Sonata No. 23 in F Minor, Op. 57, For Pianoforte (Sonata Appassionata) (Beethoven)
Columbia Masterworks Series Album (M-65)
January 19-20, 1927
William Murdoch - Piano
Since the beginning of the recording industry it had long been an elusive dream to record entire Classical works on single long-playing records. Seven-inch discs only gave two minutes of sound, ten-inchers three and twelve-inchers four at a speed in the upper 70s-80 RPM. Edison briefly marketed LPs in the late 1920s with very tiny grooves at 80 RPM but they proved a failure. RCA Victor tried a 33-1/3 RPM format in the early 1930's but that too didn't take off. That new speed, however, was used by Columbia to finally launch a lasting product in 1948.

In the meantime, the other answer was to record a long piece on several sides/discs and sell it together in an album. European record companies had already been doing this for awhile while American ones did so sporadically. However, the pre-1925 acoustic method of recording didn't provide the technical quality needed to capture such performances in the way they could be heard satisfactorily. The introduction of mainstream electrical recording in 1925 changed that. Interest in recording complete Classical works spiked and albums, introduced by Victor and Columbia in 1924, really took off in the late 1920s. However as mentioned, they weren't single long-playing records. These albums were usually in book form with each page being a sleeve for the appropriate disc. Printed descriptions were sometimes present too. If the symphony or opera was long enough, two or more "books" were used so a singular one wouldn't be so heavy and easily damaged by its own weight. This arrangement is why later on LPs and CDs were called "albums", even though most of them are singular discs. It was an inherited term.

Encoded Speed: 192 Kbps

To listen to all parts consecutively, click HERE.

Appassionata Sonata: Part 1: Allegro assai (commencement)	Appassionata Sonata: Part 2: Allegro assai (continuation)
William Murdoch	William Murdoch
Columbia 67290-D	Columbia 67290-D
Matrix# RAX2367 4-A-5, Take 4	Matrix# RAX2368 2-A-5, Take 2
January 19, 1927	January 19, 1927
Wigmore Hall, London	Wigmore Hall, London

Appassionata Sonata: Part 3: Allegro assai (completion)	Appassionata Sonata: Part 4: Andante con moto (first part)
William Murdoch	William Murdoch
Columbia 67291-D	Columbia 67291-D
Matrix# RAX2369 4-A-4, Take 4	Matrix# RAX2374 1-A-7, Take 1
January 19, 1927	January 20, 1927
Wigmore Hall, London	Wigmore Hall, London

Appassionata Sonata: Part 5: (a) Andante con moto (completion) (b) Allegro ma non troppo (first part)	Appassionata Sonata: Part 6: Allegro ma non troppo (completion)
William Murdoch	William Murdoch
Columbia 67292-D	Columbia 67292-D
Matrix# RAX2375 1-A-1, Take 1	Matrix# RAX2376 1-A-1, Take 1
January 20, 1927	January 20, 1927
Wigmore Hall, London	Wigmore Hall, London

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