DECCA 3-LP Box DX-103: Lili Kraus, Szymon Goldberg ‎– Mozart: 6 Sonatas 1950 USA

$

500

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Background -

This is a HOLY GRAIL classical box set for music collectors! The 3-LP box set was issued on the Decca Parlophone "Gold Label” series of LPs. It comes in an oversized box (14” wide), with a steel dowel inside the box that the LPs and libretto are affixed to - obviously the very first pressing of this super rare box set as the oversized box is next to impossible to find in any condition. The box is relatively solid except for a split along the top seam (see our pictures with this listing as they are of the actual item). It comes complete, with the inner paper insert. The colors on the outside of the box show a bit of discoloration due to age and shelf storage. All records are clean and look as if they were rarely played - as these are mono records from 1950, don’t expect the vinyl to look like a brand new audiophile record from today. These vintage LPs were notorious for issues with pressing quality due to the vinyl used - as were all LPs from this era, think Remington and Westminster as examples. The box set is over 70-years old! We would grade the vinyl as excellent overall given the foregoing. There is a level of soft surface noise that is intrinsic to a mono record of this age but the fidelity is excellent. The surfaces are clean with some light scuffs. The LPs were pressed on extremely heavy vinyl - we weighed just one LP disc without the inner sleeve, and it weighed 224 grams! 

Lili Kraus: Born in Budapest, in 1905, to an impoverished Hungarian mother and Czech father, Kraus entered the Academy of Music there as a piano major at age 8. Taught by Kodály and Bartók, among others, she graduated in 1922, with top honors. Kraus then attended the Vienna Konservatorium to study with Eduard Steuermann and Schnabel,  from whom she took master classes. Starting in 1925, became a teacher there herself for six years. In the 1930s, she toured both as soloist and as the recital partner of violinist Szymon Goldberg, with whom she recorded Beethoven and Mozart sonatas for British Parlophone in 1935 and 1937, along with solo repertoire. Her other specialties included Chopin, Haydn, Schubert, and Bartók.

When Kraus married philosopher Otto Mandl, they converted to Catholicism, living in Italy until the cloud of Nazism compelled them to move to the Dutch East Indies. While touring in 1942, Kraus, her husband, and their two children were arrested in Indonesia, and sent to separate prisoner-of-war camps on Java for nearly three years. They survived principally because the Japanese knew her name and her recordings. A Japanese conductor reputedly provided food as well as musical scores until their rescue by British forces. For two years Kraus played in Australia and New Zealand (where she became a British subject), and in South Africa too, before returning to England in 1948, where she resumed her career before debuting in the U.S., in 1949. She also resumed recording, albeit with second-class Viennese orchestras and conductors for Vox, mainly, in concertos by Mozart and Beethoven, but later on for Vanguard in the U.S. During the 1966-1967 season, she performed 25 of Mozart's 27 concertos in New York City on a single series, and the next season played his complete keyboard sonatas.

A nonstop talker who designed her own concert gowns, Kraus was never ranked as a virtuoso even before World War II, but she was a notably distinguished interpreter. Those who heard her before and after the war confided sadly that something had forever changed. She never stopped playing, however -- always forthrightly, even brusquely, in some repertoire. Texas Christian University at Fort Worth appointed her artist-in-residence in 1968, and she became a regular juror at the Cliburn International Competitions. She tried to instill in her pupils the same enthusiasm that sustained her as a public concert artist until 1982, an intensity that unnerved some of the shy and introverted students. At various U.S. piano competitions, regular observers labeled her a surrogate stage-mother, as she endlessly exhorted and lobbied. But she taught and cherished her pupils, emulating the teachers from her childhood.

In 1978, the Austrian government awarded Kraus the Cross of Honor for Science and Art. Remaining a British subject, she taught in Texas until her retirement in 1983. She maintained a home in Asheville, North Carolina, where she died in 1986. - Roger Detmer

Szymon Goldberg was one of the notable violinists of the twentieth century. His family moved to Warsaw when he was a child, where he began violin studies at the age of seven. He went to Berlin in 1917, studying with the great pedagogue Carl Flesch.

He debuted at a recital in Warsaw in 1921, and with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra in 1924 in a memorable concert in which he played three concertos. He was concertmaster of the Dresden State Orchestra (1925-1929) and the Berlin Philharmonic (1929-1934). With composer/violist Paul Hindemith and cellist Emmanuel Feuerman he formed an important string trio.

He was forced to leave the Berlin Philharmonic in 1934 because of the onset of Nazi rule in Germany. He began touring Europe and the Far East as a soloist, and with pianist Lili Kraus formed one of the great recital partnerships. He and Kraus recorded a historic series of Mozart sonata recordings on the Parlophone label.

He debuted in New York in 1938. He was on a tour of the Dutch East Indies when it was occupied by the Japanese in 1942, and was interned there for the duration of the war. He resumed his international career in 1946. He toured widely and established a teaching and conducting career. In 1951 he joined the faculty of the Aspen Music Festival and in 1955 founded the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra, one of the pioneers of the chamber orchestra music.

He took American citizenship in 1953. He resigned from the Aspen Festival in 1965. He conducted several of the world's leading orchestras and made highly regarded recordings of modern violin repertory and revisited the Mozart sonatas, this time with Radu Lupu as his partner. He moved to London in 1969.

He resigned from the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra in 1977 and the next year joined both the faculty of Yale University in New Haven, CT, and New York's Juilliard School. He also taught at the Manhattan School of Music and the Curtis Institute. - Joseph Stevenson

• LPs made by DECCA PARLOPHONE Records, in the USA
  

• LPs released in 1950 (oversized 14" box with a steel dowel inside the box where the LPs and libretto are affixed to)
  

• LP is recorded in MONO

• Record Catalog Number: DX 103

• Record Labels are primarily GOLD with BLACK lettering (super heavy vinyl)
  

This listing is for a rare, out of print 3-LP Boxed Set - an OPENED and in excellent overall condition LP PRESSED and ISSUED by DECCA PARLOPHONE Records of a highly collectible title from their catalog - a superb title featuring -

Mozart // Lili Kraus / Szymon Goldberg

Track Listing -
Mozart:
A1. Sonata in C Major, K296
A2. Sonata in F Major, K377
B1. Sonata in B-flat Major, K378
B2. Sonata in G Major, K379
C1. Sonata in E-flat Major, K380
C2. Sonata in E-flat Major, K481
Performers / Other Information -
• Lili Kraus – piano
• Szymon Goldberg – violin
• Composed By – Mozart
• Mono Recordings Issued 1950
• Oversized 14" Wide Box with steel dowel inside

CONDITION Details:

The outer LP BOX is in excellent overall condition. The box has a split along the top seam, nothing too serious. There are NO cutout marks and NO writing on the box, but it does show a bit of discoloration due to age and shelf wear. The corners and seams are solid with just some shelf wear - see our pictures with this listing as they are of the actual item.

The LPs are in excellent overall condition. See our detailed description above, in the "Background" section. This is a superb HOLY GRAIL classical music collector's item in the large, oversized box, complete with libretto and steel rod inside the box where the LPs and libretto are attached to.
A Short Note About LP GRADING -

• Mint = Only used for sealed items.
• Near Mint = Virtually flawless in every way.
• Near Mint Minus = Item has some minor imperfections, some audible.
• Excellent = Item obviously played and enjoyed with some noise.
• Very Good Plus = Many more imperfections which are noticeable and obtrusive.

For best results, always properly clean your LPs before playing them.

The LP is an audiophile quality pressing (any collector of fine MFSL, half speeds, direct to discs, Japanese/UK pressings etc., can attest to the difference a quality pressing can make to an audio system).

Do not let this rarity slip by!