Tag Archives: Arts, literature & performance

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Mar62017

Recording of the week: Toscanini conducts Elgar

British Library

This week's selection comes from Kevin Lemonnier, Preservation Audio Engineer.

This is the only known recording in existence of Arturo Toscanini (1867-1957) conducting the BBC Symphony Orchestra performing Elgar’s Introduction and Allegro Op. 47. The performance took place during the 1937 London Music Festival and was privately recorded off broadcast, onto a lacquer disc, by audio engineer Kenneth H. Leech (1892-1995).

Toscanini conducting Elgar's Introduction and Allegro Op. 47

Toscanini_Getty Museum

 Portrait of the composer Arturo Toscanini c.1926 (J. Paul Getty Museum)

The audio quality is rather poor due to wear and shrinkage of the cellulose nitrate but it still reveals a driving performance from the Italian master. 

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Recording of the week: Linton Kwesi Johnson on dub poet Michael Smith

This week’s selection comes from Stephen Cleary, Lead Curator of Literary & Creative Recordings. In this recording, poet and reggae artist Linton Kwesi Johnson gives a lecture on the late Jamaican performance poet Mikey Smith (1954-1983), author of ‘Me Cyaan Believe It’. The talk is based on his personal knowledge… read more

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