Of course, whenever you listen to very early waxes like these you have to
put on different ears; the recording is there, but you may have to listen
through
hellacious noise to something that is only very faint. The Crystal Palace
recordings are like that, but we know what the selections are supposed to
be.
Personally I am glad that that these have remained untouched to the present
time; they are not now broken through aggressive handling, like the Brahms
cylinder is, nor have they come down to us only in an intermediary medium
like tape.

What an amazing discovery! Patrick, I always knew we would find a voice
born earlier than 1803, even if it wasn't Mr. Perry from Wellington. The
recording of Emanuel Moór is fantastic, and I know of no other, although he
lived to 1931. He was a major figure in the late 19th century, and its
amazing that his cylinder is complete with an ending -- I was holding my
breath towards the finish! The form of this rhapsody contains a lassú and a
friss, and if there are variations they are tightly compressed to fit. His
second wife, Winifred Christie, made records in the late 1920s on the
Moór-Bechstein, an early electric piano, but as far as I knew never Moór
himself.

Alfred Grünfeld was the first pianist of note to undertake recording in a
serious fashion; *pace* Josef Hoffman. His cylinder sounds great, and I
never thought I'd be hearing him ten years before he made his first
commercial recording. This may be one of the Liszt Hungarian Rhapsodies; I
can certainly check if you like. The "Russian Melody" is sung by a Romanian
group; the second tune is something familiar; I think it was used in a
ballet. Just in time for Schubert's birthday is the oldest-ever recording
of a Schubert lied, albeit one badly sung and with serious stresses to the
surface. Nevertheless, it is a nugget of everyday music making in Germany
more than 12 decades ago.

Congratulations Jerry, Patrick et al! Some supplementary stuff:

My review of a modern recording of Moór's Second Cello Sonata:
http://www.allmusic.com/album/hans-koessler-trio-suite-quintet-emanuel-mor-sonata-no-2-op-55-w132810/review

My bio of Alfred Grünfeld, which Rovicorp has shortened and removed my name
from:
http://www.allmusic.com/artist/alfred-grnfeld-q7398/biography

Winifred Christie playing Bach on the Moór-Bechstein, recorded in 1927:
http://www.box.com/shared/s9ld69q96z

David "Uncle Dave" Lewis
Lebanon, OH

"I ran away from home and
I'm really glad I did
For my mother is an ugly goat
Who treats me like a kid."
-- PDQ Bach's (i.e. Peter Schickele's) version of "Wohin," found in his
1973 opera "Hansel and Gretel and Ted and Alice"