Historic Masters

Although eighteen months have elapsed since issue 28, this has been a particularly productive period for Historic Masters with the publication of our special boxed sets devoted to Adelina Patti and Francesco Tamagno. Returning to more regular activities, it is a particular source of pleasure that our latest issue of seven double sided discs includes no less than eight sides which were unpublished as ‘78s’. As with the Tamagno issue, these unpublished items include completely new discoveries – on this occasion the two Björling recordings, for which the metals were long thought to have been destroyed.

Prices: (inc. postage and packing)
U.K. @ £94
Europe @ £100 or 148 Euros
Rest of the World @ £106 or US$215 (inc.air mail)

A CDrom containing information on all previous HM releases up to and including issue 28 and the special Patti edition is now available. If purchased with the Tamagno set it costs £10 ($22 or 15 euros).
CD rom(s) @£10 / $22 / 15 euros each.

It is available separately for £12 ($26 or 18 euros) including postage worldwide.
CD rom(s) @ £12 / $26 / 18 euros each.

Reserve your copy(s) using our order form and mail to:

Historic Masters is proud to announce the release of the Francesco Tamagno Edition (HM FT1 - FT7). (See Full Discography Details or read Latest News on this issue)

Early in his career Tamagno had gained a fine reputation as a tenore di forza exciting his audiences with his powerful and brilliant acuti, (high notes), especially in Donizetti’s Poliuto and Rossini’s Guillaume Tell. This gained him a popularity that had been previously been reserved for Roberto Tamberlik (1820-1889), the tenor who had interpolated an unwritten High C sharp in the finale of Rossini’s Otello and also the High C’s in the stretta ‘Di quella pira’ from Il Trovatore). Aged 29, Tamagno was given the opportunity of increasing his reputation by creating the role of Gabriele Adorno in the revised version of Simon Bocca negra in 1881, and later the title role in the revised 5 Act version of Don Carlo in 1884, when both operas were re-staged at La Scala, Milan.

Due to increased requests for the price of Historic Masters Patti Set, please find the costs as outlined below:

Adelina Patti Set (HM 500-HM 507)

UK - £125
Europe - £130
US/Canada - 135
Rest of the World - £138

All prices include (postage and packaging)

Please Note: Online Shop is not active at the present moment.

The concept of Historic Masters was devised by the late Richard Bebb: for so many years Britain’s most senior collector of vocal recordings. It was Richard who defined the mission to ‘save’ and make widely available ‘78rpm’ vocal discs either unpublished or extremely rare as good copies in original form. Historic Masters records would be custom pressed on top quality vinyl from original metal parts held in the EMI archive. The then British Institute of Recorded Sound (now the National Sound Archive) established an advisory committee to plan a first issue under the chairmanship of Lord Harewood, an enthusiastic collector in addition to his work with major opera companies in England. In fact it was largely through his negotiating skills that what was an abstract concept evolved into a practical proposition. The first twenty double sided ‘78s’ were issued in late 1973 with subscribers paying in advance, so that only the exact numbers were pressed. It is a matter of record that the top seller was a 10” disc of two songs by Conchita Supervia.

By now most of the record world would have heard the very sad news of the death of Richard Bebb. Historic Masters was his concept and idea; he worked indefatigably to discover rare material for us to issue - including much that was previously unpublished; he regularly wrote the informative notes - the center-point for our prospectus for each issue; and latterly on the retirement by the Earl of Harewood from the position of Chairman, Richard was his logical successor. It would be an understatement to say he will be missed by all of us at Historic Masters. For myself as Secretary and Managing Director, Richard was an incredible and enthusiastic support without whom I might well have relinguished the positions a good many years ago!

The Historic Masters catalogue is available here listed alphabetically by artist:

In manufacturing analogue recordings, both LP and "78", a metal master is made from the matrix which is originally recorded. That master is a negative image of the matrix which then creates a positive "mother", which in turn leads to a negative "stamper" which is used to press the released disc. Each master may generate many mothers, each of which in turn may generate many stampers. The master is often retained after a production run; in the case of most of the Historic Masters recordings, those metal parts were licensed from EMI and modern pressings at the original playback speed were made without any form of processing. In short, the HM issues are identical with those which were or could have been found in the shops a century or so ago, except that instead of being on fragile shellac the discs are pressed onto modern vinyl.

Historic Masters (in association with EMI Archive) is proud to announce the release of the Adelina Patti Centennial Edition (HM 500-HM 507). (See Full Discography Details)

This very important release of eight vinyl 78rpm recordings is pressed using the original masters from EMI Archive, Victor and DG Archives - originally recorded between 1905-1906.

'Patti was the most important singer of the second half of the nineteenth century, her fame on a par with that of Caruso and Callas in later generations. Her career, which lasted from 1851 until 1914, was one of the longest in musical history and was enormously influential, especially in England and the United States: the living presence of one of the greatest exemplars of bel canto was an inspiration to generations of singers.

Our next regular HM issue - number 29 - is planned for release in late 2006. For many the most exciting items will be two early unpublished tests by Jussi Bjorling; long thought destroyed. From the earliest years of recorded sound, we will be including a very rare record by Ancona; and from the very end of the 78 era two more sides by the peerless Sena Jurinac, never issued in orginal form. In between issue 28 and 29, Historic Masters will be embarking on a joint project with the EMI Music Archive - a boxed set of specially pressed records by Adelina Patti. ( See Details). This will mark the centenary of the issue of her first recordings for the Gramophone Company. The limited edition boxed set will include a companion CD and a booklet written by Michael Aspinall. (Download the CD Booklet of this project) (272kb file).The metal parts to be used for this project are being drawn from the EMI Music Archive at Hayes, the Victor archive in Camden and the DG archive in Hanover.