December 2, 2025
#527
Gentle reader,
Longtime readers (Thank You!) are well aware of why we named this the Robb Collections. Music reproduction and collecting have been one of the main focus' of this blog since the beginning way back in 2008.
This photo is from 2012 and since then I've found three more box sets of Beethoven Symphonies on LP records.
This and the next photo are also from 2012. These are all the Beethoven 9th symphonies I had then on mono LPs.
Again, from fifteen years ago, this was all the Beethoven 9th recordings I had at the time. I count fifteen LPs and nineteen CDs.
And these are all the box-sets of CDs (one SACD set) I have of all nine Beethoven symphonies on digital media recordings.
Looking at the group shot of all formats, (above) I remembered the box sets of JUST the 9th Beethoven symphony from when I had moved (all) box sets from other LP shelves to this one location. Above, you can see, on the left, five box LP sets of two-LPs each from different orchestras and labels over the years of long ago.
I had acquired the teak record/stereo shelf back in 2012 and the image above is one of the uses I had for it. It's from the time I had both a stereo system AND a six-channel SACD system in the listening room. It was quite crowded.
Beethoven was fully deaf and perhaps going a bit mad (crazy for us U.S. residents) the earliest recording I have is from a 1935 performance!
I scanned the CD cover and notes (we used to call then liner notes) from some of the historic recordings I own.
I was quite surprised reading the notes on transferring the original recordings and wondered, "Just when did 78 RPM records come out?" Here is the answer:
"78 rpm records began to be produced around 1898 and became the standardized format by 1910. They were primarily made from shellac and were the dominant medium for sound recording until the introduction of vinyl records in the late 1940s."
That quote is from Yale University Library and was found by a DuckDuckGo search. [I don't use Google for anything other than Blogger (this) and YouTube, both of which Google owns. They track everything you do and search for on the Internet. DuckDuckGo does not track. And, it's advertisement-free.]
This performance recording is from 1951 on mono LP.
I wonder if Elisabeth Schwarzkopf is related to U.S. Army General H. Norman Schwarzkopf of Desert Storm fame?
One of THE most famous early 20th Century conductors was Arturo Toscanini. Many of his recordings are considered THE best ever done. This recording is from 1953.
Since radio preceded television by decades, it was the only broadcast electronic entertainment in households around the world. And, it being free to listen to, the ONLY form or outside entertainment most folks had. Thus, many radio stations had their own orchestras.
Conductor Fritz Reiner's story is fascinating. He became a living legend in the classical music world of the mid-20th Century. Critics praised the "Reiner Sound".
According to my digital list of all of my LP and EP records, I have 33 records in which Fritz Reiner was the conductor, but only two digital sources. One of which is seen above this LP cover and below.
My LP recording of this performance (I listened to all twenty-six LPs) prior to writing this article, and concluded that Reiner's performance was THE best I have listened to. 
SO impressed was I by the sound of the LP record, I went out and found it on CD. As seen in the above scans.
It was only when I went to count all the CDs I have of the 9th Symphony of Beethoven did I see that I already had one! Being the type of collector called "completest", I decided to donate the Butterfly covered CD and keep the new one, thus avoiding having to find and buy all eight of the other CDs. Whew!
Going through and listening to all of my LPs, I found that I had some LP "brothers". Question: Are you a YouTube viewer? Have you noticed that if you have not yet gotten to watch certain videos yet, that the channel has changed the picture they used? Well, that isn't anything new. Above and below, you will see front and rear of several Beethoven 9th Symphony record brothers. The one on the right came out years after the original ones did.
This duo is quite clever. The one on the right has what may be a crowd photo from 1969's Woodstock music festival which started on my birthday.
Always the same label too.
Note all the notes on the classical LP cover and far less on the "rock" cover. 
This CD cover is from the legendary Berlin performance of Beethoven's 9th symphony by US conductor Leonard Bernstein at the Brandenburg Gate in West Berlin in 1989. Read more about it here: Berlin Wall (1989) | Historic Concerts | Conductor | About | Leonard Bernstein
In going through all thirty-five of my CD recordings of Beethoven's 9th Symphony, I started looking at recording dates. This one is from 1969. 
It almost looks like a 45 RPM record at a glance.
If you are a music lover, especially of classical music, I highly recommend seeing the 2023 film Maestro about Leonard Bernstein's life.
That Hp may be a nod to the trademarked "Lp" of long ago.
This one is from 1958.
Below is a period photo of conductor Ferenc Fricsay.
And the four soloists:
I like it when the recording company goes retro:
It is outstanding and Bradley Cooper was excellent!
This CD, from 1996 is golden. 
What the metal they used is, I do not know.
Based upon this Wikipedia article: Gold compact disc - Wikipedia this one must be gold rather than "high purity" aluminum.
Dad was a Presbyterian Minister. We grew up riding in the family Volkswagen Bus and living in various small towns and cities where Dad was the church's pastor or teaching at various seminaries across the U.S. He and Mom met in the church choir in Phoenix, Arizona in the 1950's. Thus, music was often playing, many genres, all of our life growing up. Thus, I grew to love all kinds of music. I'm the only one of us five siblings who is an avid collector and lover of many types of music. My middle sister and her husband sing in a symphony orchestra's choir, but they do not have many recordings.
All five of us, circa 1996, the year Nancy and I got married. This is a "by-age" photo.
Well, my faithful readers, that's all I have to show and tell about a tiny portion of my music collection. It is one of my many passions. Thank you for taking the time to read this article. Feel free to comment below or on Facebook.
Scott Robb
December 2, 2025
#527
No comments:
Post a Comment