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Half Time Scores RecordingsClick here for an introduction to the HTS recordingsClick here for other recordings (usually second hand) Half Time Scores Historical Performance Collection |
Prestige Recordings
£5 per cd
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Ref No:HTS001
Price: £5.00
(approx. $10.10) Title: Franz Schubert, Winterreise, D911, Op 89 Performers: Karl Schmitt-Walter (Baritone), and Hubert Giesen (Pianoforte) Description: Recorded 1953. This is Schmitt-Walter's second Winterreise - his first a decade before was with Ferdinand Leitner. It appeared under the Decca and London labels, and was reviewed in The Gramophone in November 1953. In 1955, it was apparently the only recording of Winterreise available in the UK, so it is a little surprising that copies are not all that easy to find. We believe that this is the first time that it has been made available on CD. Sound sample: 
Start of Gute Nacht |
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Ref No:HTS004
Price: £5.00
(approx. $10.10) Title: Franz Schubert, Winterreise, D911, Op 89 Performers: Hans Duhan (Baritone), Ferdinand Foll & Lene Orthmann (Pianoforte) Description: Recorded 1928. This is, we believe, the first ever recording of Winterreise. Most of the songs were issued with Ferdinand Foll as the pianist from recordings made in April-May 1928, but six had Lene Orthmann as the pianist from a recording session in July that year. There are unconfirmed (but probably true) rumours of a Japanese LP release of this, otherwise we believe this to be the first issue since the 78 era. These 78s are very rare indeed - we have never seen a set advertised - this recording is taken from a set from the collector Ernest Johnson. Sound sample:
Start of Gute Nacht |
Standard Recordings
£3 per cd
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Ref No:HTS002
Price: £3.00
(approx. $6.06) Title: Franz Schubert, String Quintet in C, D956 Performers: The Hollywood String Quartet with Kurt Reher (cello) Description: Recorded 15-17 Jan 1951. A magnificent performance from the leading American String Quartet of the time. The players were all film studio musicians, and practised as a quartet in their (ample) spare time. It was reviewed in The Gramophone in January 1952, and in their The Record Year, Sackville-West and Shawe-Taylor described it as "an answer to a prayer". Sound sample:
Start of the first movement (Allegro ma non troppo). Note that this
recording has, by our standards, a high level of surface noise in
some sections - this happens to be a fairly poor section. |
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Ref No:HTS003
Price: £3.00
(approx. $6.06) Title: Franz Schubert, Impromptus, D899 & D935 Performers: Artur Schnabel (piano) Description: Recorded Jun 1950, just a year before Schnabel's death, and then released on 78s and LP in the next couple of years. The Austrian maestro's recordings of the Impromptus are now considered to be a bit of a classic, though they were not universally acclaimed when they first appeared. Sound sample:
Start of the first Impromptu, in c minor |
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Ref No:HTS005
Price: £3.00
(approx. $6.06) Title: Adolf Busch plays Franz Schubert Performers: The Busch Quartet. The Busch Trio. Description: Recorded 1935 (trio) and 16 October 1936 (quartet). Adolf Busch was one of the leading violinists of his time, leader of the Vienna Konzertvereins, and various chamber ensembles. This CD features the Busch Quartet in a later line up where Hermann Busch, Adolf's younger brother had replaced his teacher Paul Grümmer as the cellist, playing Schubert's quartet in D minor, 'death and the maiden', D810. The Busch Trio was even more of a family affair, with Adolf and Hermann, and Rudolf Serkin (who had married Adolf's daughter Irene) on the piano. They play the Piano Trio in E flat, D929. Sound sample:
Start of the quartet, followed by the start of the trio. The two
bumps early in the quartet are on the original record. |
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Ref No:HTS006
Price: £3.00
(approx. $6.06) Title: Schubert Song Recital, Volume 1 Performers: Elisabeth Schwarzkopf & Edwin Fischer. Josef Greindl & Hertha Klust Description: This CD features a famous recital, recorded in 1952 for an early mono LP, with the soprano Elisabeth Schwarzkopf and Edwin Fischer. This has a dozen songs, nearly all of which are well known blockbusters, including An die Musik, Gretchen am Spinnrade and Die junge Nonne. The CD also includes a short recital of six songs, by the bass Josef Greindl with Hertha Klust. This was recorded in 1957, and was originally the 4th side filler for their release of Winterreise. See the picture for a full list of contents. Sound sample:
Start of Schwarzkopf's An die Musik followed by the
start of Greindl's Aufenthalt. |
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Ref No:HTS007
Price: £3.00
(approx. $6.06) Title: Benjamin Britten Song Sets and Cycles Performers: Peter Pears (tenor), Benjamin Britten (piano), Dennis Brain (horn), New Symphony Orchestra Strings (conductor Eugene Goossens). Description: Definitive early mono recordings of four Britten song sets/cycles - Les Illuminations, Op 18, Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo, Op 22, Serenade for tenor, Horn and Strings, Op 31, and Winter Words, Op 52. These were first released on two Decca LPs in the early 1950s - LXT2941 reviewed in The Gramophone in Nov 1954, and LXT 5095 reviewed in March 1956. All are sung by Pears - Britten's companion and the voice the collections were written for. See the picture for a full list of contents. Sound sample:
Start of each of the collections of songs: Fanfare,
Si come nella penna e nell'inchiostro, Prologue
and At day-close in November |
Collections
Individually priced
| No collections yet released |
Very Basic Restoration
Recordings In Preparation
£1.50 per cd
It can take a considerable time to restore a recording to reduce the noise level to a level that we are comfortable to release. However, the first stages of the process - cleaning, recording, and then basic declick, dehum and denoise can be largely automated. This produces a sound file which is usually perfectly acceptable to listen to, though it may have some quite audible surface noise in places. The CDs listed below are from records that have just got this far in the process - very basic restoration. These are available at £1.50 each with basic track listings, but no notes. Recordings on this list will, in some cases, make it through full restoration to the Historical Performance Collection, but others may only ever be offered in the Very Basic Restoration form. New items will be added to this list as we acquire them, or as they move out of copyright. In additon to these recordings, we have several interesting song cycle recordings where we still need to check the copyright status, as our sources are not from the UK.
Schubert:
| Genre | Number | Source | Description |
Orchestral |
VBR001 | Decca LXT 5381 | Symphony No 5 in B Flat: and Symphony No 8 in B Minor (Unfinished) Böhm/Vienna Philharmonic |
| VBR002 | Decca LXT 2719 | Symphony no 9 in C (Great): Krips/Concertgebouw (1952); | |
| VBR003 | HMV B.D.8557-62 | Symphony no 9 in C (Great): Walter/LSO (78 era) | |
| VBR004 | HMV ALP 1325 | Symphony No 8 in B Minor (Unfinished) and Mendelssohn: Symphony no 4 in A "Italian": Cantelli/Philharmonia Orchestra | |
Lieder |
VBR005 | Die schöne Müllerin: Schiøtz/Moore (1945) | |
| VBR006 | Die schöne Müllerin: Fischer-Dieskau/Moore (1951) | ||
| VBR007 | Winterreise; Hüsch/Müller | ||
| VBR008 | Winterreise: Hotter/Raucheisen | ||
| VBR009 | Winterreise; Carne/Moore | ||
| VBR010 | Winterreise; Bogtman/de Nobel | ||
| VBR011 | Winterreise; Fischer-Dieskau/Moore (1955) | ||
| VBR012 | Winterreise; Greindl/Klust | ||
| VBR013 | Winterreise (excerpts): Tauber/Spoliansky (1928); Gerhardt/Bos (1928) | ||
| VBR014 | Song recitals: Gerhardt/Bos (78 era) | ||
| VBR015 | Decca LX 3104 / 3154 | A Schubert Recital. Souzay & Bonneau | |
Chamber |
VBR016 | Philips ABL 3009 | Piano Trio in E flat: Horszowski/Schneider/Casals |
| VBR017 | HMV BLP 1077 | Piano Trio in B flat: Schiöler/Holst/Bengtsson (1956) | |
| VBR018 | Philips ABL 3177 | Death and the Maiden Quartet: Budapest Quartet (1953) | |
Keyboard |
VBR019 | Decca LX 3059 | Fantasy in C (Wanderer): Clifford Curzon (1951) |
| VBR020 | Nixa WLP 5047 | Piano duets (Rondo in D, Rondo in A, Fantasy in F, Marche Caracteristique): Paul Badura-Skura and Jörg Demus | |
| VBR021 | Nixa WLP 5147 | Piano duets (Lebensstürme, Variations in A flat, Variations in B flat): Paul Badura-Skura and Jörg Demus | |
Other |
VBR022 | Various | Das Dreimäderlhaus: Pauspertl, et al (c1952); Excerpts (various) |
Other Composers:
| Composer | Number | Source | Description |
Beethoven |
VBR101 | RCA RB-16045 | Emperor concerto: Rubinstein, Krips, Symphony of the Air |
| VBR102 | HMV ALP 1300 | Emperor concerto: Solomon, Menges, Philharmonia Orch. | |
| VBR103 | Columbia 33SX1073 | Pathetique and Moonlight sonatas. Gieseking. | |
Beethoven & Mozart |
VBR104 | Columbia 33CX1322 | Quintets for piano and winds. Gieseking, Philharmonia Wind Quartet |
Bruch & Mendelssohn |
VBR105 | Decca LXT 5334 | Violin Concertos. Ricci, Gamba, LSO. |
Debussy & Ravel |
VBR106 | Columbia 33SX1099 | La Mer and Rapsodie Espagnole: Karajan, Philharmonia Orch. |
Dohnanyi & Rachmaninov |
VBR107 | Decca LXT 2862 | Variations on Nursery Song and Paganini rhapsody: Katchen, Boult, London Phil. Orch. |
Elgar |
VBR108 | HMV ALP 1153 | Enigma Variations, Wand of Youth Suite: Boult, London Phil. Orch |
Grieg |
VBR109 | Decca LXT 2657 | Piano concerto in A minor: Curzon, Fistoulari, LSO. |
Handel |
VBR110 | Decca LXT 5379 | Royal Fireworks Music and Water Music: van Beinum, London Phil. Orch. |
Lambert & Walton |
VBR111 | Columbia 33SX1003 | Rio Grande, Horoscope and Façade: Lambert, Philharmonia Orch. |
Mendelssohn |
VBR112 | Decca LXT 2870 | Octet in E flat. The Vienna Octet. |
Rossini |
VBR113 | Decca LXT 2733 | Overtures (Semiramis, William Tell, La Gazza Ladra, La Scala di Seta): van Beinum, Concertgebouw. |
Schumann |
VBR114 | Dichterliebe: Denijs/Denijs-Kroyt (1928) | |
| Dichterliebe: Lehmann/Walter (1941); | |||
Tchaikovsky |
VBR115 | HMV ALP 1025 | Symphony No. 4 in F minor. Furtwängler, Vienna Phil. Orch. |
| VBR116 | HMV ALP 1042 | Symphony No. 6 in B minor. Cantelli, Philharmonia Orchestra |