The former owner must have been the Danish collector and researcher KNUD HEGERMANN-LINDENCRONE (note the spelling!) whose collection of Mei-Figner discs formed the main source of the Rubini LP set.

“

The former owner must have been the Danish collector and researcher KNUD HEGERMANN-LINDENCRONE (note the spelling!) whose collection of Mei-Figner discs formed the main source of the Rubini LP set.

”

Thank you, I changed the name spelling in the "From the collection" disclaimer for both sides.

OK - there are two copies of this test record. The one I saw in Peter Lack's collection (as far as I remember after about 40 years) had a white label, and just the word 'Figner'. I still believe, as I was told, this is the one on the Rubini LP set. This was just 593, with no letter.

ОК - есть две копии этой тестовой записи. Тот я увидел в коллекции Peter Lack (как, насколько я помню, после 40 лет) была белая этикетка, и только слово "Фигнер". Я все еще верю, как мне сказали, это один на множестве Рубини LP. Это было только 593, без письма.

From http://cdn3.orastream.com/pdf/760411255023.pdf
Track 25 Two folk songs, the first familiar from its appearance in
Hänsel und Gretel... the second unidentified. From a single-sided test pressing, the plain white label bearing only the artist's name.

This is exactly as I remember the copy I saw. The document says the record belongs to Sir Paul Getty, to whom Peter Lack must have sold it.

But this auction lot from the sale of Getty's records shows the label as horseman shows it!
http://www.the-saleroom.com/en-gb/auction-catalogues/special-auction-services/catalogue-id-srspe10048/lot-553c08f1-d627-4002-a461-a4300177accc

A mystery!

Из http://cdn3.orastream.com/pdf/760411255023.pdf " target="_blank" rel="nofollow"> http://cdn3.orastream.com/pdf/760411255023.pdf
Трек 25 Два народные песни, первый знакомые из его внешнего вида в
Гензель и Гретель ... второй неопознанный. С односторонней тест нажатием, равнина белая этикетка подшипник только имя художника.

Это именно то, как я помню, я видел копию. В документе говорится, рекорд принадлежит Sir Paul Getty, которому Петр Lack должен продали его.

Но это лот аукциона от продажи записей Getty показывает метку в ее Александр показывает!
http://www.the-saleroom.com/en-gb/auction-catalogues/special-auction-services/catalogue-id-srspe10048/lot-553c08f1-d627-4002-a461-a4300177accc

Загадка!

Has anyone else noticed that her voice sounds fresher on this test than on the Respighi, Billi, and Tchaikovsky songs recorded in or around 1930?

Are we certain that this "test" is not an electric dubbing of the Pathé acoustics whose labels are pictured elsewhere on this site? Or have those been heard by someone in a position to say that 593 is definitely different? There is also speaking to be heard at the beginning of the Humperdinck, which seems more likely for an early acoustical session than for 1930.

Thanks for any information!

There’s no sound file on this page. Where did you hear it? I have the Rubini LP set with the Lack/Getty test pressing on it. It didn’t seem a good impression of her voice or singing when I heard the original many years ago, but re-listening to the LP now it sounds like the other electrics, though I agree evidence of her age is absent.

The LP set suggests that both the Pathe and the Muztrest Hansel recordings are on it. In fact only one Hansel version is present, which I’m sure is the 1929 Muztrest (see below).

I wouldn’t try to argue vocal differences (especially with you) but the track on the LP doesn’t sound to me at all like her Pathes elsewhere on this site. No announcement, though a transcription would likely omit this, but there’s none of the tinniness and sometimes flutter of the Pathe piano, and none of the typical early Pathe muffly distortion on loud notes that can be heard on her other Pathes. Early Soviet electrics are fairly primitive (hers sound better than most) but their distortion has a different sound.

Lastly the Muztrest side contains the Hansel AND the unidentified Russian song, and the Pathe just the Hansel according to the label.

There are three labels with takes of this test, the paperless one here, the orange reverse side and the white label I saw.

The handwriting of the 593b in the image above looks exactly like a Muztrest, but there is a published 593 Muztrest on this site of something completely different. No doubt they reused the number after the Figner side was rejected.

Всю сессию записей М. Фигнер на Музтресте можно без труда найти в интернете, в том числе и этот пробник.

Thanks for the replies!

Arronaks, when you say the whole Muztrest session, do you mean a web source for all the known sides in a single place? I cannot find this, though I can find the ones that have appeared on Rubini.

Adrian, yes, I was speaking about the Rubini and Symposium reissues.

The song following Hansel is the same one listed on the label for Pathé, "Noch tepla" by Kochetov. It has remained "unidentified" because she sings only the concluding portion.

There is something else strange: In the reissues, the two songs seem like a continuous recording, especially because the pianist plays an abrupt modulation from the end of Humperdinck to the key of the Kochetov. But the pictures here of the test pressings suggest that there is one side for Humperdinck and another side for "Russian Song" - just like the pair of Pathé sides.

I wonder whether the original recording was a continuous cylinder, split for some reason into two parts for issue on disc?

Later I will write something about the sound of the voice maybe...to me it still sounds "younger" than the voice on the Respighi, Billi and Tchaikovsky songs. But I see the point about the surface noise.

Thanks again for the help in getting closer to this mystery!

Another question:

Upon re-checking, it seems clear that the Getty copy contained Humperdinck and Kochetov together on one single-sided test.

Is the unlabeled record pictured on this page then something else altogether, neither Hansel’s song nor the Kochetov song that follows it on the Rubini and Symposium reissues, but a third piece of music?

Again many thanks for any answers from anyone who knows them!

Hello Will

I wish I could answer your questions. All I know is that the two label images here are different from the label of the record that I believe is on the reissues. That must be a trial record, not for issue, from the combination of song fragments. I don’t know if the record with the two labels here has the complete songs on different sides, or as you suggest, something totally different.

One thing I ought to mention. Peter Lack told me that he came across his test pressing in Paris, as a junkpile find, though that may be a slight exaggeration. It did not come from Knud Hegermann-Lindencrone though those illustrated here may well have. Lack I know sold records to Getty and possibly both these records ended up in the Getty collection.

As I implied I’m not a good identifier of voices from recordings, finding that different recording characteristics make voices sound totally different. But I do think that the Rubini reissue is not originally from Pathe, for reasons I’ve mentioned (maybe I’m better at identifying the sound of recording equipment!).

Hope that helps.