Sold Date: December 21, 2019
Start Date: August 1, 2018
Final Price: $200.00 (USD)
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SCHOENBERG, Arnold

    Pierrot Lunaire for Soprano and Chamber Ensemble (1912)

        Erika Stiedry-Wagner, sop

        Arnold Schoenberg, conductor (before he removed the umlaut and added the “e” as Schoenberg)

        Chamber Ensemble: Leonard Posello, flute and piccolo; Kalman Bloch, cl; Rudolf Kolisch, violin and Viola; Stefan Auber, cello; Edward Steuermann, piano

Columbia 71157-71160 in set M-461 (4 12” 78 rpm shellac discs) Manual sequence

    Recorded September 24, 1940 in Los Angeles, CA

Records: M-.Gold type on blue labels.  As "mirror" as Columbia surfaces get from this period.  From the look of the center holes, I doubt it was played.

Early pressing with first cover.  The album is just about unmarred- a bit of slide shelf wear at bottom front.  Clear gold lettering on spine.  No sleeve tears. Notes on inside of the covers by Nicolas Slonimsky.   

The Columbia LP reissue notes on  ML-4471 use Slonimsky’s opening and description of each section, uncredited,  but omits the long Schoenberg quote on the inside back cover of the 78 set  in which the composer writes not only about this recording of the work but also mentions the performers, by name, of others who performed it earlier.  He states that Steuermann, who plays the piano here, also did so in the premiere and many subsequent performances.

My memory may be faltering, but I don’t recall another instance of Schoenberg as a performer on a commercial recording.  This is an early pressing, possibly a first, of an important recorded document in the history of 20th century music.