Gramophone at 100

[Alison]

A correction to an earlier message

The estimable Joan Chissell’s initials were JOC.

[Ein Heldenleben]

A correction to an earlier message

The estimable Joan Chissell’s initials were JOC.

But wasn’t the blessed Joan inestimable ?

[Master Jacques]

A correction to an earlier message

The estimable Joan Chissell’s initials were JOC.

Estimable and inestimable, I did manage to posit "JOC" from your "JC" - though I'm still trying to work out who "JS" is, or was. (I'm looking forward to kicking myself!)

[Master Jacques]

I found early copies of The Gramophone on the Internet Archive including this poem in the Nov 1923 edition written by the great Irish Doctor, Politician and sometime poet Oliver St John Gogarty- immortalised as Buck Mulligan in Joyce’s Ulysses ( and later indeed in a Temple Bar pub). The poem is a meditation on how voice recording has transformed death and life. [...]

... Not the worlds greatest poem but quite possibly the very first ode to vinyl (or shellac I guess)

I hadn't realised that Dr. "Buck Mulligan" was also a poetaster, and am delighted with your retrieved sample of his work - thank you!

[Alison]

Estimable and inestimable, I did manage to posit "JOC" from your "JC" - though I'm still trying to work out who "JS" is, or was. (I'm looking forward to kicking myself!)

Jonathan Swain. He didn’t review for all that long but he was knowledgeable, modest and never less than interesting in the MEO manner.

[Ein Heldenleben]

I hadn't realised that Dr. "Buck Mulligan" was also a poetaster, and am delighted with your retrieved sample of his work - thank you!

I tried to post the complete poem but it’s printed very eccentrically. Those early editions of Gramophone are a bit of a treasure trove. It must have been an extraordinary experience hearing music off disc for the first time. The complete poem is in the Nov 23 Vol 1 No 6 edition on the Internet Archuve

[french frank]

Jonathan Swain. He didn’t review for all that long but he was knowledgeable, modest and never less than interesting in the MEO manner.

I'd guessed John Steane?

[Alison]

But wasn’t the blessed Joan inestimable ?

Quite so. Jeremy Nicholas and Jed Distler somewhat less so

[Master Jacques]

I'd guessed John Steane?

He was "JBS", also included in the list.
Thank you Alison, for providing the key to "JS". So one still with us, mercifully.

[french frank]

He was "JBS", also included in the list.
Thank you Alison, for providing the key to "JS". So one still with us, mercifully.

[Ein Heldenleben]

Quite so. Jeremy Nicholas and Jed Distler somewhat less so

I read somewhere that when Joan worked at the Times she reviewed every single Wigmore Hall debut. In those days the paper had three classical music critics and I seem to remember an entire broadsheet page a week being given over to music coverage.

[Petrushka]

My favourite Gramophone reviewer, by some considerable distance, is Richard Osborne and my most memorable review is the extraordinary one he did on Carlos Kleiber's recording of the Beethoven 5 in, I think, 1975. It was one of his very early efforts and he later admitted that it was too long and should have been spiked but it was wonderful, an absolute classic.

RO doesn't review so much these days (he's 80 this year after all) but I loved all those literary allusions which peppered his reviews and had me racing for the quotations dictionary. You had to be up on your Shakespeare, Hardy and Greek mythology at times but those Bruckner, Mahler and Beethoven reviews made great reading.

[Master Jacques]

My favourite Gramophone reviewer, by some considerable distance, is Richard Osborne and my most memorable review is the extraordinary one he did on Carlos Kleiber's recording of the Beethoven 5 in, I think, 1975. It was one of his very early efforts and he later admitted that it was too long and should have been spiked but it was wonderful, an absolute classic.

RO doesn't review so much these days (he's 80 this year after all) but I loved all those literary allusions which peppered his reviews and had me racing for the quotations dictionary. You had to be up on your Shakespeare, Hardy and Greek mythology at times but those Bruckner, Mahler and Beethoven reviews made great reading.

Beautifully said. Looking through this month's sad sack of a magazine, it's hard to find reviews or articles which grab you, and compel you to read to the end through sheer force of writing, in the way that Osborne, Steane and co. managed to do with great regularity. Personal style is rather frowned upon, these days (though not only by Gramophone, of course).

[Alison]

I spent a very agreeable couple of hours yesterday morning sampling the April 1979 issue:

Letters requesting more recordings of Holbrooke, Malcolm Williamson (specifically the Violins of Saint Jacques and the Hammarskjold Portrait) and Willi Boskovsky. An enthralling two page (no ads/photos) quarterly retrospect by JBS covering a whole range of music and recordings, flecked with easygoing literary references, by turns probing and humorous.

Then a three page article (no ads etc) on Beecham in the recording studio. I have saved the 90th birthday tribute (Jerrold Northrop Moore no less) to Sir Adrian Boult for later. Onto a few reviews and an immediate wish to seek out William Alwyn’s Concerto Grosso 2 (Lyrita).

Oh, and a letter from Sir Adrian himself on one of his St Matthew Passion performances.

Altogether a stimulating read and plenty to go back to in that one edition (cover price 45 new pence).

[MickyD]

My favourite reviewer was Nicholas Anderson - I think he may still write for the BBC Music magazine. He has an encyclopaedic knowledge of all things Baroque and an expert on Rameau. I was fortunate enough in the 1980s to attend a series of evening classes he gave on the operas of Rameau. Such an interesting and enthusiastic speaker, I learned so much from him.