An even older historic recording by the Sheffield Choir under Coward, dating from 1920, has been released by the Elgar Society (CDLX7042) in which the Choir sings Elgar’s From the Bavarian Highlands: Dance.
Listen to old recordings for free
The Sheffield Choir from which our Chorus was formed, made a number of recordings in the 1920s. Some of these are available to listen to on YouTube, thanks entirely to the passion and dedication of two wonderful collectors, Graham Ramkin and Nikola Zekic, who have made their copies available to all who wish to listen to these historic recordings.
Graham Ramkin collection
Music enthusiast and antique gramophone enthusiast Graham Rankin has kindly captured these on YouTube and you can listen to them using the links below. We are very grateful to Graham for making these recordings on his wonderful old gramophone.
The HMV recordings made in 1921 were acoustically achieved without the aid of microphones. The 1928 recordings, by Columbia, would have been electrically achieved as this became the standard method in 1926.
- Te Deum laudamus William Jackson 1928
- ‘Let us now praise famous men” Ecclesiaticus. Walford Davies 1928
- “Lift up your heads, O ye gates” Messiah Händel 1921 HMV
- “And the glory of the Lord” Messiah Händel 1921 HMV
Nikola Zekić collection
We are equally grateful to Nikola P. Zekić, an ethnomusicologist who lives in Montenegro in the Balkans. He came across a 78 RPM disc of the Sheffield Choir made for Columbia, in Belgrade, Serbia, where he purchased it from an old gentleman. He very generously digitized it and uploaded each side as a separate file on YouTube, making both available to us all.
The recording is from Messiah – “Worthy is the lamb” (sadly not including the Amen Chorus) and “Hallelujah Chorus”. They appear to have been recorded using a group of singers rather than the whole choir, conducted by Sir Henry Coward. Nikola reports that it was one of the easier discs to digitise, of the many he has worked on, on account of it being so well preserved.
- ‘Worthy is the Lamb’ from Handel’s Messiah The Sheffield Choir recorded 1926
- ‘Hallelujah Chorus’ from Handel’s Messiah The Sheffield Choir recorded 1926
