Mendelssohn and Richard Rodgers the record

Synopsis

On today’s date in 1948 at New York’s Waldorf-Astoria Hotel there was a press demonstration of a new kind of phonograph record. Edward Wallerstein of Columbia Records stood between a big stack of heavy, shellac, 78-rpm albums, the standard for recorded music in those days, and a noticeably slimmer stack of vinyl discs, a new format which Wallerstein had dubbed “LPs”: “long playing” records that spun at 33 & 1/3 revolutions per minute.

Before 1948, if you wanted to buy a recording of a complete symphony or concerto, it meant the purchase of up to a dozen 78s, each playing only four minutes a side. In developing its new LP-record, Columbia’s goal was to fit complete classical works onto a single disc.

Columbia’s first LP release was a recording of the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto, with Nathan Milstein as the soloist and the New York Philharmonic conducted by Bruno Walter.

The following year, Columbia struck pay dirt with its original cast album of a brand-new Broadway musical by Richard Rodgers. The 1949 Columbia LP of Mary Martin and Ezio Pinza singing the hit tunes from South Pacific became a best-seller, and by 1951 the LP-record had become the industry standard.

Music Played in Today's Program

Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847): Violin Concerto; Nathan Milstein, violin; New York Philharmonic; Bruno Walter, conductor; Sony 64459

Rodgers and Hammerstein: South Pacific; Ezio Pinza and Mary Martin; orchestra; Lehman Engel, conductor; Sony 53327

On This Day

Births

• 1756 - German-Swedish composer Joseph Martin Kraus, in Miltenberg, near Mainz

• 1819 - German-born French cellist and operetta composer Jacques Offenbach, in Cologne

• 1931 - Norwegian composer Arne Nordheim, in Larvik

Deaths

• 1787 - German-born, London-based composer, gamba virtuoso and concert impresario Carl Friedrich Abel, 63, in London. He was a friend and associate of Johann Christian Bach (the “London” Bach).

• 1940 - French organ composer Jehan Alain, 29, killed in action at Petits-Puis, near Saumur

Premieres

• 1716 - Handel: Concerto Grosso No. 4a, at the King's Theater in London, performed between the acts of Handel’s opera Amadigi di Gaula (Gregorian date: July 1)

• 1901 - Elgar: Cockaigne Overture: In London Town, at a London Philharmonic concert

• 1938 - Jerome Moross: ballet, Frankie and Johnny, by the Page-Stone Ballet at the Great Northern Theater in Chicago. This production was part of the Federal Theater Project.

• 1947 - Britten: opera Albert Herring, at the Glyndebourne Opera

• 1952 - Hindemith: opera Cardillac (second version) in Zürich at the Stadttheater

• 1961 - Paul Creston: Dance Variations for soprano and orchestra, at Lewisohn Stadium by the Stadium Symphony (New York Philharmonic), Pierre Monteux conducting and Roberta Peters the vocal soloist

• 1962 - Leroy Anderson: Clarinet Candy at a Decca recording session in New York City, with the composer conducting. The four clarinet soloist for this classic recording were Vincent Abato, Herbert Blayman, Roger Hiller and Bernard Portnoy.

• 1969 - Penderecki: opera The Devils of Loudun, in Hamburg at the Staatsoper

Others

• 1948 - At the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City, Edward Wallerstein conducts the first public demonstration of the revolutionary Columbia Records 33-rpm “Long Playing” (LP) discs for 50 members of the press.