, made in the early stereo era are also being released as "historical" recordings, especially if they were never released or were dropped from the record catalogs due to loss of popularity or "antiquated" sound. Typically such recordings are of artists and performances that were particularly notable at the time they were first released, or were unavailable because they were private recordings made at concerts or radio broadcasts. The latter can be of rather high quality if the recording derives from tapes made and archived by the broadcaster or the organization mounting the performance. Recordings issued by arts organizations Important sources of historical recordings are the broadcast archives of orchestras and opera companies. For instance, the Met Opera of New York has issued a numb ...
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Victrola Advertisement From 1915
The Victor Talking Machine Company was an American recording company and phonograph manufacturer that operated independently from 1901 until 1929, when it was acquired by the Radio Corporation of America and subsequently operated as a subsidiary called RCA Victor. Headquartered in Camden, New Jersey, it was the largest and most prestigious firm of its kind in the world, probably best known for its use of the iconic " His Master's Voice" trademark and the production, marketing, and design of the popular "Victrola" line of phonographs. After its merger with RCA in 1929, the company continued to make phonographs, records, radios and other products. History In 1896, Emile Berliner—inventor of the gramophone and disc record—contracted machinist Eldridge R. Johnson to manufacture his inventions.Gelatt, Roland, ''The Fabulous Phonograph: 1877–1977'', MacMillan, New York, 1954. Name There are different accounts as to how the "Victor" name came about. RCA historian Fred B ...
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Testament Records (UK)
The Testament Records label, based in Great Britain, specialises in historical classical music recordings, including previously unreleased broadcast performances by Arturo Toscanini and the NBC Symphony Orchestra and the pianist Solomon. It has also issued DVDs of kinescopes of Toscanini's 10 televised concerts on NBC from 1948 to 1952, adding sound taken from magnetic tape recordings of the broadcasts. In 2004, Testament released the complete Verdi Requiem conducted by Toscanini from a BBC recording of a live concert at Queen's Hall, London on 27 May 1938, with soprano Zinka Milanov, mezzo-soprano Kerstin Thorborg, tenor Helge Rosvaenge, bass Nicola Moscona, and the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus. ''The Gramophone Classical Musical Guide'' described the Testament issue as "skillfully remastered" and a superior performance to Toscanini's better known recording on RCA from 1951. In 2008, the company released the complete 1955 Bayreuth Wagner Ring Cycle conducted by Joseph Ke ...
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Arthur Rubinstein
Arthur Rubinstein ( pl, Artur Rubinstein; 28 January 188720 December 1982) was a Polish Americans, Polish-American pianist."Artur Rubinstein"
''Encyclopædia Britannica''
He is widely regarded as one of the greatest pianists of all time. He received international acclaim for his performances of the music written by a variety of composers and many regard him as one of the greatest Frédéric Chopin, Chopin interpreters of his time. He played in public for eight decades.


Early life


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Decca Records
Decca Records is a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis (Decca), Edward Lewis. Its U.S. label was established in late 1934 by Lewis, Jack Kapp, American Decca's first president, and Milton Rackmil, who later became American Decca's president. In 1937, anticipating Nazi Germany, Nazi aggression leading to World War II, Lewis sold American Decca and the link between the U.K. and U.S. Decca labels was broken for several decades. The British label was renowned for its development of recording methods, while the American company developed the concept of cast albums in the musical genre. Both wings are now part of the Universal Music Group. The U.S. Decca label was the foundation company that evolved into UMG (Universal Music Group). Label name The name dates back to a portable phonograph, gramophone called the "Decca Dulcephone" patented in 1914 by musical instrument makers Barnett Samuel and Sons. The name "Decca" was coined by Wilfred S. Samuel by merging the w ...
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Sir Georg Solti
Sir Georg Solti ( , ; born György Stern; 21 October 1912 – 5 September 1997) was a Hungarian-British orchestral and operatic conductor, known for his appearances with opera companies in Munich, Frankfurt and London, and as a long-serving music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Born in Budapest, he studied there with Béla Bartók, Leó Weiner and Ernő Dohnányi. In the 1930s, he was a répétiteur at the Hungarian State Opera and worked at the Salzburg Festival for Arturo Toscanini. His career was interrupted by the rise of the Nazis' influence on Hungarian politics and, being of Jewish background, he fled the increasingly harsh Hungarian anti-Jewish laws in 1938. After conducting a season of Russian ballet in London at the Royal Opera House he found refuge in Switzerland, where he remained during the Second World War. Prohibited from conducting there, he earned a living as a pianist. After the war, Solti was appointed musical director of the Bavarian State O ...
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Leonard Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein ( ; August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, pianist, music educator, author, and humanitarian. Considered to be one of the most important conductors of his time, he was the first American conductor to receive international acclaim. According to music critic Donal Henahan, he was "one of the most prodigiously talented and successful musicians in American history". Bernstein was the recipient of many honors, including seven Emmy Awards, two Tony Awards, sixteen Grammy Awards including the Lifetime Achievement Award, and the Kennedy Center Honors, Kennedy Center Honor. As a composer he wrote in many genres, including symphonic and orchestral music, ballet, film and theatre music, choral works, opera, chamber music and works for the piano. His best-known work is the Broadway theatre, Broadway musical ''West Side Story'', which continues to be regularly performed worldwide, and has been adapted into two (West Side Story (1961 ...
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Oscar Levant
Oscar Levant (December 27, 1906August 14, 1972) was an American concert pianist, composer, conductor, author, radio game show panelist, television talk show host, comedian and actor. He was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for recordings featuring his piano performances. He was equally famous for his mordant character and witticisms, on the radio and later in movies and television, as for his music. Early life Levant was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States, in 1906, to Orthodox Jewish parents who had emigrated from Russia. His father, Max, was a watchmaker who wanted his four sons to become either dentists or doctors. His mother Annie was a highly religious woman whose father was a Rabbi who presided over his daughter's wedding to Max Levant. Oscar Levant moved to New York in 1922, following the death of his father. He began studying under Zygmunt Stojowski, a well-established piano pedagogue. In 1925, aged 18, he appeared with Ben Bernie in a short fil ...
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Vladimir Horowitz
Vladimir Samoylovich Horowitz; yi, וולאַדימיר סאַמוילאָוויטש האָראָוויץ, group=n (November 5, 1989)Schonberg, 1992 was a Russian-born American classical pianist. Considered one of the greatest pianists of all time, he was known for his virtuoso technique, tone color, and the public excitement engendered by his playing. Life and early career Horowitz was born on October 1, 1903, in Kiev, then in the Russian Empire (now Ukraine). There are unsubstantiated claims that he was born in Berdichev (a city near Zhitomir in Volhynian Governorate), but his birth certificate unequivocally states that Kiev was his birthplace. He was the youngest of four children of Samuil Horowitz and Sophia Bodik, who were assimilated Jews. His father was a well-to-do electrical engineer and a distributor of electric motors for German manufacturers. His grandfather Joachim was a merchant (and an arts-supporter), belonging to the 1st Guild, which exempted him from ha ...
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Marian Anderson
Marian Anderson (February 27, 1897April 8, 1993) was an American contralto. She performed a wide range of music, from opera to Spiritual (music), spirituals. Anderson performed with renowned orchestras in major concert and recital venues throughout the United States and Europe between 1925 and 1965. Anderson was an important figure in the struggle for African-American artists to overcome racial prejudice in the United States during the mid-twentieth century. In 1939 during the era of racial segregation in the United States, racial segregation, the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) refused to allow Anderson to sing to an integrated audience in DAR Constitution Hall, Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C. The incident placed Anderson in the spotlight of the international community on a level unusual for a classical musician. With the aid of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and her husband President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Anderson performed a critically acclaimed open-air conc ...
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Sony Classical Records
Sony Classical is an American record label founded in 1924 as Columbia Masterworks Records, a subsidiary of Columbia Records. In 1980, the Columbia Masterworks label was renamed as CBS Masterworks Records. The CBS Records Group was acquired by Sony in 1988, and in 1990 it was renamed Sony Classical Records. Artists Sony Classical represents artists including: *Alexis Ffrench *James Horner *Yo-Yo Ma *Igor Levit *Jonas Kaufmann *Glenn Gould *Wiener Philharmoniker *Joshua Bell *Hans Zimmer * John Williams *Khatia Buniatishvili * Arthur Rubinstein *Eugene Ormandy *Leonard Bernstein *Teodor Currentzis * Arcadi Volodos *Christian Gerhaher *Vladimir Horowitz *Dirk Maassen *Christoph Koncz *Pasquale Grasso *Ivo Pogorelich *Martin Fröst *Leif Ove Andsnes *Lavinia Meije Presidents * 1997: Peter Gelb (NY) * 2009–2019: Bogdan Roscic * 2019: Per Hauber See also * List of record labels File:Alvinoreyguitarboogie.jpg File:AmMusicBunk78.jpg File:Bingola1011b.jpg Lists of record l ...
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Glenn Gould
Glenn Herbert Gould (; né Gold; September 25, 1932October 4, 1982) was a Canadian classical pianist. He was one of the most famous and celebrated pianists of the 20th century, and was renowned as an interpreter of the keyboard works of Johann Sebastian Bach. Gould's playing was distinguished by remarkable technical proficiency and a capacity to articulate the contrapuntal texture of Bach's music. Gould rejected most of the standard Romantic piano literature by Chopin, Liszt, Rachmaninoff, and others, in favour of Bach and Beethoven mainly, along with some late-Romantic and modernist composers. Although his recordings were dominated by Bach and Beethoven, Gould's repertoire was diverse, including works by Mozart, Haydn, Scriabin, and Brahms; pre-Baroque composers such as Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck, William Byrd, and Orlando Gibbons; and 20th-century composers including Paul Hindemith, Arnold Schoenberg, and Richard Strauss. Gould was known for his eccentricities, from his u ...
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Robert Russ (music Producer)
Robert Russ (born 20 September 1971) is a music producer from Berlin- Reinickendorf, Germany. He is the first German producer to be awarded with a Grammy for the '' Best Historical Album'' at the 60th Annual Grammy Awards in 2018. Life Robert Russ is mainly known in the United States as a producer of elaborate artist editions with recordings of Columbia Records and RCA Records (both part of Sony Music Entertainment): "Robert Russ, who produced Sony's recent boxed sets of Reiner/Chicago and Pierre Monteux recordings, has done as usual thorough job" (John von Rhein, Chicago Tribune, 13. December 2016). His "ambitious archival project" (Anthony Tommasini, The New York Times, 15. November 2013), the release of previously unknown live recordings of American pianist Vladimir Horowitz from New York's Carnegie Hall, caused a stir in 2013. His historically significant documentary "the ultimate find of recording history" (Anthony Tommasini, The New York Times, 2. February 2018), a set wi ...
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