Verdi – Trovatore – Anvil Chorus Wagner – Tannhäuser – Grand March Orchestra and Grand Opera Chorus
Broadcast Twelve 5107 (10") Matrices LO-339, LO-340 Recorded late 1920s
Bizet – Carmen – March Act IV Gounod – Faust – La Kermesse Sung in English Chorus and Symphony Orchestra, Albert Coates
His Master’s Voice D 1047 Matrices Cc 7063-II, 7065-II (single side numbers 4-0749, 4-0750) Recorded 26th October 1925, Hayes
This was recorded in a session at Hayes which also included the Boris Godunov coronation scene with Chaliapin and the Church Scene from Faust, with Chaliapin and Austral. The baritone who has a brief solo in the Faust chorus is unnamed. There is a possibility that it is Edward Halland, who was in studio with Coates the following day when some Wagner excerpts were recorded.
The sound is somewhat recessed, as these are fairly early examples of electrical recording of pieces for chorus and orchestra. Indeed, on the same day that these recordings were made at Hayes, the pianist Max Darewski was being recorded acoustically in another of the Hayes studios.
