# Buxbaum String Quartet



## Noel

Among my collection of shellac 78s there is a three-record set which, although carrying the Brunswick Hall of Fame label is of either Polydor or Deutsche Grammophon origin, evidenced by the inscription in the unrecorded part surrounding the label which reads "Mechan. Copt, 1928". 

The work is F. J. Haydn's string quartet Op. 74 No. 3 and is played by the Buxbaum String 
Quartet. In the 78 era, it was common for recording companies to print on their labels only the surnames of the members of small instrumental ensembles where, that is, they bothered to identify them at all. Often they did not and in cataloguing my collection I have had frequent recourse to the internet in order to establish who, for example, the members of the "International String Quartet" actually were.

So far, I have been successful but in the case of the Buxbaum String Quartet, I'm stuck. I have discovered that the first violin was Felix Eyle and the cello was Friedrich Buxbaum
but I have so far failed to find the first names of the second violin, Starkmann, and the viola, Moravec. There are many Starkmanns and Moravecs on the 'net but none of them seems to be associated with a 1928 recording by the Buxbaum String Quartet. 

If anyone out there can help, it would be very much appreciated.


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## Robert Lindley

*Buxbaum Quartet*

According to Cobbett's Chamber Music Dictionary (1934) the Buxbaum Quartet first consisted of: F. Mairecker; Starkmann; Morametz and Buxbaum. Later Robert Pollak replaced Mairecker. He was then replaced by van den Berg, leader of the Berlin Philharmonic until 1926. The 2nd violin is elsewhere given as Marx Harkmann. They were based in Vienna. Buxbaum had been cellist in Arnold Rosé's quartet from 1900 until 1921. Starkmann was also violist in the Philharmonic Quartet in Vienna. Sorry I can't do better for first names.


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## Noel

*Buxbaum Quartet*

Hello Robert, Thank you for your comment in reply to my query. Fortunately, I have at last succeeded in tracking down the names of the members of the Buxbaum Quartet for this 1928 recording, not an an easy task in view of the continual changes of personnel from year to year. However, I found the surnames through the website of a company which reissues historic recordings on CD and through many internet searches I found all four first names. The Buxbaum Quartet members for this recording were: Felix Eyle (1st
violin); Max Starkmann (2nd violin); Ernst Moravec (viola); Friedrich Buxbaum (cello).


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## Head_case

I've come across these in the Shellac 78s, but I only have a 45rpm/33rpm record player.

I've seen 78rpm players - and possibly a few that do 78/45/33. 

Have you had any success in transferring your 78's onto modern digital files? There is a wealth of Shellacs like the Buxbaum Quartet, and pre-Lowenguth Quartet recordings too, on 78 shellacs. My only fear is that the amount of dirt and debris that accompany these older Shellacs would make my obsessive tidiness and OCD cringe lol.


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## Noel

Hi Head-case, Many thanks for your suggestion. As it happens, I have a dedicated belt-drive turntable with a two-diameter spindle providing speeds of 33 & 45rpm and another dedicated 78rpm turntable with a Shure SC35 cartridge and stylus assemblies of 0.0030"
and 0.0035" tip radius so I can play virtually all post-1925 78s. I have come across not only some excellent commercial digital transfers of historic 78s but also some from which the sound quality was grossly inferior to that from the original 78s. Generally speaking, if you want to hear, say, the Rachmaninov second piano concerto at its best, you need the virtually silent-surface US RCA-Victor 78rpm pressings of the recording with the composer as soloist, made in 1929. Recently I heard a digital transfer CD of this recording and it sounded as if the music were being played 20 metres away through a couple of thick 
blankets - awful. 

Without the several thousand pounds required to purchase Cedar and all the other high-end equipment necessary to do justice to the often excellent recording quality of the original 78s, I shall stick to playing those and put up with the minor inconvenience of having to change the disc or turn it over every four minutes and 20 seconds. Rather that than risk losses of the depth and "presence" of the 78rpm originals. 

Thank you again, however, for your suggestion.

Noel


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## andrewsatura

Hello Noel,
I am curious to know exactly which website you found that had CD reissues of the 
Buxbaum Quartet. I am not a collector of 78's per se but I've heard the Buxbaum
Quartet's recording of the 3rd movement from Brahms a minor quartet as part of
a Max Fiedler set. I would be very interested in hearing more from the Buxbaums.
Please let me know where you spotted those surnames,

Thanks,

Andrew


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## Noel

Hello Andrew, Forgive my slowness in getting back to you. It is several months since I found the company re-issuing Buxbaum recordings on CD and regrettably I failed to make a note of their web address. Unfortunately, I suspect that my memory lacks some of its former acuity and I cannot now remember the name of the company. 

I'm also now not sure whether I gathered the surnames from that CD company's website or from a review in the archives of "The Gramophone" magazine which are available online back to the magazine's foundation in 1923. The task of finding the players' surnames was made difficult by virtue of the quartet's frequent personnel changes during the 1920s and quite a lot of searching was involved in pinning them down to the specific year, 1928. 

Finding the four players' forenames involved a very protracted search and I eventually found them, one at a time, from numerous separate websites. I am sorry that owing to the length of time which has passed since my original searches and my failure to record all the details of them, I cannot be of any further help. All I can say is that those CD re-issues must be out there somewhere. Good luck with your search.

Best regards
Noel


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## andrewsatura

*Buxbaum Quartet reissues*

Hi Noel-

Thanks for responding to my post. Just a guess, but the 
company you referred to couldn't have been the UK-based
Beulah Records, could it? In any case, you are quite lucky
to have their Haydn op.74 no.3. I'm certainly jealous! If 
you would like to hear more from the Buxbaums, here is
a link to an mp3.
The quartet plays the third movement of Brahms op.51 no.2 as
a filler for Brahms 2nd symphony conducted by Max Fiedler-
not a bad set!

Cheers,

Andrew


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## Noel

Hi Andrew, The CD re-issuing company could be Beulah but I just cannot remember. You may be interested to know that the three 78s in my possession are U.S. Brunswick "Hall of Fame" Series. These 12" gold-label issues were always pressed from metals supplied to Brunswick under contract from other companies which had made the original recordings. In this instance, the legend "Mechan.Copt.1928" appears in the unrecorded part of the shellac between the run-out groove and the the label. This was standard German Polydor practice and the Brunswick labels do indeed bear the legend "Recorded in Europe".

The newest Polydor 78s I have, labelled "Siemens Spezial", Beethoven Symphony 4 with 
the Berlin State Opera Orchestra conducted by Carl Schuricht, bear the legend "Mechan.Copt.1942". Just fancy that - the Germans were still making classical music recordings in the middle of a horrendous war fought on two fronts! The recording quality was excellent. By way of a horrific contradiction, when the German army invaded Czechslovakia in 1939, the Budapest String Quartet broke up, their Dutch cellist, Harry son, fled back to his homeland, the Netherlands, where he and his family were caught by the Gestapo. They all perished in the gas chamber at Auschwitz. We should never forget
what can happen when a dictator takes over the governance of a country.

When I play the 78s of the Budapest String Quartet's 1929 recording of Beethoven's "Rasoumovsky" Quartet, I say a little prayer for poor Harry and his family. 

Whenever you come across a set of pre-WWII 78s, there's usually quite a history behind them if you can uncover it. Makes me wonder however I managed before the Internet.

Best regards
Noel


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## andrewsatura

*Re: Buxbaum Quartet*

Hi Noel-

Thanks for all the information. Yes, the Germans certainly
took music-making seriously, even in the face of a horrific
war. They were probably unique as a government in believing
that music could be a force of moral improvement. I agree
with your warning about the dangers of dictatorship. You 
may think me something of a wing nut, but I believe our
current crop of dictators (Obama and Putin are no exceptions)
are more insidious than ever. This year's events in the
Middle East are a prelude to much larger changes ahead.
Just look at Greece and Ireland!

I have a CD transfer of the Budapest Rasumovsky quartet
that you mentioned. It never ceases to amaze me how much
the aesthetic of that ensemble changed after Roisman 
replaced Hauser. Did you know that when Istvan Ipolyi (violist)
was the last remaining founding member, Roisman and the
two Schneiders gave him such a hard time that he was forced
to resign due to a nervous breakdown! Such was the battle
between the Old and New Worlds.

Best regards,

Andrew


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## Noel

Hi Andrew, Sorry I couldn't be more helpful. We mustn't allow this correspondence to turn into a political polemic, the moderators wouldn't like it, but perhaps I can get away with mentioning that you are certainly not a wing-nut. Obama is a graduate of the Council on Foreign Relations, personally tutored by Zbigniev Brzenzinsky, so he knows what happens to US presidents, five of them so far, who seek to further the interests of the American people rather than those of the international bankers. To see just how dangerous the "current crop of dictators really are, type into your search engine "Bilderberg Group", "Illuminati Agenda" and "Georgia Guidestones". Poor old Istvan Ipolyi's troubles with Roisman and the two Schneiders were nothing compared to what the New World Order has in store for all of us. Meanwhile I'm going have a look to see if I can find any more Buxbaum Quartet 78rpm originals. I'll let you know if I do. 

Best regards
Noel


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## andrewsatura

Hi Noel,

Thanks for your validation. I recall Brzezinski remarking in a
private speech in '08 that "it's now easier to kill a million people
than to control a million people." Sinister stuff indeed. Do keep
me posted about any Buxbaum 78s that may turn up.

All best,

Andrew


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## Noel

Hi Andrew, CNN News agency founder and Bilderberg Group member Ted Turner is quoted as saying that while the bankers' Georgia Guidestones are engraved with the legend "Maintain humanity at under 500,000,000 in perpetuity", he reckons that 250-300 million would be the ideal, all micro-chipped slaves of course. As you remark, sinister stuff indeed.

My Brunswick Hall of Fame series Buxbaum 78s have engraved in the unrecorded part of the shellac between the run-out groove and the label "Mechan.Copt1928". This was standard practice for all German recordings prior to and even during the Second World War, up to 1943. Such recordings appeared under various labels including Polydor, Deutsche Grammophon and Siemens Spezial (but not Odeon). The Polydor group supplied metals to other, foreign, companies to enable them to press Polydor recordings under contract, hence, in the US, the Brunswick Hall of Fame series and, in Britain,
the Decca "Polydor Series" which were issued up to 1941 when the British government forbade Decca to press any more records from metals supplied by a company located in a country which had become enemy territory. 

I'll renew my search for Polydor Group 78s and see what I can find. The other major pre-war German record company was Telefunken, which survived the war and issued vinyl LP records under its own, Telefunken label in Britain, pressed at the British Decca plant. There are plenty of Telefunken pre-war 78s on eBay, usually at astronomical prices, but I've not so far seen anything by the Buxbaum Quartet on that label so I presume that they recorded only for Polydor. I'll have a look anyway, and see what I can find. 

Best regards
Noel


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## andrewsatura

Hi Noel,

If the 500M figure caught your attention, you should probably 
check out the creepy herpetologist Eric Pianka. In a 2006 speech
he compared the human race to an overgrown plate of agar. 
He'd be only too happy to supply the ideal strain of Ebola to 
wipe out 90% of the population (with immunity for a special
few no doubt). 

I think you are on the right track looking for the Polydors, 
at least that's what someone from Beulah Records told me.
Yes, the prices paid for 78s never ceases to amaze. I am
so fortunate that there is a wealth of blogs dedicated to 
making these recordings available to anyone with an 
internet connection. Otherwise, I would simply be priced
out of hearing these fantastic performances!

Cheers,
Andrew


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## Noel

Hi Andrew, Yes. I've heard of Pianka, it's quite some time ago but I think it was on Alex Jones's 
prisonplanet.com website. Naturally, being such an exemplary human being himself, Pianka would exempt himself from his proposed holocaust. Our own Prince Philip is also on record as having said that if there is such a thing as reincarnation, he wants to come back as a "deadly virus, to do something about the world's overpopulation problem". Rule by homicidal psychopaths seems to have always been humanity's historic misfortune.

I think the ridiculous prices being asked by a number of Dutch, Austrian and German dealers may well
have something to do with Euro-currency-induced hyperinflation because US dealers' prices are usually quite reasonable; unfortunately, USPS's shipping charges are not. More generally, one must take into account the fact that shellac 78s and vinyl LP's are the only physically tangible and permanently engraved recordings of the Western world's greatest music. While CDs are also physically tangible I'm not convinced that, like well-kept shellac 78s, they will still play perfectly when they are 85years old.

All recordings, or should I say "music files" held on all the media which have followed the CD (such as Mp3 downloads, ipods, ipads, ispuds and any other "i" you can think of are. by their very nature, ephemeral since they exist only in electronic, non-physical form. You can keep your entire music collection on one of these devices and wipe the lot simply by accidentally dropping it down the bog. Music collectors are beginning to realise this.

The bottom line is that, apart from Edison's two-minute, acoustically recorded cylinders which emit only a travesty of the original sound, the only permanent recordings we have are the post-1925 (i.e.
electrically recorded) Berliner discs, both shellac and vinyl. We should cherish them.

Finally, have a look at a firm called pristineclassical.com. I haven't done a comprehensive search of their site but some their re-issues are of pre-1925 acoustics, their catalogue includes all of the National Gramophonic Society's issues and they appear to have lots of other stuff besides. Any other info re Buxbaum recordings, whether 78rpm originals or CD re-issues, I'll let you know.

Best regards.Noel


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## andrewsatura

Hi Noel,

Don't worry, I have no illusions about the longevity of so-called
'sound files' and CDs. Some of my CDs have begun to 'bronze'
and I doubt that they will be playable a century from now. I live
in the US so shipping charges aren't a problem for me. However
I find that most dealers in the States sell 78s pressed in America
with European discs commanding a hefty premium. Also, the tastiest
stuff seems to reside elsewhere (especially in Germany as you 
mentioned) as evinced by this impressive blog based in Erfstadt. I will have to content myself with browsing Pristine's
website, I suppose. Thanks for all your help with the Buxbaums.

Warm regards,

Andrew


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## Noel

Hi Andrew, Thanks for your e-mail, much appreciated. There's something which you may or may not know about the difference between US and UK 78rpm pressings. Prior to the company's amalgamation
with the English Gramophone Company (HMV) to form EMI, English Columbia used what it called a "laminated" pressing formulation, whereby the pressing consisted of a stiff paper core, overlaid on both sides by a layer of relatively coarse-grained but mechanically strong "stock shellac" mix, which was in its turn overlaid by a thin layer of shellac-rich topcoat. These pressings had almost silent surfaces but production of them ceased in 1931 when the English Columbia factory was closed and the
master matrices transferred to the Gramophone Company's factory in Hayes, Middlesex.

However, the US Columbia company did not similarly amalgamate with the Gramophone Company's US sister company, Victor. On the contrary, they have remained competitors to this day. US Columbia
continued, right up to the end of the 78rpm era, to use the laminated pressing formulation devised by
its erstwhile sister company, English Columbia. The Victor company could not infringe US Columbia's patents by adopting the laminated pressing system and therefore competed with it by using a stock shellac which was extremely finely ground, contained a high percentage of shellac and produced
pressings which were remarkably quiet.

By contrast, EMI issued pressings on the Columbia, His Master's Voice and Parlophone labels which used the same stock shellac formulation as that which HMV had used from the very beginning in 1898. 
This coarse-grained concoction became infamous for its atrocious levels of surface noise which, in quiet, adagio orchestral passages or in recordings made by small ensembles such as piano trios or string quartets, was so intrusive as to practically drown out the music signal. I had played the English HMV issued of Rachmaninov's 2nd piano concerto, made in 1929 with the composers as soloist, on several frustrating occasions until I learned the difference between UK and US pressings. Eventually I bought the RCA-Victor set from a seller in the US. How wonderful it was, at last, to hear and enjoy the
music - and the remarkably good recording quality - without the HMV surface noise. A revelation indeed. I now have several sets of 78s which I originally purchased in UK pressings but have subsequently bought their US-pressed equivalents just to enjoy the music and to discover how much of it was almost lost beneath the surface noise of the UK-pressings.

So if you buy 78s pressed in England, be prepared for far more surface noise than you are used to. German pressings, of which I have only a relatively small number, are a little inconsistent; some are quite noisy, others not so. Parlophone-Odeon pressings of orginal German recordings which were pressed in English Columbia's factory prior to 1931 are quiet-surfaced, laminated pressings. Post-1931 pressings used the infamous HMV/EMI stock shellac. US Brunswick probably realised that US record buyers would not tolerate high levels of surface noise, so their gold-label "Hall of Fame" US issues of
German Polydor recordings usually have quiet surfaces. EMI's stock shellac did not really improve until the late 1940s, almost at the end of the 78rpm era when US Columbia were just launching the world's first commercially successful LPs.

Finally, you have in the States an organisation called the Federal Emergency Management Agency
(FEMA). Type "FEMA coffins" into your search engine to see what lies in store for the US civilian population.

I do think, however, that for this website we ought to stick only to matters musical and not blight it with political polemic. If, having looked at the FEMA video, you'd like to comment on it , my e-mail address is: [email protected].

Best regards
Noel


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## andrewsatura

Hi Noel,

Thanks for the info about the history of shellac.
Holding an American Columbia and RCA-Victor
disc in my hands, I notice that the Columbia looks
significantly duller and that the Victor has a mirror-
like sheen. As far as the surface noise goes, I don't
much care. I've had a 'by any means necessary'
attitude toward sound recordings for a while now.
It's the performances themselves I'm after, not
their technical reproduction. I know that horrendous
sound quality can mar any performance, but having
listened to transfers of everything from Risler's Pathe
discs to private recordings of Bartok's radio broadcasts
cut onto used X-ray film, not much can deter me. I 
regard these performances as precious testimony from
an oral tradition which was more or less wiped out in
1945 and will never be resurrected.

Cheers,

Andrew


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## Martin

Neil,

I have just returned from Vienna to give the Vienna archivist documents pertaining to Friedrich Buxbaum, my grandfather, so was very interested in your comments. Would love to track down any reissues, as the only 78 I have is the Quasi Minuet from the Brahms string quartet in A Op 51 No 2. I also have this on tape with Haydn Op 74 No 3.

My grandfather rejoined the Rose Quartet which was reformed in London after they both fled to the UK in 1938. My Grandfather, who was not well enough to return to Vienna after the war, was invited to return to his position as first principal solo cellist of the orchestra by Bruno Walter at the first Edinburgh Festival and whenever the Vienna Philharmonic performed in London, until his death in 1948


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## gobic

Martin

Interested to read you are Friedrich Buxbaum's grandson, located in Scotland. He was a cousin of my wife's great-grandmother, Louise Buxbaum (1861 -1942 - she died in Treblinka) and apparently much loved by the family. His wife, known as Tante Käthe, was also very much liked. He had a reputation in the family as a great wit. My wife's mother (Edith Sternschuss, née Bader) arrived in England in 1939 and spent some time in London, when Uncle Friedrich would take her out to concerts. He and Tante Käthe made her time in a strange city, as a refugee, more bearable.

My wife remembers meeting him when she was a small child. He noticed how she banged on the table in time to music and predicted she would be musical. 

Tim Ottevanger, Leicestershire


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