The Virtuoso String Quartet, with which I have dealt more extensively in
this post, was founded late in 1923 by four British musicians apparently for the express purpose of making recordings. While earlier string quartet ensembles (such as the Flonzaley, Catterall and Lener String Quartets) had begun their recording careers by being limited to making potboilers, isolated movements and abridgements from the string quartet repertoire before being permitted to record complete works, the Virtuoso String Quartet took the opposite trajectory during their brief career in the studios (1924-29). They began by recording complete quartets by Tchaikovsky, Beethoven and Franck for HMV's more expensive Black Label series, but by 1927, had been switched to the cheaper Plum Label, and were recording potboilers! Among them were these two charming miniatures:
Gossec: Tambourin (arr. Cedric Sharpe)
Grainger: Molly on the Shore
Virtuoso String Quartet (Hayward-Virgo-Jeremy-Sharpe)
Recorded July 1, 1927
HMV B 2589, one 10-inch 78-rpm record
Link (FLAC files, 16.40 MB)
Link (MP3 files, 9.56 MB)
I should mention that at the same time as I acquired this record, I also got the Virtuoso String Quartet's 1925 acoustical set of the Franck Quartet in D, in its original album. This can be heard already at the
CHARM website which has some 40 sides by the VSQ available for audition, some of them overlapping my offerings at the other post. (They don't, however, have B 2589.) But if there is any interest in my transfer I will attempt it (I probably will, anyway, sooner or later!).
