The English basso profundo Norman Allin (1884-1973) was prominent from the 1920s to the 1940s. He was in the original line-up of soloists for Vaughan Williams’s Serenade to Music. Allin was also one of the first singers at Glyndebourne, where he sang Bartolo in Le Nozze di Figaro.

Purcell arr A Moffatt – Awake! ye dead
Purcell arr A Moffatt – Come ye sons of Art – Sound the trumpet
Harold Williams, baritone, Norman Allin, bass
Orchestra

Columbia 5438
Matrices WA 8788-2, 8789-2 (38877, 38876)
Recorded late March or early April 1929
Issued December 1929

“Sound the trumpet” was a regular party piece for two low voices at the time of this recording, though it is now more usually sung by two countertenors.

Hedgcock – Sleep my Saviour, sleep
Gruber – Silent Night
Isobel Baillie, soprano; Muriel Brunskill, contralto; Heddle Nash, tenor; Norman Allin, bass
Orchestra

Columbia DB 976
Matrices CA 13155-2, 13156-2
Recorded 1930s

Vaughan Williams - Serenade to Music
BBC Symphony Orchestra, Sir Henry J. Wood
Isobel Baillie, soprano
Lilian Stiles Allen, soprano
Elsie Suddaby, soprano
Eva Turner, soprano
Margaret Balfour, contralto
Muriel Brunskill, contralto
Astra Desmond, contralto
Mary Jarred, contralto
Parry Jones, tenor
Heddle Nash, tenor
Frank Titterton, tenor
Walter Widdop, tenor
Norman Allin, bass
Robert Easton, bass
Roy Henderson, baritone
Harold Williams, baritone

Download - Vaughan Williams - Serenade to Music - Henry Wood

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Columbia LX757-8
Matrices CAX 8367-2A, 8368-2A, 8369-1, 8370-1
Recorded 15th October 1938