from almost the start of his career barbirolli was a frequent recording artist. as a young cellist he made four records for edison bell in 1911, with piano accompaniment by his sister rosa, and as part of the kutcher and the music society string quartets he recorded music by mozart, purcell, vaughan williams and others in 1925 and 1926. as a conductor he began recording in 1927 for the national gramophonic society (an offshoot of "the gramophone)." among his records from that period was the first to be made of elgar's "introduction and allegro for strings". on hearing it, the composer said, "i'd never realised it was such a big work." elgar, despite an extensive discography as a conductor, never recorded the work himself, and some have speculated that "the breadth, nobility and lyrical poetry" of barbirolli's interpretation left the composer disinclined to compete. in 1928 barbirolli made some recordings for the edison bell label. the same year, he began his long association with the his master's voice (hmv) label. immediately after the lso concert at which he had stood in for beecham, he was approached by fred gaisberg, the chief recording producer for hmv who signed him for his company shortly afterwards. an hmv colleague of gaisberg described barbirolli as "a treasure", because he "could accompany chaliapin without provoking an uproar, win golden opinions from jascha heifetz, artur rubinstein, fritz kreisler and pablo casals, and conduct one of the finest recorded performances of the quintet from "meistersinger"".