Beaver Records Ltd.

Beaver Records Ltd.

Beaver Records Ltd. Company established in 1950 by the Toronto lawyer, musical patron, and supporter of the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir F.R. MacKelcan (1882-1962), with the purpose of recording the choir. Beaver released, in 1952 and 1953 respectively, the first Canadian LP recordings of Messiah and the St Matthew Passion, followed by recordings of Handel anthems in 1953 and Pierné's The Children's Crusade in 1960. In 1953 the company issued its only purely orchestral recording - a performance of Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 5 by the TSO in Massey Hall. A recording of Lalo's Symphonie espagnole by the same orchestra, with the violinist Betty-Jean Hagen, was not released. Pressed in Toronto by Victor, Beaver records were issued in the USA on Victor's Bluebird Classics label and in Britain and Australia by the World Record Club.