Tuesday, March 6, 2012

The Incomparable Emanuel Feuermann: Postscript

Emanuel Feuermann with daughter Monica, 1942
In the comments section of my last post about Emanuel Feuermann, somebody put in a request for his impassioned, magisterial performance of Ernest Bloch's "Schelomo."  Well, I'm happy to report that the records I have of this (the only other Feuermann 78s I have besides those in the last post) are in fine shape, so, here is my transfer:

Bloch: Schelomo - Hebrew Rhapsody for Cello and Orchestra (1916)
Emanuel Feuermann with the Philadelphia Orchestra
conducted by Leopold Stokowski
Recorded March 27, 1940
Victor Musical Masterpiece Set M-698, three 78-rpm records
Link (FLAC file, 42.18 MB)
Link (MP3 file, 21.5 MB)

March 27, 1940, was a busy day for Stokowski's Philadelphians, for it began with a recording of Glière's "Ilya Murometz" Symphony (No. 3) on eleven sides, then continued with Debussy's "Afternoon of a Faun," Harl McDonald's "Legend of the Arkansas Traveler" and the Prelude to Act III of Wagner's "Lohengrin" before Feuermann joined them for this "Schelomo" recording.  Whew!

Speaking of Victor sets, a correspondent recently shared with me a list of Victor Musical Masterpiece sets that Steven Smolian prepared in 1964 for the American Record Guide, which filled in many gaps that I had in my own listing posted on this blog last year.  (Mr. Smolian, incidentally, supplied me with a number of the rare chamber music sets that I have transferred here.)  I have therefore updated my own Victor list, and have also updated my previous post linking to it, but for those who don't want to take the trouble to look that up, here's the new link:

Link (PDF file, 624.25 KB)

4 comments:

  1. I love this work, and have never heard this recording. Much appreciated, Bryan. Astonishing news about the Philadelphians' recording regime. They must all have had an extra bowl of cereal that morning.

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  2. It's great to see Feuermann's name on he internet, but even more when it's on someone's blog like this!

    Thanks for the great tunes; keep 'em coming!

    Can I put in a request?

    Do you have anything on Ignace Jan Paderewski?

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  3. Wow, what a hard day they have, they work like slaves...

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  4. Bryan, Thank you so much for having done such wonderful work, so that we could be lucky to hear these master voice!!

    Dejian Luo, from China

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