Lecture by Roger Neill

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 be the best she ever made.

The sound from these newly-found masters is amazing, far better than any previous releases which were necessarily based on old shellac records, or on masters from the company’s archive at Hayes which had been re-used and polished too often.

Historic Masters specialises in releasing brand new 78 records (in silent vinyl) and made from original metal masters. Recent issues include a box of Adelina Patti and one of Verdi’s first Otello, Francesco Tamagno. The planned Melba re-release is a limited edition & will include the new records, a full CD transfer and an illustrated booklet written by Roger Neill.

Last year Roger delighted a small group of Sydney music-lovers with his talk on the life of MARGHERITA GRANDI and we expect this illustrated Lecture, (which will include the story of the discovery of the masters, exploring the recordings and their relevance to contemporary performance practice) to attract a much larger audience – hence the move to St Paul’s Church.

Tickets $25 including Afternoon Tea