# Your favorite recording from before WWII



## Operasinger (May 28, 2021)

Hope this thread is ok, if something like this already exist please let me know!

Would love to hear your favorite recordings from before WWII (you don’t have to choose only one), and if you feel like also writing why it’s your favorite that would be awesome! Cases of “no words could explain why…” are very much welcome 

**This is not at all to say that there aren’t incredible recordings from later on! Just that I wanna concentrate on that time for this thread if possible.


----------



## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

So you want operatic recordings on 78 rpm discs?


----------



## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

View attachment 158218


Verdi: La Traviata

Mercedes Capsir, Ida Conti, Lionello Cecil, Carlo Galeffi, Giuseppe Nessi, Salvatore Baccaloni, Aristide Baracchi

Milan La Scala Orchestra and Chorus, Lorenzo Molajoli

Recorded: 1st to 22nd November 1928 :angel:


----------



## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

I must, of course, post the first recordings of one Maria Callas, whose subsequent opera recordings were to be the mainstay of EMI's classical division with the advent of the Long Playing records (now called Vinyl). These 78 rpm recordings were her entree into recorded sound and played to her strengths: drama and agile coloratura.


----------



## BachIsBest (Feb 17, 2018)

A (not) stereo-typical choice (pun intended), but it's hard to dispute the quality of this one.


----------



## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

This is a well known hair raising recording of the final scene from *Salome*, from 1949. I can't find the original cover of the 1949 recording, so the above will have to do.


----------



## Viardots (Oct 4, 2014)

MAS said:


> View attachment 158219
> 
> 
> I must, of course, post the first recordings of one Maria Callas, whose subsequent opera recordings were to be the mainstay of EMI's classical division with the advent of the Long Playing records (now called Vinyl). These 78 rpm recordings were her entree into recorded sound and played to her strengths: drama and agile coloratura.


These (made in Nov 1949) are certainly among my favourite recordings from after World War II (i.e. after 1945). However, the original poster here means recordings from *BEFORE World War II* (i.e. *BEFORE 1939*). You might wish to check post #1 again carefully.


----------



## Viardots (Oct 4, 2014)

MAS said:


> View attachment 158220
> 
> 
> This is a well known hair raising recording of the final scene from *Salome*, from 1949. I can't find the original cover of the 1949 recording, so the above will have to do.


The recording featured in this particular YouTube upload is actually a radio broadcast recording from 1944 (i.e. still during World War II). It's not the later 1949 US Columbia recording or Met performance. Certainly it's not from before World War II.


----------



## Viardots (Oct 4, 2014)

One of my favourite recordings from before World War II, featuring the most famous Aida in Italy during the inter-war years and one of the leading prima donnas of La Scala during Toscanini's reign at the house,* Giannina Arangi-Lombardi* (later teacher of Turkish soprano Leyla Gencer), a deeply moving portrayal sung in plangent, beseeching tone.

The picture is a superb Pristine Classical transfer done by Ward Marston.


----------



## vincula (Jun 23, 2020)

Nice thread! One of my absolute favourite's this one:

















I'll follow this thread closely. Thanks once again.

Regards,

Vincula


----------



## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

vincula said:


> Nice thread! One of my absolute favourite's this one:
> 
> View attachment 158223
> 
> ...


I wore this out years ago.


----------



## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

MAS said:


> View attachment 158219
> 
> 
> I must, of course, post the first recordings of one Maria Callas, whose subsequent opera recordings were to be the mainstay of EMI's classical division with the advent of the Long Playing records (now called Vinyl). These 78 rpm recordings were her entree into recorded sound and played to her strengths: drama and agile coloratura.


Favourites of mine too, but recorded after WWII.


----------



## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

https://www.discogs.com/Rosa-Ponselle-The-Art-Of-Rosa-Ponselle/release/6836240 I bought this after I got my good turntable. It is 33 but all the recordings are from 78 originals from the 20's. Forget CD transfers in my opinion. Vinyl with this is jawdropping.... does not sound 
like it was from 100 years ago ! My copy is pristine and the sound is absolutely amazing! I suspect there might have been a bit of cleanup but this was before all the modern techniques of recent decades. Her voice is truly stunning as are her interpretations. It is a fairly full catalogue of her early work.


----------



## Revitalized Classics (Oct 31, 2018)

Madama Butterfly by Giacomo Puccini performed in Italian
Conductor Oliviero De Fabritiis - 1939(STU)
Orchestra - Teatro Reale dell'Opera di Roma
Chorus - Teatro Reale dell'Opera di Roma

Cio Cio San - Toti Dal Monte
Pinkerton - Beniamino Gigli
Sharpless - Mario Basiola
Suzuki - Vittoria Palombini
Kate Pinkerton - Maria Huder
Goro - Adelio Zagonora
Il principe Yamadori - Gino Conti
Lo zio Bonzo - Ernesto Dominici
Recorded in July 1939


----------



## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

Revitalized Classics said:


> Madama Butterfly by Giacomo Puccini performed in Italian
> Conductor Oliviero De Fabritiis - 1939(STU)
> Orchestra - Teatro Reale dell'Opera di Roma
> Chorus - Teatro Reale dell'Opera di Roma
> ...


This was one of the operas my parents had on 78s, though by the time I was old enough we'd stopped listening to 78s. We had several large heavy boxes of 78s and Gigli was obviously a favourite. We also had recordings of *Aida*, *Un Ballo in Maschera* and *Cavalleria Rusticana* with him plus, I think, the Toscanini *La Traviata*. I don't think I ever listened to them, though I've since heard the *Madama Butterfy*.


----------



## Revitalized Classics (Oct 31, 2018)

Seattleoperafan said:


> https://www.discogs.com/Rosa-Ponselle-The-Art-Of-Rosa-Ponselle/release/6836240 I bought this after I got my good turntable. It is 33 but all the recordings are from 78 originals from the 20's. Forget CD transfers in my opinion. Vinyl with this is jawdropping.... does not sound
> like it was from 100 years ago ! My copy is pristine and the sound is absolutely amazing! I suspect there might have been a bit of cleanup but this was before all the modern techniques of recent decades. Her voice is truly stunning as are her interpretations. It is a fairly full catalogue of her early work.


Much has been made of going back to the 'master tapes' or 'original acetates' etc. when it comes to remastering old recordings for CD/Digital downloads.

I wonder, though, if we can always assume that a now-100-year-old-disc transferred today on modern equipment is going to sound best?

The recordings Seattleoperafan mentions were 'just' 20 or 30 years old when transferred and first issued in 1957 on the LP. Perhaps the LP 'preserves' the original recording in better shape than has survived til today.

I know the 1950s equipment would not match modern fidelity, but I guess they'd be using similar machines to those used for Living Stereo records that audiophiles still collect and revere?


----------



## joen_cph (Jan 17, 2010)

This is not a field I cultivate, but: the feverish *Boris Godunov in the 1939 recording*, sung in Italian (!), conducted by Panizza, with Ezio Pinza, K. Thorborg, C. Kullman and others, a Metropolitan recording.

https://www.classicstoday.com/review/review-2914/

mp3 samples: https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/7985736--mussorgsky-boris-godunov
complete: 




As far as I remember, my transfer on a label called "the 40s" has a slightly more spacious sound than the Naxos version. And as it is often the case, I find the female voice style sometimes more problematical in these old recordings.


----------



## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

My apologies for getting the premise of the thread wrong!


----------



## LeoPiano (Nov 1, 2020)

I don't listen to historical recordings that often because I usually find more enjoyment in recordings made in better sound (usually starting in the 50s), but I've started to change my mind on that. Recently, I've really enjoyed these excerpts of Parsifal made by Karl Muck in 1927-1928. Someone has also mentioned the Reiner Tristan und Isolde from 1936 and that is also one of my favorite pre-WWII recordings.


----------



## Operasinger (May 28, 2021)

MAS said:


> My apologies for getting the premise of the thread wrong!


No worries I totally get the urge of posting Callas's recordings! 

I would also add that anyone who posts about a recording and knows where to find it online- please share it. I'll try later to post links to the recordings that you all posted so far. Hopefully I can find them all somewhere on the internet!


----------



## vincula (Jun 23, 2020)

The one I posted can be found on YouTube:






Regards,

Vincula


----------



## Viardots (Oct 4, 2014)

Viardots said:


> One of my favourite recordings from before World War II, featuring the most famous Aida in Italy during the inter-war years and one of the leading prima donnas of La Scala during Toscanini's reign at the house,* Giannina Arangi-Lombardi* (later teacher of Turkish soprano Leyla Gencer), a deeply moving portrayal sung in plangent, beseeching tone.
> 
> The picture is a superb Pristine Classical transfer done by Ward Marston.


Here's a YouTube upload of the complete recording (1928, Italian Columbia, Milan):


----------

