Sold Date: July 19, 2015
Start Date: July 19, 2015
Final Price: $1,189.00 (USD)
Seller Feedback: 1248
Buyer Feedback: 53

On offer in this listing is a true world rarity set of four (4) 12" acoustic 78 rpm phonograph records of Arnold SCHONBERG's String Sextet, 'VERKLARTE NACHT, op. 4' performed by the augmented Spencer Dyke Quartet, on the publication Gramophone's label, 'The National Gramophonic Society (NGS) M, N, O, and P' in near mint (NM) condition. These were the FIRST records released with Schoenberg's music!! The labels are close to perfect with no spindle marks. The surfaces are glossy with no scratches, chips, and just light paper scuffing. Overall these discs look as if they have been only and carefully played a few times, if at all. PLEASE understand the records have been only visually graded under a strong light and NOT play graded. ANY 78 rpm recordings of Schoenberg, Alban Berg, or Anton Webern are very few in number, and exceptionally difficult to find, especially complete multi-disc releases such as this one.

Since these records and the label is very rare and not very well known, I will provide a brief history of the label and complete discographical details of the offered set.

The Formation and Early History of the NGS

During it's first year of publication, in the September 1923 issue of Gramophone, the founding editor Compton Mackenzie stated "For some time past I have had in my head a scheme that requires much thought before it can be considered a practical scheme. Briefly, my ambition is to incorporate a number of enthusiasts for good music on the gramophone in a society which will aim at achieving for gramophone music what such societies as the Medici have done for the reproduction of paintings and for the printed book. If I receive 500 postcards I will take the next step, which will be to start the society and give it a name."

Evidently interest was such that in August 1924 the National Gramophonic Society (NGS) Record Company label was formed. For financial reasons, it started by concentrating on recording chamber music, often of an adventurous or noncommercial modern nature, rarely if ever recorded by the larger established companies.

Mackenzie wanted the feeling of a true society and called upon its members, mostly Gramophone subscribers (whose annual membership was at first five shillings, and later two shillings and six pence), to submit ideas. Mackenzie enlisted the services of the chamber music patron Walter Wilson Cobbett as one of the Society's musical advisers, bring joined by W. R. Anderson, Spencer Dyke (whose quartet made quite a number of the early recordings, including the offered set), Alec Robertson, Peter Latham and the magazine's London editor, Christopher Stone.

Almost all of the Society's issues were premiere recordings. The first release, in the winter of 1924, was of Beethoven's op.74 String Quartet 'The Harp' and Debussy's String Quartet, both played by the Spencer Dyke Quartet, then followed by a gramophone "first", the offered Schoenberg's Verklarte Nacht in its original string sextet version.

Discographical Information on the NGS: M,N,O,P Release

Personnel:

Spencer Dyke, Edwin Quaife - violins
Ernest Tomlinson, James Lockyer - violas
B. Patterson Parker, E. J. Robinson - cellos

Recording Dates:

Sides 1-4 recorded 10th October, 1924
Sides 5-7 recorded 30th December 1924

Date of Release:

March 1925

Interestingly this recording was recorded in part during a studio session shared with a recording of the Schubert Piano Trio in E flat. The final side of the Schubert is on the same disc as the first side of the Schoenberg disc. According to the discography at the Arnold Schoenberg Centre, this first recording remained the work's only outing on disc in its original sextet form for a further 25 years. To issue it amongst one of the very first sets of NGS recordings must have seemed quite a radical proposition - and statement of intent - to the more conservatively-minded members of the newly-formed Society.

Please see the SCANS. If you have any questions or wish additional scans please feel free to contact me. Preferred payment is PayPal but I may accept other forms of payment. If you wish to pay other than PayPal please contact me before the auction closes. Finally, please understand that the stated shipping charges are only approximate as the records have not been packed up as of yet. However it should not very different from the listed amount. Packing will be done very securely in a professional manner and if there is a major difference between the shipping charged and the actual amount, I will refund you the difference.