Old Recordings

Amphion Recordings have released a CD (Amphion CD PHI182) called The British Choral Tradition, vol.1, which contains two tracks recorded by the Sheffield Choir in 1926 and 1927, conducted by Sir Henry Coward. The tracks are performances of Stainer’s I am alpha and Wagner’s Hail Bright Abode.

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.

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.

Amazon will donate to the Chorus if you use the link below when you purchase from Amazon Smile