Richard Pennycuick responds to John Dalmas:

>>A 'historical' recording is any recording at all from the distant past,
>>whether regarded as important or not.
>
>I've always thought a historical recording to be one which dates from
>before the age of LP.  I know there were exceptions but does 1950
>seem a good cut-off point?

Any cut-off point is arbitrary to obtain the 'historical' designation.
Some feel that the quality of recorded sound should be some kind of
barometer, but I'm not fond of that criterion.  As John said, these are
recordings from the distant past; the only question is what constitutes
"distant".

I've been thinking of this matter in terms of the reviews I do.  My
decision is to use 40 years as my point of reference.  For this year,
any recording from before 1962 will get my historical identification.

Richard thinks well of 1950 as a cut-off date, but that would exclude
recordings such as Rosalyn Tureck's Well Tempered Clavier from DG.  So,
I'll go with 40 years from today.

Perhaps those recordings made at least 70 years ago could be termed
'antiques'.  Personally, I'm still just historical.

Don Satz
[log in to unmask]