Порекомендуйте записи классики

Да я не придираюсь. Это действительно интересно - развитие звукозаписи после фонографа и велте-миньон.

Вот к примеру,рассказ самого Марстона о том,как и НА ЧЁМ записывался знаменитый рецитал Гофмана 1938 г. в Казимир-холле и
о мастеринге The Complete Josef Hofmann Vol. 6. :

"With Volume Six we reach the three-quarter mark in the ongoing series, “The Complete Josef Hofmann.” Here we have primarily concert appearances, recorded for various reasons but not originally thought of as items suitable for commercial release. It is a bit of a miracle that these performances were captured at all, and that they have been carefully preserved for more than sixty years.

The first group stems from a 1936 broadcast. The newspaper listings for the broadcast concert stated that Hofmann was originally slated to play Liszt’s Polonaise in E and Twelfth Hungarian Rhapsody, and it is not known why Beethoven’s “Moonlight” Sonata was substituted—would that we could hear all three! The records preserving the broadcast were found among the pianist’s possessions after the death of his widow; the recording made on three twelve-inch acetate discs, recorded from the center out at 78 rpm. The sound is quite good for its time and only one technical defect needs be mentioned: at the conclusion of the first side, some of the acetate material has disintegrated, causing a loud scraping sound for five revolutions, heard at four minutes and thirty seconds into the broadcast. Nothing can be done to repair this, unfortunately, and no other recording of this broadcast is known.

The unique recording which captured Josef Hofmann’s final Casimir Hall recital of 7 April 1938 first became publicly available in its entirety in 1975, on a two LP set issued by the International Piano Archives (IPA 5007/8). Since then, the recording has achieved legendary status among most piano enthusiasts (and a certain “outlaw” notoriety among others). We have received more requests over the years to reissue this recital than any other single recording. Because of the tremendous importance of this historic performance, the details concerning the original circumstances of the recording are of interest.

Casimir Hall (now Curtis Hall) is a small auditorium. An overflow audience was accommodated by having the performance piped into another building through a public address system. The microphone was placed very close to, or perhaps even underneath the piano. Curtis’s librarian, Gordon Mapes, connected a brand new disc recorder to the system to preserve the momentous occasion. The first half of the recital was recorded on two sixteen-inch discs, from the center out at 33 & 1/3 rpm. The remainder of the concert was recorded on five twelve-inch discs, from the center out at 78 rpm. Unfortunately there seems to have been a loose electrical connection somewhere in the system, which caused the sound level to fluctuate precipitously. It is impossible to correct this problem, but considerable effort has been made, however, to soften the jarring effect of the changes in recording level. Another recording flaw occurs during Kreisleriana. In the course of the performance it was necessary for Mapes (acting as a recording engineer for the first time in his life) to start a new acetate side in the middle of bar eleven of piece number six. He was slow and lost one and a half bars. Therefore we have spliced the middle of bar eleven to the middle of bar thirteen in an attempt to provide continuity in the recorded performance. Even with these defects, we must consider ourselves blessed that this recording exists, for it contains some of the most titanic pianism ever recorded—and some of the supreme interpretations to spring from the mind and heart of man.

Several Hofmann performances of the Beethoven Fourth Piano Concerto survive in off-the-air acetate recordings, the one presented here also taken from discs preserved in the pianist’s personal collection. At the end of the first side ten seconds of music were missing and it was necessary to splice in the missing bars from another, inferior sounding set of acetates of the same broadcast.

Three extra performances of the first movement of Beethoven’s “Moonlight” Sonata are presented, the first two from unissued 1916 acoustic Columbia recordings and the last from Hofmann’s fourth Bell Telephone Hour radio broadcast. The Columbia recording bearing take number “4” was obviously not issued because the long performance caused the grooves to go too close to the center of the record, allowing no room for a label (this take was issued on “The Complete Josef Hofmann Volume 3”). The subsequent take “5” was not as long and left room for a label, but was also not issued, and is presented here for the first time.

Ward Marston, 1998."

Конечно,все уважающие себя фирмы дублировали архивы на ленты.А сейчас дублируют на цифровые мастер-копии,если их можно так назвать.