Victor Efforts to Record a Large Symphony Orchestra
Until 1917, Victor had not successfully recorded a full symphony orchestra, nor did
they have the recording location to do so. Raymond Sooy, with his
brother Harry Sooy, were among the pioneer engineers of recording at the Victor Talking
Machine Company. Raymond Sooy wrote of these efforts:
"...July 23, 1917: Mr. Pasternack [Josef A. Pasternack 1880-1940, Musical
Director of Victor] assembled an orchestra consisting of 51 musicians.
The rooms in the general Recording Laboratory not being large enough to carry
on this work, we were permitted to use the Auditorium on the eighth floor of the
Executive Building.
Up until this time, Symphony Orchestra records had never been a success [for
Victor],
but it had always been one of our greatest ambitions, and with the untiring
efforts of Mr. Pasternack on the above date, we felt we had a commercial Symphony
Orchestra record, but at that time, the largest orchestra we could satisfactorily record
consisted of about fifty musicians.
After the results of this engagement were heard, the Boston Symphony Orchestra was
booked. October 2, 3, 4 and 5, 1917: First engagement of the Boston
Symphony Orchestra with Dr. Karl Muck directing. October 22, 1917: The first
records of the Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Dr. Leopold
Stokowski were made. These records were made in the Auditorium of the Executive
Building..."
1
So, for the first Victor recordings of a full symphony
orchestra in October, 1917, first the Boston Symphony
Orchestra under Karl Muck were followed by the Philadelphia
Orchestra conducted by Leopold Stokowski. Further is
written about the Muck - BSO recordings later in this web
page.
The First Victor Acoustic recordings of Leopold Stokowski - Philadelphia Orchestra
On Monday, October 22. 1917, Leopold Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra boarded
a ferryboat taking them from Philadelphia, across the Delaware river to Camden,
New Jersey. They went to Camden because this was the home of the Victor Talking Machine
Company, built and controlled by
Eldridge R. Johnson. Victor had asked Stokowski to record
as early as 1915 3. Although the Monday
first recording sessions were not successful, the Orchestra
returned to Camden on Wednesday, October 24 to produce its
first two released phonograph recordings. With there first 1917 recordings, Stokowski and the
Philadelphia Orchestra began an historic collaboration which over the next 9
years released approximately 67 acoustic 78 RPM Victrola sides of remarkable quality,
given the available technology.
1917 Philadelphia Orchestra Recordings Eighth floor Auditorium - Victor Office Building
The 1917 recordings were made in the eighth floor auditorium of the New Office Building
number 2, the Victor Company's executive headquarters building which had been constructed
in the previous year. Early in 1917, this large eighth floor auditorium had also been used
for the famous Caruso, De Luca, Journet, Galli-Curci, Bada, and Egener sextet recording of the mad
scene from Lucia Di Lammermoor (Victor Red Seal 95212). Also, a little more than two weeks prior to the Philadelphia
Orchestra session, from October 2-6, Karl Muck and the Boston Symphony Orchestra had spent a week in Camden making
a very fine series of acoustic recordings in this same auditorium.
Also, earlier certain other American orchestras had
recorded. In January, 1917, the Cincinnati Symphony
under their Music Director, Ernst Kunwald (1868-1939), who
was Stokowski's successor at the Cincinnati Symphony,
recorded Delibes and Halvorsen for Columbia Graphophone
(Columbia A5943). Even earlier, Frederick Stock, Music
Director of the Chicago Symphony, recorded Mendelssohn's
Wedding March from 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' for Columbia
Graphophone on May 1, 1916 (Columbia A-5844 matrix 48763) 4,
with Grieg's 'To Spring' on the other side. This
Chicago recording may have been the first U.S. orchestra to
record under its permanent conductor. And of course,
there are the famous Artur Nikisch recordings of Egmont and
Oberon Overtures were made June 25, 1913 in the UK, and the
famous Beethoven Fifth with Berlin Philharmonic of November
20, 1913.
However, one important difference between the Victor
recordings of Karl Muck - Boston Symphony and Stokowski -
Philadelphia Orchestra compared with the previous recordings of
the Cincinnati, Chicago, Colonne, and other orchestras was that the Muck
and Stokowski recordings were of the full symphony orchestra
of between 85 and 100 players. The earlier recordings
were of reduced forces of perhaps 35 to 40 musicians.
This is probably the reason that RCA Victor in its 2001
commemorative album "RCA Red Seal Century" (RCA 63861), RCA
claims that the Karl Muck recording of October 5, 1917
was"...the first known commercial recording sessions with a
full symphony orchestra..." However, it may be
that the Nikisch - Berlin Beethoven Symphony no 5 recording
of 1913 is of a full or nearly full Berlin Philharmonic
Orchestra. The strings sound to me full, and there are
clearly string basses, rather than the bass wind instruments
often used in other acoustic recordings.
Karl Muck and the Boston Symphony Orchestra
In the 1917 for the Stokowski - Philadelphia recordings, in
order to accommodate the fully symphony orchestra, the
chairs in the Victor auditorium were removed and two
dome-like structures, described as being like igloos with an
opening, were placed over the orchestra. This was to
help direct their sound into the large recording horn. In
these 1917 recordings, a full orchestra was used. In these
two Brahms recordings, 93 musicians we used, essentially a
full orchestral complement 5. As described below,
this orchestra size of 1917 was greatly reduced by 1919
(Stokowski made no recordings in 1918.)
A recent reviewer of the 1917 recordings states '...One source claims that 90 Philadelphia
Orchestra players made it under the horn. I simply do not believe it...'. The reviewer
gives his opinion and explains why. However, the excellent Encyclopedic
Discography of Victor Recordings (EDVR) maintained by the University of California,
Santa Barbara provides the documented information from the Victor ledgers
5. So, with
a few internet clicks, opinion is not required. There were in fact 93 musicians: 16 first
violins, 15 second violins, 12 violas, 10 cellos, 8 basses, 3 flutes, piccolo, 4 oboes,
4 clarinets, 4 bassoons, 5 horns, 4 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, and 2 percussion.
1919 Philadelphia Orchestra Recordings - Camden
Church Studio
