Bamberg
Symphony Orchestra
Conductor: Joseph Keilberth
Released
in 1954 as Telefunken Fullschrift 78rpm disc VE 9028
Matrix numbers: 9/036945 R, 9/036946 R
Download ID: 226985
(Duration
13'53")
Play
sample movement:
Joseph
Keilberth
Written
in 1787, whilst the composer was working on his opera, Don Giovanni,
the Serenade for Strings in G major, better known as Eine Kleine
Nachtmusik (A Little Night Music) is one of Mozart's best-known
pieces, as surely needs little by the way of introduction here. Written
in four, easily digestible movements, a quick click on our sample button
to hear the opening theme and you'll immediately recognise one of music's
most familiar tunes.
This recording,
however, is a rather special curiosity. Although released in the UK on
a Telefunken LP, we discovered that a German 78rpm pressing had been made
and issued using a new technology, developed by Deutsche Grammophon in
1950, allowing a doubling of playing time on 78rpm discs. This, coupled
with hugely greater resolution and fidelity, suggests that what Telefunken
proudly called their Füllschrift Platten was the fall-back
option for a number of record companies should the general public prove
resistant to the new microgroove formats.
Once again,
take a listen to that sample, and marvel at what quality they were achieving
with the format. I've heard much worse from LPs of the same era, though
it must be said that this disc did have a lot of rumble to be dealt with,
and hiss levels were slightly higher than on most LPs.
However,
with up to nine minutes playing time per side, a wide equipment base both
in manufacturing and in the homes of consumers, one can easily see why
this kind of technology was being developed and used - the main marketing
push for early LPs was not sonic superiority (which was often absent)
but their relative compactness, along with unbreakability. Whilst this
78rpm disc is still on brittle shellac, it does go a long way towards
addressing the time issue; had LPs struggled to take hold, we might have
been listening to music on discs like this one for many years after...
