Stokowski conducts Puccini - 'Madame Butterfly' - Entr'acte ('Humming Chorus')
Leopold Stokowski began making 78rpm records in 1917 utilising the primitive method of Philadelphia Orchestra members playing into a large wooden horn. Years later he was to dismiss these old 'acoustic' recordings as "just awful." However, with the advent of electrical recording in 1925 he began to take a great interest in the mechanics of the entire recording process.
Even so, quite a few pre-electric Stokowski 78s were issued, whilst others were not, and several of them featured composers and works he never returned to in the recording studio. This little piece of music by Puccini was one of them. However, the old 78rpm disc remained unissued until it appeared on a Pristine Audio CD in 2016. Recorded in 1924, it is in fact an instrumental version of the "Humming Chorus" that ends Act 2. This is also known as the "Waiting Music" and features alongside other acoustic Stokowski 78rpm recordings on Pristine Audio PASC 476.
Here is Stokowski's very first recording, a 10" acoustically recorded 78 disc made in 1917. It's the Brahms Hungarian Dance No. 5 and was his only recording of the piece ...
• Stokowski's First Recording - Brahms ...
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