Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Marjorie Hayward and Una Bourne

Marjorie Hayward
The British violinist Marjorie Hayward (1885-1953) and the Australian-born pianist Una Bourne (1882-1974) were both veterans of the recording studio as soloists when, in 1918, they began the partnership for which they are best remembered, with an abridged version of Beethoven's "Kreutzer" Sonata.  They went on to do abridged versions of the Franck and Elgar sonatas, which can be heard at the CHARM website, and, with the coming of electrical recording, they set down Mozart's K. 378 and Grieg's Op. 45 sonatas, which Damian's 78s has available for download.  And here is the Beethoven collaboration that started it all:

Beethoven: Violin Sonata No. 9 in A, Op. 47 ("Kreutzer") (abridged)
Marjorie Hayward, violin; Una Bourne, piano
Recorded February 20, 1918
HMV C 844 and C 854, two 78-rpm records
Link (FLAC file, 48.32 MB)
Link (MP3 file, 17.28 MB)

Una Bourne's most substantial recording as a solo pianist is this one of Grieg's Op. 7 sonata, which appears to have been the only recording of the entire work made during the 78-rpm era, though Grieg himself had recorded two of its movements in 1903 (the best transfer of these is Ward Marston's, on his own CD label, Marston Records).  It is only slightly abridged, with about a minute's worth of music cut from the finale:

Grieg: Piano Sonata in E minor, Op. 7
Una Bourne, piano
Recorded April 20, 1921
HMV C 1023 and C 1027, two 78-rpm records
Link (FLAC file, 48.24 MB)
Link (MP3 file, 16.83 MB)

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