A Nostaligic Look at an LP, and My Claim to Fame

Yesterday I was taking a look through the LP Collection I have, and to my great delight, I discovered that I still possess the very first classical LP I bought. (In a previous blog I mentioned this LP and thought that I no longer had it!)

So what does it contain, you may well ask.

It is a recording of the Tchaikovsky 1812 Overture on one side and Smetana’s Vltava - from Ma Vlast on the other side. It is recorded on a 10” Fontana Label LP. The Orchestra playing are the Vienna Symphony Orchestra and the conductor is Karel Ancerl.

Karel Ancerl

The 1812 Overture was recorded at Musikverein Grosser Saal, Vienna, in Dec 1958, and Vltava was recorded at the same location between 08 – 10 February 1958. Just to add to the nostalgia, the recording is glorious single dimension Monophonic!

Most of my classical music collection has now moved over, firstly on to audio cassette, and finally on to CD, but I still have a few treasured recordings on LP.

Wrose Junior School Choir Conducted by Denise Warren, Accompanist Malcolm Bentley

On a more personal note, I made a recording with the choir of Wrose Junior School on the occasion before the school became a First School under the (then) new three tier system of Education in Bradford. The Deputy Head of the School at the time (who was the lady who conducted the Baildon Ladies Choir at the joint concert my Male Voice choir performed with) conducted on the recording, and I was the accompanist.

I recall that I recorded all the items we performed on my own professional Phillips N4408 Open Reel Recorder (which now lies forlorn and neglected in the loft) and a company called X-L Sound Recordings produced the LP’s, which were sold to the parents and friends of the children who had taken part.

Some years ago I was browsing through a second hand record stall in Shipley Market and I came across one of the LP’s. As I hadn’t purchased an LP when they were first produced (because I had the original master recordings on open reel tape) I bought the LP!

Some of the tracks on the LP are: Steal Away, Eriskay Love Lilt, Non Nobis Domine, Brahm’s Lullaby, Goin’ Home [Slow Movement theme from the Dvorak New World Symphony] and With Catlike Tread [from the Pirates of Penzance].

I wonder how many 10 year olds would be capable of singing these today.

The record label for Stainer's Crucifixion performed by the choir of Christ Church Windhill Organist Mr G E S Bentley, Conductor Mr M S Bentley

I also made a recording with the Choir of Christ Church Windhill, Shipley, when I used to be the organist and choirmaster there in the late 1960’s. This was of Sir John Stainer’s oratorio The Crucifixion. The soloists were from within the choir, and my late father played the organ.