1st December 1929

The first Ultraphon records with Czech music

The first Ultraphon gramophone records with pieces from the Czech repertoire appeared in late 1929. They were made at the Berlin studio of the originally Dutch company by popular Prague artists, accompanied by a dance orchestra made up of musicians hailing from all over Europe (and a few American soloists too), conducted by F. A. Tichý. In the wake of the audience’s highly positive response to the first Czech albums, further discs started to be made by commuting German technicians on mobile recording equipment in Prague, at the studio in the National House in Vinohrady, leased by the Odeon company. At the same time, the licensed Czech user of the Ultraphon brand, the company Ravitas, which dealt in electrical, optical and acoustic devices, promptly began constructing its own pressing plant and recording studio in a leased building in the Holešovice quarter of Prague. The first recording sessions probably took place there in August or September 1931.