Dear Ladies & gentlemen,
It is a pleasure for me to send the link I have found on youtube with
the minute-long recording that includes Tchaikovsky's voice. It is exactly
the same excerpt as the one mentioned being included in the CD-set. But
contrary to the CD-set, we find here in addition the simultanous
translation of what every one is saying and also a the name (and picture)
of who is speaking.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Ocfv5NLydk
It is really fascinating to listen to Tchaikovsky's voice; from this
very short recording we can indeed feel that it must have been very funny
and enjoyable to be in Tchaikovsky's company - as has been mentioned by
many of his friends. Clearly, Tchaikovsky was NOT a dull or always sad and
depressive person.
With best regards,
Guido Muehlemann
31/12/2012 10:46
Tchaikovsky Research :
Endorsement of Thomas Edison’s "Phonograph" (TH 318)
Here on our own "Tchaikovsky Research" we have a detailed report on
this particular recording of his voice as well as his views on the
phonograph as per Edison..included is also a history of the phonograph...I
think this gives a more creditable account of what happened that day when
the recording was made...
Albert Gasparo
11/01/2013 21:26
In a previous entry Mr Brett Langston mentions the following:
It has been supposed that the order of the names given on the label
is the same order in which the participants are heard—in which case
Tchaikovsky's voice appears three times (once whistling), sounding
surprisingly shrill. We know from personal recollections of his
contemporaries that his voice was "a rather pleasing baritone", so
either this shrillness must either stem from the method of the
recording, or the participants have not been identified correctly. The
latter is certainly possible, since another source states that Anton
Rubinstein resolutely refused to utter a single word into the infernal
machine—if true, this means he could not be the first voice as labelled,
and the sequence must be thrown into doubt.
In the book "Tchaikovsky through others' Eyes" edited by Alexander
Poznansky the following recollection by Leonid Sabaneyev is mentioned on
page 216:
Block asked Pyotr Ilyich to play something, or at least, to say
something. Tchaikovsky frowned and tried to disappear before refusing
decisively.
"I am a bad pianist and my voice is raspy. Why should one eternalize
it?"
So from this entry of Tchaikovsky describing his own voice it does seem
that the order of the participants in the recording is correct - so that
we are actually listening to Tchaikovsky's voice.
Philip de Vos
16/06/2013 17:18
I'm not sure how you reach that conclusion Philip. Tchaikovsky's voice
was 'raspy' because he had some teeth missing, giving him a slight lisp,
and that had nothing to do with the pitch of his voice. And if Tchaikovsky
had 'refuse decisively' to participate, then it couldn't have been him
anyway.
Brett Langston
18/06/2013 10:59