Identify 78rpm recording - Mendelssohn Octet Scherzo

[Dave Payn]

I was just curious as to whether the original 78s can be played - we all have the lazy digital capability. For the 78 record - I have an old record player in yhe garage, bought for £ 1 at a jumble sale some 30 or so years ago - it may still work - I may even have a couple of 78s somewhere!

Silly me. Apologies.

[LeMartinPecheur]

Hands up - how many forum members have equipment which will play 78s? ...and when was it last used?

I have an old 4(!)-speed BSR deck and a Shure magnetic cartridge with 78-profile stylus, and fortunately my pre-amp has two phono inputs. Probably used last year but not this. The 78s are at present in easy reach but will probably soon get thinned in preparation for a planned house-move

Oddly enough, the 'standard' speed I can't play is 45rpm: my LPs go on an early Linn Sondek when they thought no one buying such a deck would bother with pop rubbish But then a few record companies started making 12" 45rpm hi-fi discs and they changed their tune, as it were.

[Cockney Sparrow]

I possess one (has a 78rpm cartridge/head & 33 rpm one). Its in working order but not connected / set up. Last played 20 years ago, at a guess.

My daughter wants a vinyl player - inexplicable to me. really. I have to return to the days of what was precision engineering (small nuts and bolts, adjusting cartridge angles etc etc) to refurb my second best player - which is all she is getting for something which must be an interest which won't last - unless scratches and warping (etc etc) are part of the experience she will enjoy.

I have (stored away) one box of vinyl - some of it kept for the booklets etc. I have one 78, the Oath Duet from Otello, but I can't recall the names of the singers - maybe Bastianini and ? I keep meaning to find someone with a horn player (with a new needle) to play it for me. Got to find it first though........

[Dave2002]

It's also available on Amazon, as a search for Timeless Boston Pops Vol 2 will reveal - https://music.amazon.co.uk/albums/B0...sin=B005C81IUG The recording dates from the early 1940s.

Clearly I wasn't aware of the chamber work when I used to listen to the 78s, as this version is fully orchestrated. I wonder who did that? It's not as good as I remembered, but it's still good to hear. There is considerable panache in some of these pieces. It makes me wonder whether it would be worth listening to later recordings by Fiedler - with better sonic characteristcs. I think he continued to make records for quite a while after this. He passed away in 1979 aged 84.

Now the purist in me would definitely prefer the octet version. It's curious looking at the track list of some of those digital collections - realising that we had many of them on 78s. I'm sure we had Entry of the Boyards too. Some of them were on the plum coloured 78s, while others had the brighter more orangey red colour.

Amazon Prime members can I think listen to these for nothing extra.

I also wonder if these are on one of the CDs in the big Living Stereo boxes.

[rauschwerk]

Clearly I wasn't aware of the chamber work when I used to listen to the 78s, as this version is fully orchestrated. I wonder who did that?

Mendelssohn himself, to make a replacement scherzo for his first symphony.

[Dave2002]

Mendelssohn himself, to make a replacement scherzo for his first symphony.

Really?
This gets more interesting by the minute. He made a 2 piano version - perhaps to make the work more popular, or to raise money.

Fiedler seems to have specialised in odd pieces - though he made only a few "serious" full length recordings. Was he the Andre Rieu of his day?
HMV appeared to have picked up quite a number of the RCA Victor recordings towards the end of the 78rpm era. Were these just made from RCA stampers, or would RCA have had tape or other technology for making the stamper matrices for HMV? I'm not quite sure when tape or other magnetic storage started to be seriously used for record production.

[Bryn]

Really?
This gets more interesting by the minute. He made a 2 piano version - perhaps to make the work more popular, or to raise money.

Fiedler seems to have specialised in odd pieces - though he made only a few "serious" full length recordings. Was he the Andre Rieu of his day?
HMV appeared to have picked up quite a number of the RCA Victor recordings towards the end of the 78rpm era. Were these just made from RCA stampers, or would RCA have had tape or other technology for making the stamper matrices for HMV? I'm not quite sure when tape or other magnetic storage started to be seriously used for record production.

Not necessarily the first but:

1951- Sam Phillips in his studio in Memphis used his Ampex 350 tape machine to record Rocket 88, written by Ike Turner, sung by Jackie Brenston, and sold to Leonard and Phil Chess in Chicago who released it as the 78 rpm Chess record #1458. The sale of this master tape allowed Phillips to start his own Sun Records label.

from http://www.aes-media.org/historical/...s.html#america

[Lordgeous]

I have a 3 speed Dual deck and Ortofon cartridge with seperate LP and 78rpm stylii. Ive done a lot of transfers for people over the years but maybe not for a year or so now. I must get round to transferring my own 78 collection though I guess I'll find most will have been transferred commercially by now (and better than I could have done them!)

[Cockney Sparrow]

Ive done a lot of transfers for people over the years but maybe not for a year or so now.

Good work, and in my opinion the best use of a record deck.

But - to be fair. if setting up, tending and enjoying the precision (= fiddly, for me) engineering of shellac/vinyl and resultant reproduced music is someone's interest, I'm not crticising. And it has benefits from the transfers into the digital domain.

A relative gets pleasure from a pianola - and the playing of it are treasured memories for his grandchildren and great grandchildren....... Live and let live.

[Lordgeous]

Having been a recording engineer/producer most of my (digital) life I'm still stunned at how good a vinyl disc can sound!