Historic Masters

With the up and coming release of the Historic Masters special issue of lost Nellie Melba recordings – it seems worth a moment to listen to her in concert – recorded electrically in concert at Covent Garden, London. La Boheme. Act 3 Entrate…Ce Rodolfo? Act 3 La Boheme. Donde lieta usci. Addio dolce svegliare alla mattina. This is part of Melba’s Final Farewell Performance at the Royal Opera House, Covent  [ Read More ]

Sunday, 7 December 2008, 2pm VENUE – St Paul’s Church, 207 Burwood Road, Burwood, NSW, Australia Melba’s 1904 London Recordings In recent months, original metal masters of Dame Nellie Melba’s 1904 London recordings were discovered at the old Gramophone Company’s manufacturing plant in Hanover, Germany. These recordings were made at her London home (she refused to go to the studio) when Melba was 43 and many specialists consider them to  [ Read More ]

As of October 2008, Historic Masters still has the Tamagno issue available for purchase. Details are as follows: Prices: (inc. postage and packing) U.K. @ £94 Europe @ £100 or 148 Euros Rest of the World@ £106 or US$215 (inc.air mail) Reserve your copy of this exciting issue.

Issued – April 1987 In the first series of Historic Masters issued in 1972 by the British Institute of Recorded Sound, there were four ten inch discs. About this time, major record companies were ceasing to produce records in this form and gradually they disposed of the appropriate manufacturing equipment. When the new committee was formed to establish Historic Masters Limited, it was faced with an immediate problem. Many of  [ Read More ]

Issued – January 1991 A new issue of direct vinyl pressings from 78 rpm masters produced in collaboration with Thorn EMI from materials in its archives, are now available. This is the eleventh issue in the series begun by The British Institute of Recorded Sound in the early 1970s. The complete HISTORIC MASTERS series now numbers 74 discs or 147 sides – of which at least 39 had never previously  [ Read More ]

Issued – March 1995 After some delay since our previous, fifteenth issue, Historic Masters are pleased to announce the sixteenth issue of direct vinyl pressings produced in collaboration with Thorn EMI from 78rpm metal masters in their archives. The complete Historic Masters series now numbers 104 discs comprising 207 sides of which at least 54 have never previously been available in original form. It is thanks to the unstinting co-operation  [ Read More ]

THERE IS NO LONGER ANYBODY ALIVE who could have heard Nellie Melba in her prime. We owe it to the enterprise and far-sightedness of The Gramophone Company that we can listen…

The details of the recordings included on Issue 24 GRAZIELLA PARETO (1889-1971) “L’hereu riera”/ “Bon cacador” (Traditional) Speed 78rpm “La Pastoretta”/ “Canco de Nadal” (Traditional) Speed 78rpm Matrices Bs2250-2 and Bs2251-1. Recorded in Barcelona on 5th Feb. 1926 and issued as DA781 A few issues ago we published two out of the eight sides of the series of Spanish songs recorded by Pareto in 1924, just before the invention of  [ Read More ]