Shellac bars Plant 1 in Hanover, c. 1923 Patent application for the gramophone Separation of two galvano discs Visual quality control, c. 1938 Shellac production Cleaning of the matrices Shipping of shellac discs, c. 1909 2 PIETRO MASCAGNI (1863–1945) GIOACHINO ROSSINI (1792–1868) A Overture to Le maschere (excerpt) 4:01 E Largo al factotum 4:01 Staatskapelle Berlin · Pietro Mascagni from Il barbiere di Siviglia Recording: Berlin 1928 · Matrix 348 bi · Original Cat. No. 66582 A Titta Ruffo baritone with orchestra FRÉDÉRIC CHOPIN (1810–1849) Recording: Milan 1912 · Matrix 463 aj · Original Cat. No. 052380 B Nocturne in E flat major op. 9 no. 2 4:36 EDWARD ELGAR (1857–1934) Raoul Koczalski piano F Recording: Berlin 1936 · Matrix 796 1/2 ge · Original Cat. No. 67246 B Salut d’amour op. 12 3:21 Váša Prˇíhoda violin · Otto A. Graef piano CARL MARIA VON WEBER (1786 –1826) Recording: Berlin, March 1938 · Matrix 3591 gn · Original Cat. No. 30033 A C Alles pflegt schon längst der Ruh’ 4:28 from Der Freischütz GIUSEPPE VERDI (1813–1901) Maria Müller soprano G O Torheit, o Torheit! … Von der Freude Blumenkränzen 2:43 Städtisches Orchester Berlin · Robert Heger (Follie! Follie! … Sempre libera) Recording: Berlin 1943 · Matrix 2191 2 gs · Original Cat. No. 68079 A from La traviata Alda Noni soprano PIETRO MASCAGNI (1863–1945) Staatskapelle Berlin · Artur Rother Recording: Berlin 1942 · Matrix 2071 1/2 ge · Original Cat. No. 68303 A D Intermezzo sinfonico 4:01 from Cavalleria rusticana Staatskapelle Berlin · Pietro Mascagni Recording: Berlin 1927 · Matrix 350 1/2 bi · Original Cat. No. 66584 B 3 ANTONÍN DVORÁKˇ (1841–1904) ADOLPHE ADAM (1803–1856) H Slavonic Dance in C major op. 46 no. 1 4:08 L Freunde, vernehmet die Geschichte 4:52 Staatskapelle Berlin · Erich Kleiber (Mes amis, écoutez l’histoire) Recording: Berlin 1929 · Matrix 629 bm · Original Cat. No. 66653 from Le Postillon de Lonjumeau Koloman von Pataky tenor JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH (1685–1750) with orchestra Recording: Berlin (?) 1930 · Matrix 440 bm · Original Cat. No. 66648 A I Dir, dir, Jehova, will ich singen BWV 452 3:23 Thomanerchor Leipzig WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART (1756–1791) Helmut Walcha organ Karl Straube M Folget der Heißgeliebten (Il mio tesoro) 4:17 Recording: Berlin 1927 · Matrix 730 bm · Original Cat. No. 66708 A from Don Giovanni K 527 Julius Patzak tenor MAX REGER (1873–1916) with orchestra Recording: Berlin 1935 · Matrix 547 1/2 gs · Original Cat. No. 35029 B J Mariä Wiegenlied (Mary’s Lullaby) 2:31 from Schlichte Weisen op. 76 FRANZ SCHUBERT (1797–1828) Erna Berger soprano Staatskapelle Berlin · Wolfgang Martin N Am Grabe Anselmos D 504 3:52 Recording: Berlin 1935 · Matrix 2780 1/2 gn · Original Cat. No. 10429 B Tiana Lemnitz soprano Michael Raucheisen piano ANTONÍN DVORÁKˇ (1841–1904) Recording: Berlin 1937 · Matrix 652 gs · Original Cat. No. 57085 B K Humoresque op. 101 no. 7 3:27 Váša Prˇíhoda violin · Otto A. Graef piano Recording: Berlin, March 1938 · Matrix 3592 gn · Original Cat. No. 30033 B 4 PAUL HOPPE (1845–1933) OTTO REUTTER (1870–1931) O Ein rheinisches Mädchen bei rheinischem Wein op. 39 no. 1 3:31 S Ick wundere mir über jarnischt mehr 3:10 Heinrich Schlusnus baritone Otto Reutter Johannes Heidenreich piano with orchestra Recording: Berlin 1925 · Matrix 28 bn · Original Cat. No. 62555 A Recording: Berlin 1927 · Matrix 96 bh · Original Cat. No. 20769 DÉNES VON BUDAY (1890–1963) FRIEDRICH SCHRÖDER (1910–1972) T P Ein Blumenstrauß aus Nizza 3:46 Man müsste Klavier spielen können 3:06 Erna Sack soprano Johannes Heesters Staatskapelle Berlin · Walter Schütze with orchestra Recording: Berlin, October 1936 · Matrix 6701 gr · Original Cat. No. 47066 Recording: Berlin, June 1941 · Matrix 9031 gd · Original Cat. No. 47538 Publisher: Cineton Verlag GmbH Publisher: Beboton Verlag GmbH (Sikorski) WILLY ENGEL-BERGER (1890–1946) NICK LAROCCA (1889–1961) U Q In the Distant Tropics (Hein Mück aus Bremerhaven) 2:20 Tiger Rag 3:08 Lale Andersen Louis Armstrong & His Orchestra with orchestra Recording: Paris, November 1934 · Matrix 1479 wpp Publisher: Leo Feist, Inc. Recording: Berlin 1942 · Matrix 10095 2 gr JIMMY McHUGH (1894–1969) R On the Sunny Side of the Street 2:59 Louis Armstrong & His Orchestra Recording: Paris, November 1934 · Matrix 1481 1/2 wpp Publisher: Shapiro Bernstein Co. Inc. 5 THE GOLDEN AGE OF SHELLAC New technology has been key to Deutsche Grammo- With a single exception, these tracks were set down phon, one of the great pioneers of sound recording, after the introduction of electrical recording in 1925. since its foundation in 1898: the company’s founder Emil The sole acoustical track, dating from 1912, features Berliner (1851–1929) and his fellow engineers devel- the “voice of the lion”, as legendary Italian baritone oped a method of recording that cut sound waves into Titta Ruffo was often called. He is heard here in his Gramophone prototype Emil Berliner Váša Prˇíhoda large circular wax discs. The results were transferred prime, singing one of his most famous roles, Figaro from from wax to copper pressing tools, known as fathers Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia, with which he made his (negative copies of the master template) and mothers Covent Garden debut in 1903 and his Met debut in 1922. (positive copies), by a process known as galvanoplasty. Pietro Mascagni is famous today as the composer The son-negative, copied in turn from the mother, of Cavalleria rusticana, but he was also an accom- became the matrix for the production of the shellac plished conductor, and in 1929 took over some of discs, the dominant recording format until the 1940s. Toscanini’s duties at La Scala. He directs the Berlin The Shellac Project, sampled on this disc, is a part- Staatskapelle in this 1927 recording of the “Inter- nership between Deutsche Grammophon and Google mezzo sinfonico” from Cavalleria, and a year later Arts & Culture that reaches deep into the Yellow Label’s returned to the studio with them for the Overture to his archives to reveal historic recordings from the early little-known 1901 opera Le maschere. If Mascagni Heinrich Schlusnus Advert from 1925: “Weltruf” Conductors Erna Berger decades of the last century, many of which are made made a respectable secondary career with his baton Titta Ruffo, Enrico Caruso, Feodor Chaliapin Helmut Walcha available again for the first time since the shellac era. skills, Erich Kleiber, born in Vienna in 1890, was indis- Many tracks are digitized direct from galvanically putably one of the 20th century’s greatest conductors. generated mothers; others survive only in their original In 1923, he was appointed Generalmusikdirektor of the father forms and have to be converted into a playable Berlin Staats oper, with whose orchestra he made this mother before they can be digitized. The so obtained recording of a Dvořák Slavonic Dance in 1929. audio files are then painstakingly processed to remove Famously directed from 1723 to 1750 by Johann clicks and noise. The present selection of high points Sebastian Bach, the Choir of Leipzig’s Church of St. Pietro Mascagni, from the project is ample proof of the astonishingly Thomas (Thomanerchor) has long been one of Ger- caricature by Enrico vivid restoration of these precious performances. many’s most revered musical institutions. Under the 10 Caruso 11 6 direction of Karl Straube from 1918 to 1939, the choir in German opera houses, later at international houses And there are further light-music selections from began touring outside Germany and presented Bach’s such as Covent Garden and the Met. This 1935 record- the archives. Otto Reutter, whose humorous cabaret complete cantatas in radio broadcasts. This 1927 ing of Reger’s Christmas lullaby gives a good impression songs were hugely popular with German audiences recording of a Bach chorale features Helmut Walcha, of this enchanting singer. Berlin-born Erna Sack aston- before World War I, made many hits for Deutsche Gram- who would later record Bach’s complete organ works ished listeners with her whistling high notes in songs mophon in the 1920s. In this song in Berlin dialect, for Deutsche Grammophon’s early music label, Archiv such as “Ein Blumenstrauss aus Nizza” from the 1936 recorded in 1927, he pokes fun at his time and his con- Produktion. film Blumen aus Nizza (“Flowers from Nice”). The out- temporaries: “Nothing surprises me anymore”. Dutch- Two instrumental virtuosi spotlighted in this compil- standing German lyric soprano Tiana Lemnitz was a born singer-actor Johannes Heesters was beloved in ation are mostly remembered today by aficionados, but mainstay of the Berlin Staatsoper for more than two Germany, where he settled in 1935, up to his death in both were major musical figures in the 1920s and 30s. decades starting in 1934, famed for her interpretations 2011, aged 108. This popular revue number, recorded Polish pianist-composer Raoul Koczalski made his of Mozart, Wagner and Strauss. She was also a fine in 1941, claims that a man should be able to play the name as a child prodigy in the 1890s. Following studies lieder singer, as can be heard in this 1937 recording of piano in order to have luck with the ladies. German with a Chopin pupil, he became one of his countryman’s Schubert’s An Grabe Anselmos. Alda Noni, who studied singer-actress Lale Andersen was world-famous for most insightful interpreters. Koczalski’s recording of the in her native Trieste, joined the Vienna Staatsoper in her rendition of Lili Marleen, a song that became syn- Julius Patzak Nocturne in E flat major, Op. 9 No. 2, set down in the 1942 and went on to become one of the leading sou- onymous with the homesickness of German soldiers mid-1930s, may be said to represent the authentic tra- brettes of the immediate postwar period.