1923. For those who embraced the new, they were exciting times. The closing months of the previous year had seen the first BBC broadcasts and the publication 
of TS Eliot’s The Waste Land. Well, here now was April, and it was a joyous month: 
a royal wedding of the then Duke of York to Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, and the opening of Wembley Stadium. This was the world into which our periodical took its first steps.

The earliest record collectors had known a world in which you only heard music if you played it yourself, or if it was played to you in person. Theirs was a bold belief in something unprecedented – the first gramophones were very expensive, and technology swiftly outpaced their purchases. But their commitment to the cause ensured the white coat-wearing wizards in those early studios could push forward the boundaries that, in time, turned crackle into clarity, capturing and conveying to homes throughout the world music-making in ever higher fidelity. Few supporters of recording were as vocal as Gramophone’s founder Sir Compton Mackenzie.

You can trace the past nine decades through the new music we covered in our pages, Bartók giving way to Britten and Birtwistle. Or through the artists, the typography and technology. What is constant is the passionate belief that music matters, is worth writing about, worth arguing for, worth recording and, most of all, worth listening to.

This celebratory issue explores how we’ve honoured that belief from 1923 to today, as we recall musical life, milestone recordings and important premieres across the decades. Leading artists of today reflect on what recording means to them, and we look at the impact of downloading on the ‘value’ of music – looking both backwards and forwards, as we always have. For who knows what the century ahead will offer? Modern music and today’s technology can only hint. Perhaps you’re reading this on an iPad, a studio-master download of a new masterpiece played by tomorrow’s iconic virtuoso a mere click away. For those who embrace the new, these are exciting times. Happy 90th birthday, Gramophone.

martin.cullingford@haymarket.com