Finn Viderø at the Compenius Organ

The 1610 Compenius Organ, Frederiksborg Castle, Denmark
(as pictured in the booklet for the Gramophone Shop Celebrities Album)

Happy New Year! Here, without further ado, is the companion album for the Finn Viderø set I posted a few weeks ago, made by HMV for the Gramophone Shop in New York, a selection of 16th and 17th century music played on the oldest organ in Denmark, built by Esaias Compenius in 1610:

Compenius Organ Album:

Samuel Scheidt: Magnificat secundi toni

Girolamo Frescobaldi: Canzone dopo l'Epistola

Heinrich Scheidemann: Praeambulum in Dorian Mode

Antonio Cabezón: Diferencias sobre "El Canto del Caballero"

Antonio Cabezón: Tiento del cuatro tono

Jean Titelouze: Magnificat quinti toni

Melchior Schildt: Praeambulum

Orlando Gibbons: Fantasia

Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck: O lux beata trinitas - 2 variations

Jakob Praetorius: Praeambulum

Michael Praetorius: Alvus tumescit virginis

Finn Viderø at the Compenius organ in Frederiksborg Castle, Denmark

Recorded c. 1949

Gramophone Shop Celebrities Album 8, six 78-rpm records

Link (FLAC files, 146.36 MB)

Link (MP3 files, 92.45 MB)

There were nine of these special albums produced by the Gramophone Shop, which, for some reason, began their numbering at Album 2 and went up through Album 10.  Here is a list of these:

GSC-2: Purcell: Eight Suites for Harpsichord (Sylvia Marlowe)
GSC-3: Treasures from the Repertory of Maggie Teyte
GSC-4: Songs of Gluck, Wagner and Franz (Lorri Lail, soprano)
GSC-5: Baroque Cantatas of 17th Century North Germany (Mogens Wöldike directing)
GSC-6: Seventeenth Century Organ Music (Finn Viderø)
GSC-7: Italian Songs of the Renaissance and Baroque (Gabriella Gatti)
GSC-8: Compenius Organ Album (Finn Viderø)
GSC-9: Choral Music of the Renaissance (Wöldike & Danish State Madrigal Choir)
GSC-10: Alto Cantatas of Schütz nnd Buxtehude (Lorri Lail, Finn Viderø)

All of these were recorded and manufactured by HMV except the Purcell Suites, which were American-made and pressed in vinylite. No indication is given as to who produced them, though my guess would be American Decca, given that Sylvia Marlowe would later record extensively for that label.

Vaughan Williams for Piano

When I was about 13, I discovered, and fell in love with, the music of Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958).  I remember telling my piano teacher of this discovery, and her reply, "oh, my, but there's no good piano music!"  Well, as I have discovered since, that wasn't entirely accurate - there is some Vaughan Williams piano music, and it's all good, but it's rather hard to find.  Vaughan Williams preferred to work on a large canvas (and after all, why not? - he was a big man!) and so it's fitting that the piano work that most readily comes to mind in connection with his name is his fine Concerto, a big work in every way, written for Harriet Cohen in 1930, and recast as a concerto for two pianos in 1946.  Here is the first recording of either version, by the artists who gave the two-piano version its American première in 1949:

Vaughan Williams: Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra
Arthur Whittemore and Jack Lowe, duo-pianists
Robin Hood Dell Orchestra of Philadelphia conducted by Vladimir Golschmann
Recorded July 26, 1950
RCA Victor Red Seal set WDM-1597, three red vinyl 45-rpm records
Link (FLAC file, 61.44 MB)
Link (MP3 file, 32.19 MB)

This set had no 78-rpm issue, as by the time it appeared, RCA Victor had phased out the 78-rpm format in favor of their own 45-rpm discs.

Also written for Harriet Cohen was this charming Hymn Tune Prelude on a song by Orlando Gibbons:

Vaughan Williams: Hymn Tune Prelude (on Gibbons' Song 13) and
Gibbons: Five Keyboard Pieces
Harriet Cohen, piano
Recorded December 4, 1947
English Columbia DX 1552, one 78-rpm record
Link (FLAC files, 23 MB)
Link (MP3 files, 9.1 MB)

Finally, about three years ago, I presented a Sunday morning worship service at my church, the Unitarian Congregation of Gwinnett in Lawrenceville, Ga., devoted to Vaughan Williams - whose hymn tune arrangements have become basic material in most Protestant hymnals.  In lieu of a sermon, I presented a complete performance of his "Suite of Six Short Pieces" for piano, published in 1920, and later rearranged as his "Charterhouse Suite" for string orchestra.  I have posted this performance on Youtube at the following link:

Vaughan Williams: Suite of Six Short Pieces

The National Gramophonic Society, Part 1

The National Gramophonic Society was founded in 1923 by Compton Mackenzie, under the aegis of his new magazine, "The Gramophone."  Its aim was to promote and record complete works of chamber and instrumental music that had hitherto been neglected by the major record companies as being unprofitable.

In my heyday as a collector I had about a dozen of these sets, including the very first issue which is pictured above.  Either through borrowing copies back or working from tapes I had made, I managed to upload nine such sets in 2007-08; three of these I have already posted on this blog.  This is to be the first of two posts to take care of the others.  Here are four acoustically-recorded sets:

Beethoven: Quartet No. 10 in E-Flat, Op. 74 ("Harp")
Spencer Dyke String Quartet
Recorded July 30, 1924, by Columbia
National Gramophonic Society A, B, and C, three 78-rpm records
Link (FLAC files, 72.2 MB)
Link (MP3 files, 27.48 MB)

Schoenberg: Verklärte Nacht, Op. 4 (version for string sextet)
Spencer Dyke String Sextet
and
Schubert: Piano Trio No. 2 in E-Flat, Op. 100
Harold Craxton, Spencer Dyke and B. Patterson Parker
Recorded October 10 and December 30, 1924, and January 7, 1925, by Columbia
National Gramophonic Society H, I, K, L, M, N, O, and P, eight 78-rpm records
Link (FLAC files, 198.73 MB)
Link (MP3 files, 69.9 MB)

Brahms: String Sextet No. 1 in B-Flat, Op. 18
Spencer Dyke String Sextet
Recorded May, 1925, by Parlophone
National Gramophonic Society Z, AA, BB, CC, and DD, five 78-rpm records
Link (FLAC files, 83.87 MB)
Link (MP3 files, 33.06 MB)

Eugene Goossens: Two Pieces for String Quartet, Op. 15;
Orlando Gibbons: Fantasias Nos. 6 and 8;
Purcell: Four-Part Fantasia No. 4 in C minor
Music Society String Quartet
Recorded May, 1925, and February, 1926, by Parlophone
National Gramophonic Society DD, FF, and BBB, three 78-rpm records
Link (FLAC files, 43.17 MB)
Link (MP3 files, 16.35 MB)

These were first recordings of all the works concerned, and in the case of the Schoenberg, probably the first recording of any of his music.  It should be mentioned that the cellist in the Music Society String Quartet was none other than John Barbirolli, some of whose earliest recordings as a conductor were made for the N.G.S. and can be heard at the CHARM website.