December: Featured Classical Music

Special Holiday Sale

Through 15 December, 15% discount on every CD in our catalogue. We welcome all shopping cart and telephone orders!

(use coupon code cds15 upon checkout to receive discount when ordering online)

The Edison Legacy, Vol. 1, Hidden Treasures of the Edison Archive
V1282. It is not an exaggeration that the Edison Legacy series will be one of the most significant historical releases ever. Thomas Edison invented the phonograph in the last quarter of the 19th Century. He began recording artists in the late 1800s and by 1929 his record company was out of business. In this short period of time, he captured some of the greatest voices of the dawn of the recording era and yet, many of the recordings have never been published and have only
been heard by Edison and his staff. These historic documents are some of the rarest and most important recordings in the world. The first volume of this series contains selections of Leisner, Melis, Bori, Walker, White, Korsoff, Olitzka, Destinn, and many other important singers of the last century. 2-Marston 52042. Transfers by H. Ward Marston. $35.90, the Set.

Vocal Record Collectors' Society – 2006 (50th Anniversary)Double Issue
V1181. incl. Jane Cros (Tannhäuser - Dich, teure Halle); Forrest Lamont (Cavalleria Rusticana - Siciliana); Laura del Lungo (Mignon - Elle est là…Elle est aimée); Alexis Boyer (Le Maître de Chapelle - Pour imiter ton
charme séducteur); Bertha Kalich (Sappho - Matouschka Golobouschka (Mother dearest) [J. Gordon]); Johannes Sembach (Frühlingszeit [Becker]); Ebe Boccolini (La Wally - Ebben, ne andró lontana); Erich Bye (Tannhauser - O du mein holder Abendstern); Lily Dupré (Les Huguenots -Au beau pays de la Touraine); Kapiton Denisovich Zaporozhets (Song of the Flea [Moussorgsky]); Jane Bourguignon (Sapho - O ma lyre immortelle); Lambert Murphy (Boat Song [Ware]; Livine Mertens (Roméo et Juliette - Que fais-tu, blanche tourterelle?); Carlo Morelli (Il Trovatore - Il balen); Helen Gahagan Douglas (Tosca - Vissi d’arte [Unpublished Victor (mx T-1020-1)]); Margherita Carosio (I Pastori [Pizzetti]); Elsa Alsen (Tristan und Isolde - Liebestod); Fernando Autori (L’Amore dei Tre Re - Italia, Italia e tutto il mio ricordo!); Maria de Macchi (Lucrezia Borgia - Come è bello); Regina Pinkert (La Perle du Brésil - Charmant oiseau); Mario Laurenti (Hérodiade -Salomé! demande au prisonnier); Ellison van Hoose (O come with me in the summer night [van der Stucken]); Evgeniya Ivanova Zbruyeva (A broken vase [Arensky]); Jean Vallier (Le rêve passé
[Helmer - Krier]); Tina Desana (Ruy Blas - O madre mia dall’intimo [Marchetti]; Fernando Carpi (Mefistofele - Giunto sul passo estremo); Rosina Buckman & Walter Hyde (O lovely night [Ronald]); Jeanne Korolewicz-Wayda (Lohengrin - Euch Lüften, die mein Klagen); Marie Delna (Le Prophète - Ah! mon fils!); Virgilio Lazzari (Ernani - Infelice! e tuo credevi); Hipolito Lázaro
(Maria La Tempranica - Romanza de Miguel [Torroba]); Magda Spiegel (Rienzi – Gerechter Gott! In seiner Blüthe bleicht mein Leben); Charles Soix (Le petit Grégoire [Botrel]); Theo Beets (La Juive - Rachel, quand du Seigneur); Yvonne Brothier (Manon Lescaut - C’est l’histoire amoureuse (L’Éclat de rire) [Auber]); Vera Schwarz (Der Widerspenstigen Zähmung - Die Kraft versagt [Goetz]); Hjördis Schymberg (Si J’étais Roi - Des souverains du rivage); Herbert Witherspoon (By the Short Cut to the Rosses; Black Sheela of the silver eye [both old airs]; Reinald Werrenrath (Special Holiday Greetings Record, Victor “Personal Record” (mx C-28896-3), recorded 15 Nov., 1923). 2-VRCS 2006. Transfers by Seth B. Winner. $39.90, the Set.

“This compilation marks the fiftieth anniversary of the Vocal Record Collectors’ Society. In addition to the traditional selection, a second CD contains eighteen records issued on VRCS vinyl LPs between 1959 and 1992. Both discs have been scrupulously transferred from good original copies and the standard of presentation, including full recording details and excellent biographical notes, is quite exceptional….This is an admirable souvenir of an important occasion, and all that remains to be done is to congratulate the Vocal Record Collectors’ Society on achieving its Silver Anniversary and wish it well for the future.”

- Robert Bunyard, THE RECORD COLLECTOR, 2007

Collectors’ Treasures, Vol. II
V0650. incl. Maclennan (Tannhäuser), Russitano (Otello), Mantelli (Lucrezia Borgia), Chambon (La Juive), Kirchner (Le Prophète), Cucini (La Gioconda), de Frate (Nabucco), Greeff-Andriessen (Die Walküre), Walker (Der Evangelimann), Molin (Lakmé), Panina (Pique Dame), Yuzhina (Pique Dame), Markovich (Snegoroutchka), Katulskaya (Sadko), Koshetz (The Enchantress), Biel (Il Trovatore), Ancona, Kruszelnicka, Delmas, Jeritza, Adini, de Negri, Mei-Figner & Gryzunov. (UK) Collectors’ Treasures GECT 002, recorded 1902-30. Produced by Bill Breslin. Biographical notes by Alan Bilgora. Transfers by Norman White. $19.90.

“The initial volume in this series gave so much pleasure that it seemed unreasonable to hope that a second volume could equal, let alone surpass it. However, not only does it exceed expectations, but emerges as perhaps one of the most enjoyable collections yet encountered. If any single compilation CD could inspire newcomers to historic vocal recordings to develop an abiding enthusiasm in this field, it might be just the one to succeed. Quite apart from the extraordinary rarity of several items here, it includes a high proportion of unusual, worthwhile music and some particularly fine voices and interpretations. All in splendidly engineered transfers, taken from mainly fine copies….Altogether, this is a further, highly worthwhile production…which can be unhesitatingly recommended.”

- Vivian A. Liff, The Record Collector, 2005

In Memoriam – Richard Bebb
V1287. incl. Frozier-Marrot (2), Jo Vincent, Eduard Boleslawski (2), Clara Butt, Ronald Murgatroyd, Mary McCormic (2), Kate Winter, Joshie Fujiwara, Elena Ruszkowska, Charles Friant, Giuseppina Cobelli, François Viannenc, Carolina Pietracewska – Elisa Tromben, Arthur Preuss, Anni Christiansen, Mattia Battistini (2), Helene Offenberg, Robert Couzinou, Luise Perard-Petzi & Garcia. Notes by Jean Ziegler & Patrick Bade. (France) Malibran 670. $19.90.