The elegant ballads and marching songs of Peter Dawson recall another time when England was an empire and family musical evenings were held in Camberwell homes. The charm of his music is not only nostalgic, though that is its most obvious delight....
Peter Dawson, the Australian baritone who at his peak was as well known as Nellie Melba, made the first of his 2000 records in 1903 or 1904. He said that at the time the gramophone was "an instrument of torture", excruciating for the recording...