The Golden Age of the Gramophone

Here a classical treasure-chest that unlocks to reveal 42 of the most priceless gems of the 78 era, truly a golden age of great artists. Opening with the record that effectively started the whole record industry: Caruso’s Vesti la giubba, all the best-loved singers are here, through Peter Dawson, John McCormack, Beniamino Gigli, Paul Robeson, Heddle Nash, Richard Tauber and many others, finally to close with Björling’s Nessun dorma. All the greatest instrumentalists too play their party pieces: Casals, Landowska, Segovia, Heiftz, Schnabel, Rubinstein, Brain, and so many more. In addition Kreisler plays Kreisler, Rachmaninoff plays Rachmaninoff, Grainger plays Grainger, Elgar conducts Elgar, Coates conducts Coates, and Gershwin plays his own Rhapsody in Blue.But perhaps the most nostalgic quintessentials, and the purest diamonds in the treasure-chest, are Master Ernest Lough singing O for the Wings of a Dove, and that immortal gathering of 250 Manchester schoolchildren on 24th June 1929 singing Nymphs and Shepherds – voices “that will never grow old”.