Stravinsky is the best conductor of his own music. Agon and Canticum Sacrum were new pieces when they were recorded in the late fifties. Columbia Symphony Orchestra was in the east mainly New York Philharmonic and in the west Los Angeles Philharmonic. But you will also find orchestras like Cleveland Orchestra and Chicago Symphony among his recordings. He also did some with the Canadian Broadcasting Symphony Orchestra unfortunately. But producer John McClure decided over those things and even though Stravinsky wanted Margrit Weber for the piano concertos Columbia said no as they wanted Philippe Entremont, which was a near disaster. Stravinsky didn't like the result and never showed up for the recording of Capriccio. There is a section where Stravinsky tries to teach Entremont how to play a passage rhythmically correct.
Then I'm sure you not be impressed with my first classical recordings. Or, perhaps I can be forgiven as these were gifts, from my mother, rather than purchases. When I was a pre-schooler (back in the '50s), I was very interested in music and she was buying me a lot of records. Most of it was kids' stuff, but she also threw in a few classical albums. I can't recall which was the absolute first, but a couple stand out in my mind -- both of which I still have, though neither of them would be considered "collectible" today: One is this Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No.1, which is dated "1953" on the jacket. I also had a recording of Tchaikovsky's "Nutcracker Suite" which I believe was on the same label (or Plymouth), but can't locate it just now. Another record in heavy rotation during my pre-school days was this album of Chopin, played by Jose Iturbi. And here is what I played them on... I don't still have this machine (this is a shot off the internet of one that closely resembles it), but I well recall using it back when I was about 5 years old. Definitely Lo-Fi!! The red thing is the 45-rpm adapter, stored in a hole next to the rotary motor/ speed control. Volume & tone controls were on the lower right side (out of view). The lever at the tip of the tonearm allowed you to select the 33/45 needle or (by flipping the cartridge over) the 78 needle. I shudder to think about playing anything on something like this today, yet my old records seem to have survived surprisingly well.
Talking about first record players, this resembles the first one I played records on at home, in the 1950s - it's a Triotrack: : Later my parents got me a Dual set: and after that one I got a pretty nice Dual 1019 record player, which looked like this one:
My first record player was something like that but less streamlined. It gave off a hot oil/dust smell & must have had a few tubes inside. It had the same flip needle so 78s could be played. I bought it at a yard sale next door to my Grandmother (not to be confused with my Granny). They threw in a few 78s; I remember the complete 'Moonlight Sonata' played by Rubinstein as well as 'Blueberry Hill' by Fats Domino, 'Speedo' by The Cadillacs & 'Bony Moronie' by Larry Williams. For some reason I remember that the flip-side of 'Bony Moronie' was 'You Bug Me Baby', a short song with a long lead-out groove.
Because Philips record players were pretty lousy back in the day and Dual made better players, and "We're Dutch, so we buy Dutch" wasn't an issue - it still isn't, the Netherlands is very internationally orientated, always has been.
I still have a pretty large 1950s R&B collection, including the artists you mentioned, and still like to listen to those recordings.
