There is a wonderful album, Song of the Crooked Dance [YAZOO 7016], http://www.yazoorecords.com/7016.htm , that has lots of excellent performances by BUlgarian musicians--most of the performances are magnificent (my favorite is the traditional bear-handler's song as sung by a man who trained for the opera, but then devoted his career to folk music)
I guess my point here is that it isn't solely the recording technique--the guy who did the transfers from 78s for this album said that the one-take approach used in that day (as explained downthread) actually seems to have improve the spontaneity of the recordings.
Good Music From the 1920s-1940s
Re: Good Music From the 1920s-1940s