#ClassicsaDay #ClassicalTimeMachine Early LPs Week 1

Last month the Classics a Day team chose vintage recordings as the theme. Specifically, recordings made before the LP era. This month, the focus moves forward in time a little, to the early LP era. This runs from 1948 to about 1958, with the advent of stereo recording.

In that era (as with other eras of recording) composers conducted their own works, legendary performances were preserved, and occasionally history was made.

Here are my posts for the first week of #ClassicalTimeMachine (early LPs).

11/02/20 Edgard Varèse - Complete Works Of Edgard Varèse, Volume 1 (EMS LP, 1951)

Varèse supervised these premiere recordings of his works. A year after its release, a 12-year-old Frank Zappa would discover it and become a fan.

11/03/20 Andrés Segovia - Astrudias (Decca Gold Label 1952)

Some consider Segovia's 1950s recordings to be his best -- the artist at the peak of his abilities combined with recording technology sufficient to capture it.

11/04/20 Bela Bartok - Concerto for Orechstra (Columbia Masterworks 1946)

Shortly after Bartok revised the score, Fritz Reiner and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra recorded it on 78 rpm records. It was later released as a 12" mono LP by Columbia.

11/05/20 Fiesta in Hi-Fi (Mercury Living Presence 1958)

Howard Hanson and the Eastman Rochester Orchestra were a mainstay of American music. This release includes works by Quincy Porter, Wallingford Riegger, Lyndol Mitchell, and others.

11/06/20 Amedee-Ernest Chausson - Symphony in B-flat major (Mercury Mono 1956)

Composer and organist Paul Paray conducted the Detroit Symphony Orchestra from 1952-63. He specialized in French repertoire and made legendary recordings of it with the DSO for Mercury.