Johanne Stockmarr

HMV DB-5261

 

“Vals 1 Gis Mol Op 24 No 2” (Chopin)
Johanne Stockmarr
1942  (HMV DB 2561 mx 2CS 2034)
Johanne Stockmarr – Vals 1 Gis Mol Op 24 No 2]

“Nocturne 1 Es Dur Op 9 No 2” (Chopin)
Johanne Stockmarr
1942 (HMV DB5261 mx 2CS 2035)
Johanne Stockmarr – Nocturne 1 Es Dur Op 9 No 2]

 

Here is one of the very few Danish 78 rpms that I have in my collection.  Johanne Stockmarr was a female Danish pianist who was well known throughout Scandinavia.  Unfortunately,  I have no way of dating this record.  Stockmarr made records between 1926 and 1942 – so it is from some point during that period.   My guess is this is from sometime in the 1930s.    Note the radio broadcasting warning at the top of the label which translates to: “right to broadcast reserved.”

Edit:  Changed date from “circa 1930s” to 1942.  Thank you to Nigel Broder  for providing this information in the comments.   Also, if you collect classical 78 rpms, it will definitely be worth your while to check out the link he provides in the comments.

 

This entry was posted in 1930s, Classical, Electrical Recordings, Other Foreign Recordings. Bookmark the permalink.

8 Responses to Johanne Stockmarr

  1. Nigel Broder says:

    I have some information on the dates that I found on http://www.charm.rhul.ac.uk/index.html which is a gold mine of information on historic classical 78’s. There are also many downloadable FLAC files available.

    While I could not find the Danish HMV issue of Stockmarr’s Chopin recordings, I did find the UK issue as follows:

    Composer: CHOPIN, Work: Waltz in C minor, op. 64, no. 2, Performer: Joanne Stockmarr, piano, Date: 1942-02-04
    Catalogue: Gray

    CatNum: DB5248 Date: 1942-02-04 Label: HMV Composer: CHOPIN Title: Waltz in C minor, op. 64, no. 2 Issue_78_45: DB5248 Num: 2CS 2034 Performer: Joanne Stockmarr, piano

    Composer: CHOPIN, Work: Nocturne in E-flat major, op. 9, no. 2, Performer: Joanne Stockmarr, piano, Date: 1942-02-04
    Catalogue: Gray

    CatNum: DB5248 Date: 1942-02-04 Label: HMV Composer: CHOPIN Title: Nocturne in E-flat major, op. 9, no. 2 Issue_78_45: DB5248 Num: 2CS 2035 Performer: Joanne Stockmarr, piano

    The catalogue numbers (DB#) are close in sequence and the matrix numbers appear to match. I think you have a transposition error in your first listing.

  2. dismuke says:

    Nigel – thanks SO MUCH for that information and for the VERY useful link you have provided.

    Now we have a bit of a mystery: 1942 would have been a war time recording with Denmark occupied by the Germans. I rather doubt that Danish and British record companies were conducting business as usual in terms of being able to issue each others’ catalog in their respective countries. So I am guessing that the British issue had to be post war? It occurred to me that perhaps the recording was made in England (as some of Stockmarr’s earlier recordings were) and the Danish pressing might be post war. But I found an Danish website which, though a Google translation that you can see at http://tinyurl.com/3dj4np6 , indicates that she died in Copenhagen in 1944. Apparently she had a following in England so I guess it would not be surprising for her wartime recordings to have been issued there once Denmark and HMV’s Danish branch was liberated.

    Something I noticed when looking this up that I did not note in my posting: Stockmarr was about 73 years old when she made that recording.

  3. Nigel Broder says:

    A mystery indeed! I wondered about the date during the war also because I am almost certain you are right about the status of HMV issuing catalog between the UK and occupied Denmark. I also can’t find if the two companies were related although the use of similar catalog numbers may indicate some relationship. They certainly both used the HMV trademark but so did RCA Victor in the USA. I expect your theory about the UK recording being released after the war is correct, although the Danish HMV may have delayed release until the end of the war also. Shellac was probably in short supply.

    She was very popular in the UK, having performed many times there, including a 1910 Proms appearance with Sir Henry Wood (Proms founder) conducting. She made frequent appearances in London between the wars.

    I found the catalog numbers in the CHARM database may be in error – the matrix numbers still check out. Evidence of that is a copy of the UK HMV DB 5261 is for sale on ebay at the moment:

    http://cgi.ebay.com/Stockmarr-Chopin-Waltz-Nocturne-HMV-DB-5261-/360351043222?pt=Music_on_Vinyl&hash=item53e6988e96

    That catalog number corresponds with the Danish HMV number.

    By coincidence UK HMV DB 5248 is also for sale

    http://cgi.ebay.com/Vider-organ-Buxtehude-Prel-and-Fugue-HMV-DB-5248-/260685046661 and as you can see it is a recording of Buxtehude’s Prelude and Fugue!

    I have no doubt about the 1942 reording date as Danacord have issued a CD “Three Great Danish Woman Pianists, Vol.I” that contains these recordings and they list the original recording date as 1942.

    • dismuke says:

      Thanks for that link to the Ebay auction which proves both the British and Danish issued had the same catalog number. That makes a lot more sense. It also suggests a pattern: The British HMV pressing I featured in the “Evening With Paul Lincke” update on August 16 turned out to have the same catalog number as the original German issue on Electrola. So that suggests that HMV had a policy of using the same catalog number as the original on its British pressings of material issued by its foreign subsidiaries.

      I don’t know for sure whether the Danish HMV Skandinavisk Grammophon Aktieselskab was under the same corporate umbrella. But I think it is highly likely. I did find mention online that by the 1960s the Danish company was part of EMI which, since the early 1930s, was HMV’s corporate parent.

      The use of the “Nipper” trademark is certainly strong evidence of there having been common corporate ownership. The one big exception to that was Deutsche Grammophon between the wars. It had been a subsidiary of the Gramophone Co (which issued HMV) but was broken off under German ownership during World War I. It retained its right to use the Nipper trademark in Germany – though, since it was not able to use it in other countries, Deutsche Grammophon exported records under its Polydor label. Thus when the Gramophone Co started a new German subsidiary in 1926, Electrola, it was not able to use the Nipper trademark in that country. After World War II, presumably as part of war reparations, EMI, which now owned the Gramophone Co, was able to force Deutsche Grammophon to turn over the German rights to the Nipper trademark – which is why post war records on the Electrola label do have Nipper.

      There actually were corporate ties between Victor and the Gramophone Co. Initially it consisted of reciprocal agreements – but in 1920 Victor purchased controlling interest in the Gramophone Co. That is why, by the way, Columbia ended up having such a difficult time in the USA during the Depression. Columbia fell into financial trouble in the 1920s and had been bought out by UK Columbia. When Gramophone Co and Columbia merged in 1931 to form EMI that meant that there would have been a corporate connection between the two largest record companies in the US. So because of anti trust laws, EMI was forced to sell off American Columbia and it fell into hands that were not in the best position to keep it going. I am not sure just how much ownership RCA had in EMI given that I don’t think it had full interest in Gramophone Co and there were other companies involved in the EMI merger.

      Anyhow, my wider point is that the use of the Nipper trademark is pretty strong indication that the Danish company had been part of EMI before the war and afterwards. Not sure what the status of foreign owned subsidiaries was in the occupied countries during the war – not sure if they were nationalized or handed over to new owners.

  4. Nigel Broder says:

    I can confirm your comment “….that suggests that HMV had a policy of using the same catalog number as the original on its British pressings of material issued by its foreign subsidiaries.”

    I found a wonderful reference available for download on the CHARM site (link posted above) “The World Encyclopedia of Recorded Music” available with supplements as three pdf files. It covers mostly classical recordings issued between 1925 and the early fifties. One of the tables included within a “Guide to the main prefixes of major European Companies” lists under HMV “Scandinavia DB 5200-5299 (Denmark)” Obviously that includes the Stockmarr recording DB 5261. Each HMV subsidary was generally given its own unique catalog numbers and when issued in othe countries those numbers were retained.

    At the risk of being overly pedantic, a couple of comments need some clarification.
    “in 1920 Victor purchased controlling interest in the Gramophone Co.”
    Per the book “EMI The first 100 years” by Peter Martland, in return for a massive injection of capital which HMV needed for expansion after World War I, “RCA received 50% of the ordinary stock of HMV and two Victor executives joined the HMV board, one of whom was Eldridge Johnston, founding President of Victor.”
    Incidentally, J.P. Morgan owned or controlled most of British Columbia’s stock by the end of the twenties.

    Also the same source states that after the merger of HMV and Columbia in 1931 “one of the EMI board’s first acts was to dispose of its shares of American Columbia Graphophone Company to avoid any anti trust investigation of the merger by the Department of Justice in the United States.” In other words, they sold before being forced to sell.

  5. Johanne Stockmarr Danishpianist 1869-1944 FLAC.zip (206.11MB)
    http://www.filefactory.com/file/1l9sj8hlmxi9/n/Johanne_Stockmarr_Danishpianist_1869-1944_FLAC_zip
    Download now!

    Dr. John L. Duffy, M.D.
    P.O. Box 261,
    3211 Nolen Avenue,
    Walker, Iowa 52352
    USA
    johnduffy@dybb.com

  6. Dr. John L. Duffy, M.D. says:

    3 DANISH Women Pianists on DANACORD DACOCD442-443 (2CD’s)
    1) Johanne Stockmarr 2) France Ellegaard 3) Galina Werschenska
    (1869- 1944) (born 10-10-12) (1906- 1994)
    Recordings made from 1942 to 1953 on 78 rpm shellacs. Restoration
    by Dr. John Duffy of Walker, Iowa, USA in June, 2013/Uploaded files
    may be downloaded with these LINKS:

    A.) 3 Danish Woman Pianists, CD 1 (.mp3@256).rar (115.05MB)
    http://www.filefactory.com/file/4y5wdqxyq063/

    B.) 3 Danish Woman Pianists, CD 2 (.mp3@256).rar (143.69MB)
    http://www.filefactory.com/file/2la3avy38wwp/

    C.) 3 Danish Woman Pianists, CD 3 (.mp3@256).rar (44.75MB)
    http://www.filefactory.com/file/67m75tjh7fbv/
    QUESTIONS? e-mail Dr. Duffy at

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