Formby, George: It's Turned Out Nice Again (1932-1946)

WISDOM, Norman: Don't Laugh at Me (1951-1956)

SHELTON, Anne: Fools Rush In (1940-1941)

JONES, Spike: Spiking The Classics (1945-1950)

INTRODUCING MARIO LANZA

LOUGH, Ernest: Wings of a Dove (1927-1938)

Over the course of the twelve months charted in this ninth volume, the 52-year-old Fritz Kreisler made a series of recordings where he set down the standard electric versions of many of his most popular pieces. They include his first ever recording of his own Gipsy Caprice and of Falla's Cancion as well as a replacement for his acoustic 1912 recording of Schon Rosmarin. Four pieces with his cellist brother Hugo were made in Berlin, whilst some of his greatest playing comes in the Ruralia Hungarica by his former sonata partner Dohnanyi. All preserve the inimitable tonal and expressive beauties of which he was a master.

This third volume of Rachmaninov’s Victor recordings contains discs he made ofhis own solo compositions and arrangements from the introduction of electricalrecording in 1925 to a year before his death. The works recorded were those mostin demand by the public, each piece subject to Rachmaninov’s perfectionism andthe version released always the best of a number of takes (for example, therecording of his famous Prelude in C sharp minor is Take 23). Whether it be in the1925 recording of his transcription of Kreisler’s Liebesfreud or the February 1942recording of the same work (in which he displays a cast iron technique only a yearbefore his death), the sheer virtuosity, utter clarity and supreme musicianshipof Rachmaninov’s playing style are undiminished. The first two releases in thisseries have been acclaimed for their superb remastering.

Strauss, R.: Heldenleben (Ein) / Tod Und Verklarung (Mengelb

MASSENET: Werther (Thill, Vallin) (1931)

The fifth volume in this much admired series offers another fascinating anthology.Of the 17 pianists, the two oldest are the long-lived Cornelia Rider-Possart(1865-1963) who can be heard on an exceptionally rare, non-commercial 1926Berlin disc, in the first recording of Scriabin’s Etude, Op. 42, No. 3, and EtelkaFreund (1879-1977), a pupil of Brahms, who performs one of his Intermezzos in1952. Jean Melville, a distant relation of Arthur Sullivan, plays Valse arabesquein London in 1923, whilst Johana Harris who, together with her husband, theAmerican composer Roy Harris, enjoyed a highly successful career, can be heardplaying Frescobaldi in Los Angeles.

BRAHMS: Symphonies Nos. 2 and 4 (Mengelberg) (1941)

BJORLING, Jussi / BJORLING, Anna-Lisa: Arias and Duets (1949

MAHLER: Symphony No. 2 / Kindertotenlieder (Fried) (1915-19

Wagner: Siegfried (excerpts)