It was 100 years ago today. Alfred Hertz taught the band to play...

[pastoralguy]

100 years ago, between the 12th and 16th of September, 1913, The Berlin Philharmonic, under the baton of Alfred Hertz, made their first ever recording which was of Wagner's Orchestral Suite from 'Parsifal'.

The world was about to change forever and the art of recording took another small step towards greatness. Wow!

[Tapiola]

100 years ago, between the 12th and 16th of September, 1913, The Berlin Philharmonic, under the baton of Alfred Hertz, made their first ever recording which was of Wagner's Orchestral Suite from 'Parsifal'.

The world was about to change forever and the art of recording took another small step towards greatness. Wow!

Thanks for this important alert, pastoralguy. I shall dig out my recording over the weekend (Naxos, coupled with Muck's Parsifal excerpts from the early electric era (1927-8)).

[Petrushka]

An anniversary I'd missed for once. Many thanks for the pointer, Disappointingly, this recording doesn't appear to be on youTube.

[pastoralguy]

I took the Berlin Phil's 100th anniversary of their recordings round to a friend tonight. (Well, last night now!) I played it to a friend who was, initially, a bit sceptical about hearing this recording. However, about two minutes in, once we had adjusted to the sound, all we heard was top class, committed music making.

The next anniversary in November 10th with Nikish conducting the Fifth symphony which is equally compelling.

Here's to the next 100 years...

[Sir Velo]

PG, you definitely win the prize for best thread title of the year!