Mitropoulos conducts Wagner: Overture to Tannhäuser 1947

Today I present the earliest recording I’ve found in the archive so far - Dimitri Mitropoulos conducting the Minneapolis Symphony in performance of Richard Wagner’s Overture to Tannhäuser on February 2nd, 1947.

Because this recording is so early, there are a few technical challenges. One - it is pretty noisy, but still very listenable. The noise is increased because I adjusted the dynamics a bit to boost the quieter parts. If this were a higher quality recording with a lower signal to noise ratio I wouldn’t do this (especially for classical music) but it was needed here.

Two - at the start there is some stretching of the tape that causes a few small pitch changes before it settles down. I started to try to digitally correct it but they are not clean linear pitch changes so it became too difficult.

The tape is Scotch 100 - a paper-backed tape and the first one Scotch ever made (a year or so before the ubiquitous Scotch 111 that lasted for decades). In a lot of ways it’s a miracle that a 77 year old tape still plays and we can hear Maestro Mitropoulos conduct Wagner. So I forgive it for the noise and pitch wobbles!

While it doesn’t say it on the box, I know this is part of a Young People’s Concert as I have another reel that is sadly unplayable that lists this as part of the program. Also you can very briefly hear a snippet of Young People’s Concert host (and Minneapolis Symphony cellist) Carlo Fisher’s voice. I edited Carlo out as it was barely audible and very short.

Technical info:
Scotch 100
5” Reel
7 1/2 IPS