The Germans, it is said, have a word for everything. What we call a “Long Playing record”, for example, is a Langspielplatte. It is popular to scoff at the Germans for their long, compound words. According to the Guinness Book of Records the longest German word in common use is Rechtsschutzversicherungsgesellschaften, “legal indemnity insurance companies”.
Here on Planet Vinyl, we do not engage in such Brexit trash talk. If you love Veraltete Tontechnik (“obsolete sound engineering technology”) you quickly develop a great respect for German craftsmanship. Those Deutsche certainly knew how to make a Grammophon.
One of the great things about music is its capacity to smash stereotypes. This is a recording by the pianist Helmut Rollof of Ludwig van Beethoven’s “Fifteen Variations and Fugue in E Flat Major” (also known as the “Erioca Variations”). German composer; German pianist; German record label. As German, in short, as a bratwurst sausage wearing lederhosen, and as beautiful as a butterfly landing on a cherry blossom.
- Artist: Helmut Roloff
- Composer: Ludwig van Beethoven
- LP Title: 15 Variationen Mit Fuge In Es-dur Op. 35 (Erioca)
- Side 2, Track 1: “Variation 14”
- Format: 10” LP 33⅓ rpm
- Label: Deutsche Grammophon
- Catalogue: 16009 LP
- Manufactured in: Germany
- Year: 1952
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