1928 NIKOLAI SOKOLOFF Cleveland Orc Rachmaninoff SYMPHONY NO 2 FIRST RECORDING78

$

40

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A series of great orchestral recordings:

This is one from the first recording session ever of the Cleveland Orch under their conductor

Nikolai Sokoloff. This was part of US Brunswick quickly aborted attempt to record classical orchestras in the US (instead they re-issued Polydor and Deutsche Grammophon)

Great First Recording of

Rachmaninoff SYMPHONY NO 2 

6x 12" 78 rpm records, Brunswick's most massive set to date NO ALBUM

Condition:

EXCELLENT, close to pristine, rare scuffs, one tiny light grey groove, plays very quiet light hiss, best results with 4.0 ET tip

Recording technologies have come a long way since The Cleveland Orchestra cut its first commercial record in 1924. In those early days of recording, pieces often had to be modified to fit on 78 rpm discs, often leading conductors to condense musical works so that they could be commercially viable. Sometimes composers would listen to the concerns of orchestra conductors, revising their scores to be more acceptable for both live performance and commercial recording. One of those composers was Sergei Rachmaninoff, longtime friend of The Cleveland Orchestra’s first conductor, Nikolai Sokoloff.

From 1923 to 1942 Rachmaninoff visited Cleveland at the invitation of the Orchestra to perform his three piano concerti and his Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini. Cleveland was also one of the first cities in the United States to witness performances of Rachmaninoff’s symphonies, and The Cleveland Orchestra was the first ensemble ever to record his stunning Symphony No. 2 in E minor.

Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 2 was first performed in Cleveland by the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1911, just three years after its world-premiere in St. Petersburg. During the summer of 1919, Sokoloff approached Rachmaninoff about making a revised edition of the piece for The Cleveland Orchestra to perform, as he felt the current version was too long for practical concert purposes. Rachmaninoff admitted that the score could stand to be shortened, and the two musicians prepared a new score to use for the upcoming performance of the work. In order to create a tighter (and more performable) version of the symphony, the composer altered tempi, made changes to the orchestration, and made cuts to all movements of the piece. The Cleveland Orchestra played the symphony for the first time as part of their second season in March of 1920, Sokoloff conducting from the score that reflected Rachmaninoff’s changes.

Setting this symphony to vinyl was no easy task. This landmark recording represents not only the Orchestra’s first major commercial release, but also the world-premiere recording of the symphony. In his unpublished memoirs, Sokoloff describes the recording experience and some of Rachmaninoff’s revisions to the score:

In spite of our calamitous start, we continued recording and, in 1928, even recorded for Brunswick the first “album” of a symphony ever attempted. This was Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 2, which took six twelve-inch records (that is twelve sides – twelve perfect wax bases!) to record. Fortunately, this was done in the Brunswick studios in New York and there were no make-shift seating arrangements to collapse under any musician [as had happened during an earlier recording session!].

Also fortunately, I had seen Rachmaninoff the summer before and, when I told him we were going to record his Second Symphony, he immediately said that he would like to make some cuts in it about which he had been thinking seriously for some time as the symphony was far too long. Also, that he wanted to make a change in the orchestration at the end of the slow movement and give me the exact tempo he wished in the Scherzo, which had been given an incorrect metronome mark when the score was published.

Rachmaninoff’s revisions and cuts are all recorded in my score, which I left with the Cleveland Orchestra. I feel sure the present librarian would be gracious enough to allow any conductor, wishing to know Rachmaninoff’s own final revisions, to look at it. Even with the cuts, it took us four hours of almost every morning of a week in New York to record it!

—from Eleanor Reynolds Sokoloff’s unpublished typescript of her husband’s memoirs, recorded in early 1965. Courtesy of Cleveland Orchestra Archives. 

Thankfully, all of the hard work paid off – the recording was a huge success and received large amounts of press coverage. The September 1928 issue of Phonograph Monthly Review praised the recording as “a phonographic jewel of the very first water,” also suggesting that “it contributes a note to recorded music that has not been known before.” The recording sold for seven dollars (a little over $95 today!), and was prominently advertised in The Cleveland Orchestra’s 1928-29 season program books.

Condition:

VERY GOOD PLUS PLUS, basically unworn, but scffued, few light scratches on Valse, plays quiet

Check my other auctions for more great classical recordings!

Nikolai Sokoloff (28 May 1886 – 25 September 1965), was a Russia-American conductor and violinist. He was born in Kiev, and studied music at Yale. From 1916 to 1917 he was musical director of the San Francisco People's Philharmonic Orchestra, where he insisted on including women in his orchestra and paying them the same as men. Sokoloff was the founding conductor and music director of the Cleveland Orchestra in 1918 where he remained until 1932. Between 1935 and 1938 he directed the Federal Music Project, a New Deal program that employed musicians to perform and educate the public about music. From 1938 to 1941 he directed the Seattle Symphony Orchestra.