Musical Update

NYT: FOR decades, hints tantalized record buffs and anyone interested in how classical music was performed through the centuries.

Somewhere out there, just possibly, was the largest cache of classical music from the dawn of the recorded age known to exist: hundreds of cylinders incised on an Edison phonograph from the 1890s by a music-loving businessman, Julius H. Block.

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If found, the recordings would furnish a deep and fascinating glimpse into the way music was played in the time of Tchaikovsky and Brahms, a sonic toe-touch into a distant epoch. But there was little hope. The collection, most believed, was destroyed in World War II.

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Three CDs of excerpts are to be released late next month by the Marston label (marstonrecords.com), which is based here and specializes in the early recorded age.

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With each cylinder able to record for only two to four minutes, the release will be limited to snippets: 90 of music and 4 with just spoken words. Those include Tolstoy reading from his work and what may be the voice and whistling of Tchaikovsky. The musical recordings in the release run from 1890 to 1923.