RG series (mono) – 1 to 100 – 1953 to 1957
By mid-1953, Argo’s series numbering had all turned out to be a bit chaotic. "At the request of the trade we are re-numbering our records in order to clear up the confusion of our previous prefixes," the label announced in a press ad. All 12" LPs would now be designated RG and the 10" LPs TM.
Classical music in white, spoken word yellow, folk music in green.
Earlier release details given in brackets under the RG issue number.
| Issue No | Artist | Title | Year |
| RG 1 RG 2 (ARS 1006-7) |
Gamelan Orchestra | Music from Bali (2 LP) | 1953 |
| RG 3 ARS 1002) |
Hirsch String Quartet | Debussy Quartet F minor Arensky Variations |
1953 (deleted 1954) |
| RG 4 ARS 1004) |
Eric Parkin (piano) | John Ireland – Sonata for piano in E minor, London Pieces, Decorations | 1953 |
| RG 5 (ARS 1005) |
Rubra-Gruenberg-Pleeth Trio | Rubbra trio/Mozart trio G maj | 1953 (deleted 1954) |
| RG 6 (ATC 1002) |
a) Maria Lidka (violin) Margaret Kitchin (piano) b) Gordon Watson (piano) | a) Fricker sonata for violin & piano b) Humphrey Searle – Sonata |
1953 (deleted 1954) |
| RG 7 (ARS 1011) |
Hirsch String Quartet | Bloch quartet No 2 Wolf Italian serenade |
1953 |
| RG 8 | |||
| RG 9 | |||
| RG 10 (ARS 1001) |
Robert Speaight (reader) | T. S. Eliot – Wasteland, Hollow Men, Ash Wednesday, Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock | 1953 |
| RG 11 | Robert Speaight (reader) | T. S. Eliot – Four Quartets | 1953 |
| RG 12 (ARS 1012) |
W. R. Rodgers (reader) | W. R. Rodgers Europa & The Bull etc | 1953 |
| RG 13 (ARS 1013) |
Margaret Rawlings (reader) | Poems by Gerard Manley Hopkins & John Keats | 1953 |
| RG 14 (ARS 1014) |
Max Rostal (violin) Noel Mewton-Wood (piano) | Busoni Sonata for violin & piano No 2 | 1953 |
| RG 15 (ATC 1005) |
Peter Pears (piano) Noel Mewton Wood (piano) | Tippett – Heart’s Assurance Tippett – Boyhood’s End |
1953 |
| RG 16 | |||
| RG 17 | |||
| RG 18 | |||
| RG 19 (ARS 1016) |
Alan Wheatley (translator and reader) | Lorca poems | 1953 |
| RG 20 | John Cameron (baritone) Iris Kells & Patricia Bartlett (sopranos) Gordon Watson (piano) | Vaughan Williams – Wenlock Edge/ Pilgrims’s Progress | 1953 |
| RG 21 RG 22 |
BBC cast including Richard Burton | Dylan Thomas – Under Milk Wood | 1954 |
| RG 23 | Margaretta Scott (reader) | Shelley poems | 1954 |
| RG 24 | Christopher Hassall (reader) | Wordsworth – Donne | Jan 1954 |
| RG 25 | Alexander Young (tenor) Gordon Watson (piano) | Britten – Donne Sonnets Britten – Michelangelo Sonnets |
Jan 1954 |
| RG 26 | Alexander Young (tenor) Lionel Solomon (flute) Peter Graeme (English horn) Sebastian String Quartet | Warlock – The Curlew Warlock – Twelve Songs |
Jan 1954 |
| RG 27 | Cecil Day Lewis (translator and reader) | Virgil – The Georgics | |
| RG 28 | Eric Parkin (piano) | John Ireland – Months mind, Pieces, Prelude, Rhapsody, Sarnia | 1954? |
| RG 29 | Richard Burton, Emlyn Williams, Hugh Griffith, Louis MacNiece (readers) | Homage to Dylan Thomas | 1954 |
| RG 30 RG 31 |
Arnold Richardson (organ of Royal Festival Hall) | Mendelssohn – Organ Works | 1955 |
| RG 32 | |||
| RG 33 | Edric Connor and The Caribbeans | Songs from Jamaica | 1954 |
| RG 34 | Maria Korchinska (harp) Sophie Wyss (soprano) | Chansons de France – arrangements by Antony Hopkins, Matyas Sieber, Vaughan Williams, Benjamin Britten, Robert Gerhard, Grace Williams, Gerald Cockshot, Leonard Isaacs | 1955 |
| RG 35 | |||
| RG 36 | Alexander Young (tenor) Gordon Watson (piano) | Songs by Roger Quilter | Nov 1954 |
| RG 37 | |||
| RG 38 | Esme Percy (speaker of personal reminiscence) | The Legend of Sarah Bernhardt | 1955 |
| RG 39 | King’s College Chapel Choir, dir. Boris Ord, Hugh McLean (organ) | A festival of lessons and carols | 1954 |
| RG 40 | Eric Robinson & his ‘Music For You’ Orchestra | Music for You | 1955 |
| RG 41 | Richard Burton, John Neville, Robert Hardy (readers) | Coleridge – Rime of the ancient mariner, Kubla Khan, Frost at Midnight | Nov 1954 |
| RG 42 | Renaissance Singers, dir. Michael Howard | Byrd Mass for four voices Motets from Gradualia |
1957? |
| RG 43 | Richard Burton (reader) | Reads 15 poems by Dylan Thomas | |
| RG 44 | |||
| RG 45 | |||
| RG 46 | Joan Stuart (soprano) Gordon Watson (piano) Alexander Young (tenor), members of the Renaissance Singers cond Michael Howard | Delius – songs | 1957? |
| RG 47 | a) Max Rostal (violin) Colin Horsley (piano) b) Anthony Pini (cello) Wilfrid Parry (piano) | Delius – a) Sonata No 2 for violin & piano b) Caprice & Elegy for cello & piano | 1955 |
| RG 48 | a) Colin Horsley (piano) Max Rostal (violin) b) Robert Masters Quartet | Walton – a) Sonata for violin and piano, b) Quartet for piano and strings | 1955 |
| RG 49 | |||
| RG 50 | a) Gordon Watson (piano) Argo Chamber Ensemble cond Charles Groves b) Alexander Young (tenor) Argo Chamber Ensemble cond Charles Groves | Constant Lambert – a) Concerto for solo piano & nine instruments b) Eight poems by Li Po | 1955 |
| RG 51 RG 52 |
a) Stephen Manton (tenor) Eric Shilling (baritone) Elizabeth Boyd (soprano) Intimate Opera Company b) Lamar Crowson (piano) | a) Michael Flanders & Anthony Hopkins – Three’s Company b) Hopkins – Piano Sonata in C minor |
1955 |
| RG 53 | Dennis Noble (baritone) Wilfrid Parry (piano) | p.s. Don’t forget your music | 1955 |
| RG 54 | Ethel Semser (soprano) Virtuoso Chamber Ensemble cond Rene Liebowitz | Schoenberg – Pierrot Lunaire | 1955 |
| RG 55 | Robert Masters piano quartet | Faure – Quartet for piano & strings No 1 in C | 1955 |
| RG 56 | Robert Masters piano quartet | Faure Quartet for piano/strings No 2 in G |
1955 |
| RG 57 | Edric Connor & The Southlanders | Songs from Trinidad | 1955 |
| RG 58 | Edric Connor & The Southlanders | Calypso | 1955 |
| RG 59 | |||
| RG 60 | |||
| RG 61 | |||
| RG 62 | Various artists (field recordings by Deben Bhattacharya) | Music of India: Songs from Bombay | 1956 |
| RG 63 | |||
| RG 64 | |||
| RG 65 | |||
| RG 66 | Eric Robinson & his ‘Music For You’ Orchestra | Music For You (vol 2) | 1955 |
| RG 67 | |||
| RG 68 | |||
| RG 69 | Alexander Young (tenor) Goldsmlth’s Choral Union, London Symphony Orchestra cond Richard Austin | Balfour-Gardiner – Overture to a comedy, Shepherd Fennel’s Dance, April, Philomela | Jan 1956 |
| RG 70 | Carmen Prietto (soprano) Bert Weedon (guitar) | Songs from Mexico | 1956 |
| RG 71 RG 72 |
Arnold Richardson (organ of Royal Festival Hall, London) | Brahms – Complete organ works | 1956 |
| RG 73 | Oxford Chamber Players dir Raymond Clauson | John Jenkins – Fancies and Ayres | 1957? |
| RG 74 | a) Geoffrey Gilbert (flute) George Crozier (flute) Lionel Solomon (flute) Jean Pougnet (violin) Francesco Gabarro (cello) b) Frederick Riddle (viola) Eric Harrison (pianoforte) | Robert Still – a) Quintet for 3 flutes, violin & cello b) Sonata for viola & piano No 2 |
1956 |
| RG 75 | |||
| RG 76 RG 77 RG 78 |
Dennis Noble, Carmen Prietto etc, Argo Chamber Ensemble cond Richard Austin. Produced by Douglas Cleverdon | Gay – The Beggar’s Opera | 1955 |
| RG 79 | Robert Speaight | Hilaire Belloc – Poems | 1956 |
| RG 80 | King’s College Cambridge Chapel Choir, dir. Boris Ord, Hugh McLean (organ) | Orlando Gibbons – Tudor Church Music | 1956 |
| RG 81 | a) c) Robert Riefling (piano) b)Juilliard String Quartet | Valen – a) Pieces Op 22 b) Quartets, strings No 2 c) Intermezzo Op 36 | 1956 |
| RG 82 RG 83 |
Thurston Dart (harpsichord, clavichord) | Purcell – Complete works for harpsichord and clavichord | 1956 |
| RG 84 RG 85 |
Jacobean Ensemble – Neville Marriner & Peter Gibbs (violins) Desmond Dupre (bass viol) Thurston Dart (Snetzler Organ) | Purcell – Sonatas of III parts, Sonatas 1-VI (RG 84), VII-XII (RG 85) | 1956 |
| RG 86 | |||
| RG 87 | |||
| RG 88 | Stephen Spender (reader) | Spender – Reads a selection of his poems | 1958? |
| RG 89 | a) Wilfrid Parry (piano) Iris Loveridge (piano) Gilbert Webster & Jack Lees (percussion) dir. Richard Austin b) Wilfrid Parry (piano) Frederick Grinke (violin), Jack Brymer (clarinet) | Bartok – a) Sonata for two pianos & percussion b) Contrasts for piano, violin and clarinet | 1956 |
| RG 90 | Chanteurs de Saint Eustache, cond. Rev Emile Martin | de Manchicourt – Mass ‘Quo Abiit Dilectus Tuus’. Josquin des Prés – Miserere motet. Anon – Emendemus motet | 1957 |
| RG 91 | Renaissance Singers, dir Michael Howard | Tallis – Mass in four parts, Lamentations of Jeremiah | 1958 |
| RG 92 | |||
| RG 93 | |||
| RG 94 | J.P. Rampal (flute) and the Pasquier Trio | Mozart – Four quartets for flute and strings | 1957 |
| RG 95 | J. P. Rampal (flute) Perre Pierlot (oboe) Paul Hongne (bassoon) Robert Gendre (violin) Robert Veyron-Lacroix (harpsichord) | Vivaldi – Concerto in D major, Sonata in A minor, Concerto in G minor, Sonata in C minor, Concerto in F major | 1957 |
| RG 96 | |||
| RG 97 | |||
| RG 98 | |||
| RG 99 | King’s College Cambridge Chapel Choir, dir. Boris Ord, Hugh McLean (organ) | Evensong in Kings College | Dec 1956 |
| RG 100 | Grantly Dick Read | Natural Childbirth | 1956 |
i recently got a copy of under milk wood in a charity shop – the LP cover opens as it’s a double album but there’s nothing on the middle insides of the sleeves – totally blank -is that normal? Great website.
hey dave, to tell you the truth i don’t know. i think they mostly had inserts giving info, but not sure which version you’ve got. sounds like a gatefold, but would be surprised if the original 1954 issue was that. what’s the picture of? is it a guy with big eyebrows in a sea or the more cartoony version signed by olga lehmann bottom right?
Wanted! Who can sell me the LP RG19 or a copy in normal CD format? NO MP3, please! Looking for this LP from Alan Wheatley for long. Any hint where I can buy it or get a copy from this and other records spoken by Alan Wheatley are thankfully appreciated!
Thank you!
Hi, there’s a copy of the earlier Argo release of Lorca poems (ARS 1016) on music stack. click here. Haven’t been able to establish whether that’s the Wheatley translations or something completely different. worth checking out. let me know if you get anywhere. good luck.
Thank you for your quick reply. Unfortunately the record was already sold. Seems, I have no luck to get this record.
i’ll let you know if i see another one
Hi everybody!
Was I lucky! A few days after my last lament, I found the Lorca record through the 100000th search by google. Meanwhile it arrived. The numbers on the record are: left hand side WN 18098, the line below RG-12. Right hand side F8-OP-7101. On the cover: SWN 18098. The title is simply Poems. It contains:
Elegy for Donna Juana The Mad
Ballad
Sleepwalking Song
With A Knife
The Faithless Wife
Romance of the Spanish Civil Guard
The Arrest of Antonito El Camborio
Escape
Lament on the Death of a Bullfighter
Many many thanks to everybody who helped me to find it!
Karin
Good news! I want one!
Just got hold of a mint copy of RG1. It’s Gamelan music as you say and includes only 4 tracks – 1 track on side 2 and 3 tracks on side 1. It must have been part of a set because it says “Record One” on the sleeve. Tracks are
Side 1
The Overture “Kapi Radja”
Tamililingan (Bumblebees)
Ketjak (Monkey Dance)
Side 2
Legong
I recently acquired a copy of RG 34 Chansons de France in playable condition if a bit crackly. Didn’t realised it was quite so old – thanx for the info.
Hi, where can I get a recording of RG11. Not the LP itself (it would never survive the journey through the post to me in South Africa), but an electronic copy that can be sent via the Internet?
Hello,
Firstly, many thanks for a very valuable site. Hopefully you can help with a question I have:
For the Issue Nos where no artist/title is given, is this because the Nos were not used or is it because the details of the record are not known ?
Best Wishes
Stephen James