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That £100 investment quickly repaid itself - Gaisberg later wrote "I heard a figure of £15,000 profit mentioned as a result of the venture." Those first sides were cut in a room at the Grand Hotel, Milan, on 11th April, 1902. The next batch of Caruso recordings were made some eight and a half months later, on 30th November 1902, and include the first of his three recordings of Leoncavallo's aria "Vesti La Giubba", from the opera Pagliacci. (He re-recorded it in 1904 for Victor in the USA, again with piano accompaniment, and once more in 1907, this time with orchestral backing.) Caruso's 'Vesti La Giubba' became the first record in history to sell over a million copies. This transfer of Vesti, taken from a near-mint copy of the HMV label 10" issue D.A.546, is of that very first recording, made in Milan. It was also the first acoustic recording to be restored using the Pristine Audio XR system, to provide greater tonal accuracy and extended upper harmonics. The flip side of the HMV release contains G&T's only other Milan recording of Caruso singing music by Leoncavallo - and is remarkable for two reasons. Firstly we find the composer himself at the piano; secondly it was the very first time a piece of music had been written specifically for the gramophone - and what a way to start this aspect of the record industry off! Incidentally, I've deliberately left the run-in and run-out grooves long in this transfer, as I'm sure you can just about make out some sounds, possibly musical, in the background. Remember this was not recorded in a purpose-built studio, but would have been made using massive 'mobile' recording equipment - horns, disc cutter and the like - in a far from soundproof environment. Of the two other transfers of this recording that I've heard so far, neither has included this - probably it was too buried in noise to be noticed. To my ears it sounds like it could be a distant piano - perhaps they inadvertently captured the sound of a rehearsal in an adjacent room? Take a close listen and see what you make of it - I've edited the two ends together for this short clip:
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Enrico Caruso remains one of the most famous and greatest tenors of all time. It was his Milan recordings for what was then the Gramophone and Typewriter Company ('G&T' later became The Gramophone Company, and then EMI) which could be said to have kick-started the recorded music industry. Before Caruso, few musicians could be persuaded to record - but once word got around that he had agreed to the approaches of G&T's Fred Gaisberg and to his offer of a fee of £100 for ten songs, to be recorded in one afternoon (paid for out of Gaisberg's pocket when a cable from London replied FEE EXHORBITANT FORBID YOU TO RECORD), almost overnight contracts were signed with seven of the most distinguished artists of the day.