The Shellackophile

Nielsen: Violin Concerto (Telmányi)

2012-02-22T21:57:00.001-05:00

Carl Nielsen, 1910

Most people, if they remember the name of the Hungarian-born violinist Emil Telmányi (1892-1988) at all, remember it as belonging to the inventor of the spurious Bach bow (or Vega bow), designed to be able to play on, and sustain, all four strings of the violin simultaneously, for use in the unaccompanied Bach violin works. But Telmányi was also the first internationally famous exponent of the music of Carl Nielsen (whose daughter, Anne Marie, he married in 1918), and made this first recording of Nielsen's Violin Concerto, for me one of the most delightful of all twentieth-century violin concertos, in 1947:

Nielsen: Concerto for violin and orchestra, Op. 33 and
Mozart: Serenade No. 7 in D, K. 250 ("Haffner") - Menuetto
Emil Telmányi with the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Copenhagen,
conducted by Egisto Tango
Recorded June 3-7, 1947
Tono X-25081 through X-25085, five 78-rpm records
Mediafire link (FLAC files, 99.4 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 files, 42.37 MB)

"Glorious John"

2012-02-17T18:10:00.001-05:00

Sir John Barbirolli and Ralph Vaughan Williams on the occasion of the première of the latter's Sinfonia Antartica, 1953

"Glorious John" - that was Ralph Vaughan Williams' nickname, and subsequently everybody else's, for Sir John Barbirolli (1899-1970), and it comes from the inscription on the score of Vaughan Williams' Eighth Symphony - "for glorious John, with love and admiration from Ralph." Barbirolli also received the dedication of Vaughan Williams' previous symphony, the Sinfonia Antartica. Well, here's the first recording by "Glorious John" of a Vaughan Williams symphony, made a decade before these dedications, exactly sixty-eight years ago today (I didn't plan it that way, either!):

Vaughan Williams: Symphony No. 5 in D Major
Hallé Orchestra conducted by John Barbirolli
Recorded February 17, 1944
HMV C 7599 through C 7603, five 78-rpm records
Mediafire link (FLAC files, 96.06 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 files, 41.13 MB)

This was Barbirolli's second-ever recording with the Hallé Orchestra (the first was of Bax's Third Symphony), of which he had assumed control beginning with the 1943-44 season, having returned to England fron New York. There, as director of the Philharmonic-Symphony, he had had a rocky relationship with the music critics, who constantly compared him unfavorably with Toscanini, whom he had succeeded as the Philharmonic's music director. While in New York, however, Barbirolli had made some important recordings, first for Victor and then for Columbia, including symphonies by Sibelius (the First and Second), Schubert (the Fourth) and this brisk, bracing account of Mozart's "little G minor" symphony:

Mozart: Symphony No. 25 in G minor, K. 183
Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra of New York conducted by John Barbirolli
Recorded November 3, 1941
Columbia Masterworks set MX-217, two 78-rpm records
Mediafire link (FLAC files, 53.51 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 files, 32.51 MB)

The Chamber Music Society of Lower Basin Street

2012-02-13T09:25:00.004-05:00

The Chamber Music Society of Lower Basin Street was a weekly radio program that began on NBC's Blue Network in 1940. (The National Broadcasting Company originally had two radio networks, the Red and the Blue; the latter was sold off in 1942 and became the American Broadcasting Company - ABC - in 1945.) The show featured some of the finest jazz musicians of the day, and had two resident bands (which shared the same rhythm section) - Henry Levine's Dixieland Octet, whose leader was a former member of the Original Dixieland Jazz Band, and Paul Laval's Woodwindy Ten. On the Society's debut album, which I present here, Levine's group was rechristened the "Barefooted Dixieland Philharmonic" - although, as can be seen in the slightly coffee-stained picture, the members are not only very much shod, but periwigged! For the Society's offerings, broadcast and recorded, were usually presented in a mock-serious format that poked fun at the stuffy classical music presentations of the day. The album even comes with a booklet mimicking those of the Victor Musical Masterpiece Series, with tongue-in-cheek analyses of each song (a PDF file of this booklet is included with the download).

NBC's Chamber Music Society of Lower Basin Street
1. Mood Indigo (with Dinah Shore)
2. Muskrat Ramble (with Sidney Bechet)
3. Runnin' Wild
4. Dinah's Blues (with Dinah Shore)
5. Shoemaker's Holiday
6. Basin Street Blues
Recorded November 11, 1940
Victor set P-56, three 10" 78-rpm records
Mediafire link (FLAC files, 65.08 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 files, 40.36 MB)

For me, the last three sides are the most enjoyable. "Dinah's Blues" manages to work into its lyrics the names of the show's two corporate sponsors, NBC and its parent, RCA Victor; "Shoemaker's Holiday" is a delightful romp featuring the bassoon, and this arrangement of "Basin Street Blues," with its ending that spoofs Haydn's "Farewell" Symphony (the bass being the instrument left to finish the piece "in the doghouse, but good"), was apparently also the ending number on every broadcast.

The Incomparable Emanuel Feuermann

2012-02-08T11:45:00.001-05:00

Emanuel Feuermann

Today I present three recordings featuring the man whom many, myself included, consider the greatest cellist of all time, the tragically short-lived Emanuel Feuermann (1902-1942). He really should have lived into the era of stereo recording, but he died at age 39 of complications from an operation for hemorrhoids; Toscanini, who was one of the pallbearers at his funeral, is said to have wept during the procession, saying, "this is murder!" At the time of his death, Feuermann was planning to take up the viola da gamba, so that he could present Bach's three sonatas for that instrument as authentically as possible.

Despite the short time available to him, he left a precious recorded legacy. But, alas, no unaccompanied Bach suites - I suppose these works were perceived at the time as belonging to Casals, so Feuermann never got to record one - so the closest we can get to what that may have sounded like is via his 1938 set of a Reger suite, and this unaccompanied sonata by his friend, Paul Hindemith:

Hindemith: Sonata for unaccompanied cello, Op. 25, No. 3
Emanuel Feuermann, cello
Recorded January 27, 1934
Japanese Columbia S-1032, one 78-rpm record
Mediafire link (FLAC file, 22.17 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 file, 9.3 MB)

Feuermann left us several concerto recordings, including a wonderful Brahms Double with Heifetz, and this one of the Haydn D major:

Haydn: Cello Concerto in D major, Op. 101
Emanuel Feuermann with orchestra conducted by Dr. Malcolm Sargent
Recorded November 25, 1935
Columbia Masterworks set MM-262, four 78-rpm records
Mediafire link (FLAC files, 76.38 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 files, 37.26)

On a personal note: this is the third copy of MM-262 that I have owned; the first one I had as a boy of ten, inherited from the discarded 78 library of Emory University, where my mother was teaching music at the time. It was my introduction to Feuermann's art, and to this day the Haydn D major is my favorite of all cello concertos, largely on the strength of this recording.

Finally, for fans of Eugene Ormandy, another of his early Victor recordings, featuring Feuermann - the first of four recordings Ormandy was to make of Strauss' "Don Quixote," but the only one with a cellist other than first-desk Philadelphia players:

Richard Strauss: Don Quixote, Op. 35
Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Eugene Ormandy
Emanuel Feuermann, cello
Samuel Lifschey, viola
Alexander Hilsberg, violin
Recorded February 24, 1940
Victor Musical Masterpiece set DM-720, five 78-rpm records
Mediafire link (FLAC file, 87.25)
Mediafire link (MP3 file, 45.26)

My 100th Post!

2012-02-04T19:59:00.001-05:00

Bryan Bishop, 2008

Believe it or not, eighteen months after starting this blog, I have reached my 100th post! So, something rather unique seems in order, and I therefore offer three of my own performances as a pianist. I've posted the Haydn here before, but only as MP3 files, so here are the FLACs to go with them. The Vaughan Williams I have posted to YouTube, but the Brandenburg Concerto is truly new - I only got the CD myself this past Monday. So, without further ado, here are the links:

Bach: Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 in D, BWV 1050
DaSalo Solisti Chamber Orchestra conducted by Norman Bernal
Bryan Bishop, piano
Teodora Stoyanova, flute
Norman Bernal, violin
Live recording by Carey Carlan [a member of the orchestra], November 13, 2011
Mediafire link (FLAC files, 101.35)
Mediafire link (MP3 files, 24.33)

Haydn: Piano Trio in G, Hob.XV:25 ("Gypsy") and
Haydn: Andante with Variations in F minor, Hob.XVII:6
Bryan Bishop, piano
Laura Reynolds, violin
James Woodall, cello
Live recording, November 7, 2009
Mediafire link (FLAC files, 95.58 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 files, 33.49 MB)

Vaughan Williams: Suite of Six Short Pieces
Bryan Bishop, piano
Live recording, October 12, 2008
Mediafire link (FLAC files, 44.65 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 files, 14.91 MB)

Marjorie Hayward plays Purcell

2012-02-02T22:24:00.002-05:00

Earlier, when I was doing my "reissue" program, I had occasion to post a recording by Marjorie Hayward, that of the Beethoven "Kreutzer" Sonata with Una Bourne, and to direct attention to other Hayward recordings available at the CHARM website. Well, here's one CHARM doesn't have (although they do have a very fine Frederick Grinke recording of the same work, made a quarter of a century later). It's a perfect gem of a Purcell sonata, first published only in 1901:

Purcell: Sonata in G minor, Z. 780
Marjorie Hayward, violin; Madame Adami, piano
Recorded August 15, 1919
HMV C 935, one 78-rpm record
Mediafire link (FLAC file, 20.48 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 file, 7.66)

Does anyone out there have any information about the elusive Mme. Adami, who accompanies Miss Hayward on this recording? Even her first name seems lost to posterity. She must have been the Gramophone Company's house accompanist. The HMV catalogues of the early 1920s (downloadable from the British Library) do not appear to have deemed it neccesary to credit her by name, except for this one disc. Nor, of the sixteen or so records that CHARM possesses for which she plays accompaniments, does her name appear on any of the labels.

Constant Lambert conducts Alan Rawsthorne

2012-01-29T17:18:00.001-05:00

Alan Rawsthorne

Constant Lambert and Alan Rawsthorne, who were friends and drinking companions, shared not only the same year of birth (1905) but also a passion for cats and fish, and even the same wife! (Not at the same time, of course. Lambert died 20 years before Rawsthorne, who then married his widow, the painter Isabel Nicholas.) It probably did no harm to their friendship that their compositional styles were utterly dissimilar. Rawsthorne's music sounds to me like a kind of English Hindemith, neoclassical and a little dry at times, while Lambert's (to judge from the two works I know, "The Rio Grande" and the Piano Concerto) seems more like an English Gershwin. Certainly Lambert the conductor was a persuasive advocate for the music of his friend, and he in fact made the first recordings of any of Rawsthorne's orchestral works, which I present here:

Rawsthorne: Symphonic Studies (1939) and
Rawsthorne: "Street Corner" Overture (1944)
Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Constant Lambert
Recorded March 28 and 29, 1946
HMV C 3542 through 3544, and C 3502, four 78-rpm records
Mediafire link (FLAC files, 69.36 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 files, 29.7 MB)

Roy Harris: Chamber Music

2012-01-25T16:01:00.003-05:00

Roy Harris

During the 1930s, Oklahoma-born Roy Harris (1898-1979) was the great white hope of American music. After all, the facts of his life - born in a log cabin on Lincoln's birthday, worked as a truck driver while studying to be a composer - made good copy, but beyond this, the music he was writing in the 1930s was as good as, or better than, any being written in America at the time. The two major American record companies, Victor and Columbia, were quick to seize on this, recording over a dozen of his works between 1933 and 1941 - more than any other contemporary American composer. If this state of affairs seems incredible to us today, remember that Copland's reputation was that of an enfant terrible with his folksy ballet scores not yet written, Barber and William Schuman were in their 20s, the discovery of Ives was in its infancy, and Gershwin was considered a light music composer.

The two chamber music recordings I present here were among the last fruits of this Harris-mania, and I submit that not only are they two of Harris' finest works, but among the finest chamber music works written by an American. That the publishers of these works (G. Schirmer and Mills Music, which is now part of Alfred Music Publishing) have allowed them to go out-of-print is a sad commentary on our musical life.

Roy Harris: Quintet for Piano and Strings (1936)
Johana Harris and the Coolidge String Quartet
Recorded January 24, 1939
Victor Musical Masterpiece set DM-752, four 78-rpm records
Mediafire link (FLAC file, 64.87 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 file, 31.84 MB)

Roy Harris: String Quartet No. 3 (Four Preludes and Fugues, 1939)
Roth String Quartet (Roth-Weinstock-Shaier-Edel)
Recorded June 13, 1940, and January 6, 1941
Columbia Masterworks Set MM-450, four 78-rpm records
Mediafire link (FLAC files, 62.65 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 files, 30.96 MB)

More from Ormandy

2012-01-20T11:56:00.000-05:00

Two more vintage Ormandy recordings, one of them a request. The request happens to be for the first-issued album set to bear Ormandy's name, his Minneapolis Symphony recording of Kodály's Háry János Suite. Due to a loophole in the Minneapolis Symphony players' contracts, which allowed the orchestra's management to use them to make records for no additional payments, RCA Victor, within a relatively short time (a few weeks in the Januaries of 1934 and 1935), waxed an astounding 170-odd sides with the orchestra. Among these were many first recordings, including first American recordings of Mahler and Bruckner symphonies, and this one of the Kodály suite:

Kodály: Háry János - Orchestral Suite
Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra conducted by Eugene Ormandy
Recorded January 17, 1934
Victor Musical Masterpiece Set DM-197, three 78-rpm records
Mediafire link (FLAC files, 72.69 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 files, 39.62 MB)

Ormandy also recorded the Sibelius First Symphony in Minneapolis, but that isn't the version I have. What I have is the remake he did in Philadelphia six years later, a set sent to me by Ken Halperin of Collecting Record Covers:

Sibelius: Symphony No. 1 in E minor, Op. 39
Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Eugene Ormandy
Recorded October 25, 1941
Victor Musical Masterpiece Set DM-881, four 78-rpm records
Mediafire link (FLAC files, 104.2 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 files, 58.64 MB)

Both these works share the following facts in Ormandy's discography: he recorded each four times, first in Minneapolis, then one mono and two stereo Philadelphia versions. And of the two stereo versions, one was for Columbia and one for RCA.

"Is Everybody Happy?" - Ted Lewis

2012-01-16T10:07:00.001-05:00

Here's a complete change of pace - my first upload of vintage popular music on this blog. I hope those of you who have come to expect classical recordings from me will indulge me here, but I have loved the unique stylings of Ted Lewis, the "high-hatted tragedian of jazz," ever since discovering them about 20 years ago. And when Ken Halperin of Collecting Record Covers very kindly sent me a copy of this set (and several other 78 sets) after having featured the Steinweiss cover on his blog, I was moved to share it here. So here it is:

"Is Everybody Happy?"
Ted Lewis and his Band
1. Blues (My Naughty Sweetie Gives to Me)
2. Good Night
3. Some of These Days (with Sophie Tucker)
4. On the Sunny Side of the Street
5. Somebody Stole My Gal
6. Tiger Rag
7. Have You Ever Been Lonely?
8. The World Is Waiting for the Sunrise
Recorded 1926-33
Columbia Set C-69, four 10" 78-rpm records
Mediafire link (FLAC files, 72.72 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 files, 28.95 MB)

Four of the above sides feature Ted's vocals, with a lazily spoken delivery that surely influenced the Ink Spots several years later. Three of the sides feature his rather squawky clarinet playing. Many people find these recordings corny, and because of that, many jazz historians tend to downplay Ted Lewis' influence as a jazz artist. But in his heyday (the 1920s and early 30s) he was highly respected, and a number of great jazzmen came through his band, including both Dorsey brothers and Benny Goodman.

Vaughan Williams for Piano

2012-01-11T12:54:00.001-05:00

When I was about 13, I discovered, and fell in love with, the music of Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958). I remember telling my piano teacher of this discovery, and her reply, "oh, my, but there's no good piano music!" Well, as I have discovered since, that wasn't entirely accurate - there is some Vaughan Williams piano music, and it's all good, but it's rather hard to find. Vaughan Williams preferred to work on a large canvas (and after all, why not? - he was a big man!) and so it's fitting that the piano work that most readily comes to mind in connection with his name is his fine Concerto, a big work in every way, written for Harriet Cohen in 1930, and recast as a concerto for two pianos in 1946. Here is the first recording of either version, by the artists who gave the two-piano version its American première in 1949:

Vaughan Williams: Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra
Arthur Whittemore and Jack Lowe, duo-pianists
Robin Hood Dell Orchestra of Philadelphia conducted by Vladimir Golschmann
Recorded c. 1951
RCA Victor Red Seal set WDM-1597, three red vinyl 45-rpm records
Mediafire link (FLAC file, 61.43 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 file, 32.18 MB)

This set had no 78-rpm issue, as by the time it appeared, RCA Victor had phased out the 78-rpm format in favor of their own 45-rpm discs.

Also written for Harriet Cohen was this charming Hymn Tune Prelude on a song by Orlando Gibbons:

Vaughan Williams: Hymn Tune Prelude (on Gibbons' Song 13) and
Gibbons: Five Keyboard Pieces
Harriet Cohen, piano
Recorded December 4, 1947
English Columbia DX 1552, one 78-rpm record
Mediafire link (FLAC files, 23 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 files, 9.1 MB)

Finally, about three years ago, I presented a Sunday morning worship service at my church, the Unitarian Congregation of Gwinnett in Lawrenceville, Ga., devoted to Vaughan Williams - whose hymn tune arrangements have become basic material in most Protestant hymnals. In lieu of a sermon, I presented a complete performance of his "Suite of Six Short Pieces" for piano, published in 1920, and later rearranged as his "Charterhouse Suite" for string orchestra. I have posted this performance on Youtube at the following link:

Vaughan Williams: Suite of Six Short Pieces

Mitch and the 20th Century Harpsichord

2012-01-07T10:53:00.000-05:00

Back to mining early LPs we go, with two quite dissimilar works, the common thread being that they are both 20th century works featuring the harpsichord, and that Mitch Miller plays oboe on both. Even the harpsichordists are different! This Mercury LP is a reissue of two 78-rpm sets of c. 1947, and by the time it appeared, in late 1949 or early 1950, Mitch Miller was the head of A & R for Mercury's pop division. He would move to a similar position with Columbia in 1950.

First up is what I and many others consider the greatest 20th century work for harpsichord, Manuel de Falla's Concerto. This is only its second recording, after the famous one that Falla himself made for French Columbia in 1930. Ralph Kirkpatrick is the soloist, and he is accompanied by an ensemble consisting of Alexander Schneider, violin; Bernard Greenhouse, cello; Samuel Baron, flute; the aforementioned Mitchell Miller, oboe; and Harold Freeman, clarinet. This was originally recorded by Keynote, a company that was subsumed by Mercury in 1947:

Falla: Harpsichord Concerto (1926)
Ralph Kirkpatrick, harpsichord, and ensemble
Recorded c. 1947
Side A of Mercury MG 10012, one 12-inch LP record
Mediafire link (FLAC files, 46.37 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 files, 23.44 MB)

Also on this LP is the delightful Partita by Vittorio Rieti (1898-1994), a composer who should be far better known. I like to think of him as a sort of Italian Poulenc; his music has the same sort of witty charm as the French master. He wrote quite a lot for harpsichord: three works for Sylvia Marlowe, of which this Partita was the first. (The others were a "Sonata all'Antica" of 1946, and a Harpsichord Concerto of 1955, both of which Miss Marlowe recorded for Decca.) This is Sylvia Marlowe's first recording of it (she did another for Capitol in the 1950s, and a stereo version for Decca), originally made for the Hargail label as a set of two 78s:

Rieti: Partita for Harpsichord, Flute, Oboe and Strings (1945)
Sylvia Marlowe, harpsichord; Julius Baker, flute;
Mitchell Miller, oboe; The Kroll Quartet
Recorded c. 1947
Side B of Mercury MG 10012, one 12-inch LP record
Mediafire link (FLAC files, 52.44 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 files, 27.62 MB)

A Fifth of Ormandy

2012-01-02T14:56:00.000-05:00

This happens to be the fifth post I have offered devoted to Eugene Ormandy (1899-1985), and so I devote it, in part, to a Fifth Symphony - Tchaikovsky's. This is the first of five recordings he was to make of the work, with the Philadelphia Orchestra, and it's a fine one - Ormandy seldom, if ever, turned out a dull performance of Russian music:

Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 5 in E minor, Op. 64
Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Eugene Ormandy
Recorded March 15, 1941
Victor Musical Masterpiece Set M-828, five 78-rpm records
Mediafire link (FLAC files, 113.86 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 files, 60 MB)

The other offering here is his 1939 recording of Richard Strauss' "Ein Heldenleben," the first of four he was to make in Philadelphia, with concertmaster Alexander Hilsberg as the violin soloist. This was intended to replace Mengelberg's pioneering 1928 version with the New York Philharmonic in the Victor catalogue, and, therefore, was not much appreciated at the time! Heard on its own terms, what emerges is an exciting, beautifully-played account of the score:

Strauss: Ein Heldenleben (A Hero's Life), Op. 40
Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Eugene Ormandy
Recorded April 30, 1939
Victor Musical Masterpiece Set DM-610, five 78-rpm records
Mediafire link (FLAC file, 97.41 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 file, 48.92 MB)

The Incomparable Leon Goossens - Postscript

2011-12-30T16:04:00.001-05:00

Leon Goossens

My Christmas present to myself this year was a new turntable - an Audio-Technica LP120 3-speed direct drive unit - meaning that it will no longer be necessary for me to switch out between turntables to handle LPs and 78s (at least, I hope it won't be!). Here is my first project using the new table: an LP featuring two oboe concertos played by the great Leon Goossens, as a kind of postscript to the transfers of concerto recordings by him that I offered earlier:

Bach-Tovey: Concerto in A, BWV 1055, for oboe d'amore and strings
Recorded June 1, 1949, and July 30, 1952
and
Vaughan Williams: Concerto for Oboe and Strings
Recorded June 16, July 7 and September 1, 1952

Leon Goossens, with the Philharmonia String Orchestra
conducted by Walter Susskind
HMV CLP 1656, one 12-inch LP record
Mediafire link (FLAC files, 96.04 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 files, 50.18 MB)

No doubt both of these, like the earlier Goossens concerto recordings, would have been issued as English Columbia 78 sets had not the long-delayed launch of LP by EMI in September 1952 intervened. As it was, both recordings had to wait eleven years for full issue. In the case of the Bach, an incomplete issue actually did occur in 1953, on American Columbia (ML 4782) - apparently only the first three 78-rpm matrices of the required four were available to CBS, with the result that the concerto, on that release, cuts off about a minute into the finale!

My best wishes to everyone for a prosperous and collectingful New Year!

Rubinstein: Two Early Concerto Recordings

2011-12-22T10:04:00.000-05:00

Arthur Rubinstein

For what is likely to be my last post of 2011, I present two of Arthur (spelled with an "h" on his earliest recordings) Rubinstein's earliest concerto recordings, which show the pianist, then in his early-to-mid-40s, as quite a firebrand. The first of these is, I'm pretty sure, his very first concerto recording, with Albert Coates conducting:

Brahms: Piano Concerto No. 2 in B-Flat major, Op. 83
Arthur Rubinstein and the London Symphony conducted by Albert Coates
Recorded October 22 and 23, 1929
HMV D 1746 through 1750 (Album 90), five 78-rpm records
Mediafire link (FLAC files, 11142.MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 files, 56.1 MB)

Rubinstein himself had strong reservations against the issuance of this recording; in his autobiography, he recounts how difficult the sessions were, with the piano placed in the back of the orchestra, far away from Mr. Coates! Nor had he any chance of consulting with Coates before the sessions. Whatever the circumstances, an exciting performance emerges from these discs, surely one of the fastest on record of the Brahms B-Flat Concerto. Listen and judge for yourself.

For his next concerto sessions in January 1931, Rubinstein had the services of John Barbirolli, with whom he recorded two works: the Chopin F minor concerto, and this concerto by Mozart:

Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 23 in A major, K. 488
Arthur Rubinstein with the London Symphony conducted by John Barbirolli
Recorded January 7 and 8, 1931
Victor Musical Masterpiece Set M-147, three 78-rpm records
Mediafire link (FLAC files, 61.15 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 files, 29.1 MB)

This was among the earliest recordings of any Mozart piano concerto. It was recorded and issued concurrently with Georges Boskoff's of K. 459 on Parlophone and Magda Tagliaferro's of K. 537 on French Decca; only Dohnányi's famous Columbia recording of K. 453 of 1928 is earlier than these. It also remained in the catalogue well into the 1950's - in contrast to the Brahms, which was displaced by Schnabel's recording of six years later.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Shostakovich by the Stuyvesant String Quartet

2011-12-18T14:34:00.000-05:00

The Stuyvesant String Quartet as pictured for their recording of the Shostakovich Quartet, Op. 49

This is the second of two posts dealing with the Stuyvesant String Quartet, and presents them in two works by Shostakovich, one of them recorded only a week after the American première of the work by the same artists. This was the Piano Quintet, Op. 57, which Shostakovich had written the year before, and played the first performance with the Beethoven Quartet in November, 1940. Here the pianist is Vivian Rivkin, the wife of conductor Dean Dixon:

Shostakovich: Quintet for Piano and Strings, Op. 57
Vivian Rivkin, piano, with the Stuyvesant String Quartet
Recorded May 7 and 8, 1941
Columbia Masterworks set MM-483, four 78-rpm records
Mediafire link (FLAC files, 72.85 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 files, 33.42 MB)

As I mentioned in the previous post, the Stuyvesant Quartet, founded in 1938 by the Shulman brothers, Sylvan (first violinist) and Alan (cellist), had varying inner voices during its first five or six years of existence. On the Shostakovich Quintet, these are Harry Glickman (second violin) and Louis Kievman (viola). For the next recording, made the day before the Petrillo recording ban took effect, these had changed to Maurice Wilk (second violin) and Emanuel Vardi (viola):

Shostakovich: Quartet No. 1, Op. 49
The Stuyvesant String Quartet
Recorded July 30, 1942
Columbia Masterworks set MX-231, two 78-rpm records
Mediafire link (FLAC files, 33.45 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 files, 17.13 MB)

At the time of this recording, Shostakovich had written only one string quartet. This wasn't the first recording of it, but the previous one, by the York Quartet, was already out of print by the time the Stuyvesant's appeared, having been issued on the fly-by-night Royale label.

Before founding the Stuyvesant Quartet, Sylvan and Alan Shulman played in the Kreiner Quartet, founded in 1935 by the violist, Edward Kriener. This group, with Josef Gingold as its second violinist, made a handful of recordings, including this first recording of Malipiero's "Rispetti e Strambotti", a work that would later become a specialty of the Stuyvesant String Quartet:

Malipiero: Rispetti e Strambotti (String Quartet No. 1) and
Beryl Rubinstein: Passepied
The Kreiner Quartet
Recorded June 7, July 19 and August 14, 1937
Victor Musical Masterpiece set DM-397, three 78-rpm records
Mediafire link (FLAC files, 52.95 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 files, 27.57 MB)

These uploads complete the "reissue" program I have been working on for the last two or three months; I originally offered these recordings in 2008.

The First Electrical Beethoven Ninth (Weingartner, 1926)

2011-12-14T15:21:00.002-05:00

Just in time for Beethoven's birthday later this week, here is the first electrical recording of what is, for many (myself included), his greatest symphony. It features the London Symphony Orchestra, with chorus, conducted by Felix Weingartner, and a solo quartet consisting of Miriam Licette, Muriel Brunskill, Hubert Eisdell and Harold Williams. The vocal portions are sung in English, as they are on Albert Coates' two recordings of the Ninth - the acoustical one of 1923 which I posted earlier, and the electrical one dating from seven months later than Weingartner's:

Beethoven: Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125 ("Choral")
London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Felix Weingartner,
with soloists and chorus
Recorded March 16 and 17, 1926
Columbia Masterworks Set No. 39, eight 78-rpm records
Mediafire link (FLAC files, 154.21 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 files, 68.98 MB)

I had a request for this recording when I posted Weingartner's acoustical recordings of Beethoven and Brahms last month. Although I was a little leery of attempting a transfer, given the rather worn condition of the records, nevertheless they cleaned up better than I had any reason to hope, and so I offer my transfer here. Happy Beethoven's Birthday, everyone!

More Symphonies from Philadelphia

2011-12-11T16:24:00.001-05:00

Two American symphonies, one about America which is among the most well-known in the symphonic repertoire, and one by an American which should be far better known, are the subjects of today's post. Both originate from Philadelphia, and are conducted by the indefatigable Eugene Ormandy:

Dvořák: Symphony No. 9 in E minor, Op. 95 ("From the New World")
Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Eugene Ormandy
Recorded December 18, 1944, and January 12, 1946
Columbia Masterworks MM-570, five 78-rpm records
Mediafire link (FLAC files, 93.78 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 files, 50.23 MB)

William Schuman: Symphony No. 3 (1941)
Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Eugene Ormandy
Recorded March 11, 1951
Columbia Masterworks ML-4413, one LP record
Mediafire link (FLAC files, 80.74 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 files, 36.02 MB)

This was the first recording of William Schuman's Third Symphony, one of his finest works, and was recorded under the auspices of the Walter W. Naumberg Foundation, which awarded the symphony its American Composition Award in 1950. It was released just a little too late to be issued as a 78 set, though eight 78-rpm matrices (XCO 45351 through 45358) were assigned to it. Ormandy's recording is far less known than the one Leonard Bernstein did about ten years later, which it complements nicely. I first offered it as an upload in May, 2007; the Dvořák, however, is new. Ormandy, though content to play the "New World" straight for the most part, nevertheless indulges in adding, in the finale, two additional cymbal crashes to the one which Dvořák actually wrote.

Bloch by the Stuyvesant String Quartet

2011-12-08T21:10:00.006-05:00

Ernest Bloch in Switzerland, 1916

This evening I present the first of two posts devoted to the Stuyvesant String Quartet, founded in 1938 by the Shulman brothers, violinist Sylvan (1912-1985) and cellist Alan (1915-2002). This ensemble became renowned for its recordings of 20th-century quartets, including a number of recording premières. Among these was their debut recording in the quartet repertoire, the First String Quartet of Ernest Bloch (pictured above in the year in which he wrote it):

Bloch: Quartet No. 1 in B minor (1916)
The Stuyvesant String Quartet (Shulman-Smirnoff-Kievman-Shulman)
Recorded October 10, 1939
English Columbia LX 8511 through 8516, six 78-rpm records
Mediafire link (FLAC files, 113.75 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 files, 51.12 MB)

October 10, 1939, would appear to have been a busy day for the Stuyvesant Quartet, for if one believes the data in a Pearl CD issue of Elisabeth Schumann's Bach recordings (which includes the Mass in B minor conducted by Albert Coates), the same players were in the Victor studios on the same date, assisting in accompanying Mme. Schumann in the "Wedding" Cantata, BWV 202, along with harpsichordist Yella Pessl, oboist Mitch Miller and bassist Philip Sklar.

The Stuyvesant String Quartet's inner parts changed hands several times through its first few years of existence. The Quartet became inactive for a few years during the Second World War, then were reconstituted in 1945 with second violinist Bernard Robbins and violist Ralph Hersh. This was the lineup for the remainder of the Quartet's career (until 1954). In 1947 the Stuyvesant Quartet returned to the recording studio, making three sets for New York-based International Records (reissued as LPs by the Concert Hall Society), among which was a further Bloch recording:

Bloch: Quartet No. 2 (1945)
The Stuyvesant String Quartet (Shulman-Robbins-Hersh-Shulman)
Recorded in November, 1947
Concert Hall Society CHC-20, one 12-inch red vinyl LP record
Mediafire link (FLAC files, 77.7 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 files, 40 MB)

This wasn't the first recording of the new Bloch quartet; that had been done five months earlier for English Decca by the Griller Quartet.

I originally offered the Bloch First Quartet in 2008, but the Second Quartet appears here for the first time in my transfer.

Anyone interested in the Stuyvesant String Quartet should look into a fine CD reissue by Parnassus Records, featuring quartets by Hindemith, Villa-Lobos and Quincy Porter, and produced by Jay Shulman, Alan's son. When last I checked, it was still being carried by Berkshire Record Outlet (at a very reasonable $5.99).

Bruno Walter in 18th Century Music

2011-12-04T13:37:00.003-05:00

Bruno Walter at the Vienna Musikverein, January 16, 1938

Today I present the only commercial recordings of Baroque music conducted by Bruno Walter (1876-1962), as well as a Haydn symphony recording made on the same day as one of these recordings. All three recordings were made in that fateful year, 1938, the year of the "Anschluss" - the Nazi annexation of Austria, where the Jewish Walter had been living and working since Hitler came to power. (The picture above shows Walter in the green room of the Vienna Musikverein, shortly before his last concert there - which featured Mahler's Ninth Symphony.) The details on the recordings:

Corelli: Concerto Grosso in G minor, Op. 6, No. 8 ("Christmas Concerto")
London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Bruno Walter
Recorded September 13, 1938
Victor Musical Masterpiece Set M-600, two 78-rpm records
Mediafire link (FLAC file, 40.14 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 file, 19.25 MB)

Handel: Concerto Grosso in B minor, Op. 6, No. 12
Paris Conservatory Orchestra conducted by Bruno Walter
Recorded May 17, 1938
HMV DB 3601 and 3602, two 78-rpm records
Mediafire link (FLAC file, 36.38 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 file, 14.99 MB)

Haydn: Symphony No. 86 in D
London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Bruno Walter
Recorded September 13, 1938
Victor Musical Masterpiece Set M-578, three 78-rpm records
Mediafire link (FLAC files, 58.88 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 files, 30.36 MB)

The Handel recording is particularly rare, as it received no US issue during the 78-rpm era. The Haydn set is rare enough, both HMV and Victor versions having been deleted during the Second World War. I originally offered the Corelli and Handel transfers back in 2007, but the Haydn symphony is a new upload.

Three by the Budapest Quartet

2011-11-28T10:54:00.003-05:00

The reissue program continues with three recordings by the great Budapest String Quartet, from three different points in their career. First is one of their early recordings, from the time when the Quartet's lineup still boasted two Hungarians, and three of its founding members. These were first violinist Emil Hauser, violist István Ipolyi, and the Dutch cellist Harry Son; the newcomer was second violinist Josef Roisman, a Russian who would eventually become the quartet's leader:

Tchaikovsky: Quartet No. 2 in F, Op. 22 and
Dittersdorf: Quartet No. 6 in A - Minuet
Budapest String Quartet (Hauser-Roisman-Ipolyi-Son)
Recorded February 8, 9 and 11, 1929
HMV Album Series No. 134, five 78-rpm records
Mediafire link (FLAC files, 121.83 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 files, 48.98)

By the time of the following recording, Roisman had moved to the first violin chair, and only Ipolyi was left from the original lineup. The Schneider brothers (Alexander and Mischa) now occupied the second violin and cello positions, respectively. This lineup (1932-36) is considered by many to be the Budapest Quartet's greatest, and one of the few recordings from this period that has apparantly never been reissued on LP or CD is this, the only Haydn quartet that the Budapest Quartet was permitted to record for HMV after the Pro Arte Quartet was engaged to do its series for the Haydn Quartet Society. (This particular work had, in fact, been part of the very first Society volume, but that was already out-of-print by the time this release appeared.)

Haydn: Quartet in G, Op. 54, No. 1
Budapest String Quartet (Roisman-Schneider-Ipolyi-Schneider)
Recorded April 24, 1935
Victor Musical Masterpiece Set DM-869, two 78-rpm records
Mediafire link (FLAC files, 42.36 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 files, 18.76)

Lastly, here is one of the Budapest Quartet's few recordings of a contemporary work, one actually written for them. Even though Columbia had already successfully launched the LP format by the time of its issue, this recording was issued only on 78s, with the result that it is probably one of the Budapest Quartet's rarest recordings. By this time, Boris Kroyt had long since replaced István Ipolyi as violist (so that now the group consisted entirely of Russians), and Alexander Schneider had left the Quartet in 1944 to freelance. He returned in 1955, but in the meantime a succession of second violinists replaced him; at the time of this recording it was Edgar Ortenberg:

Hindemith: Quartet [old No. 5, new No. 6] in E-Flat
Budapest String Quartet (Roisman-Ortenberg-Kroyt-Schneider)
Recorded April 2, 1945
Columbia Masterworks Set MM-797, three 78-rpm records
Mediafire link (FLAC files, 64.08 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 files, 31.15 MB)

A word about the numbering of Hindemith's quartets, which is a very confusing issue indeed! During his lifetime he published six: Op. 10, Op. 16, Op. 22, Op. 32, and two in E-Flat, one in 1943 and one in 1945 - Hindemith stopped using opus numbers after Opus 50. (The present Columbia set doesn't identify a number, merely "Quartet in E-Flat (1943)", but the 1943 quartet was published as "No. 5.") During the 1990s, however, an early Quartet, Op. 2, was published and added to the canon; this - unfortunately - became Quartet No. 1, and the numbers of all the succeeding quartets were bumped ahead by one! Hence, the Op. 22, his most popular, is now known as "No. 4" where it previously was known as "No. 3"; worse still, the 1943 E-Flat is now "No. 6" - while formerly the 1945 quartet was known as "No. 6 in E-Flat"! What I wonder is, why couldn't the Op. 2 quartet have been labelled "No. 0" as with Bruckner's early D minor symphony?

Sargent's 1946 "Messiah"

2011-11-25T10:37:00.000-05:00

The Christmas season is upon us again, and, to help us get into the spirit, here is Malcolm Sargent's complete 1946 recording of Handel's "Messiah," the first of four he was to make of the oratorio, and the first of three with the Huddersfield Choral Society and Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. This was intended to replace Beecham's pioneering 1928 set in the Columbia catalogue, and would, in the American catalogues at least, come into competition with Beecham's second recording when RCA Victor released it in 1948. Sargent's account of the work is not quite as individual as Beecham's, perhaps, but on its own terms it is very satisfying, and boasts superb lady soloists in Isobel Baillie, soprano, and Gladys Ripley, contralto - neither of whom returned for Sargent's subsequent recordings. The male soloists are James Johnston, tenor, and Norman Walker, bass.

Among the many felicities in this performance I would like to single out just one - notice what an absolute pianissimo the chorus achieves by the end of "All We Like Sheep." I don't think that the sense of horror over "and the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all" has ever been conveyed more forcefully on record.

Handel: The Messiah
Soloists, Huddersfield Choral Society and Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra
Conducted by Malcolm Sargent
Recorded July 12-16 and September 26, 1946
Columbia Masterworks Set MM-666, nineteen 78-rpm records
Mediafire link 1 (FLAC files, part 1, 173.5 MB)
Mediafire link 2 (FLAC files, part 2, 189.61 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 files, 174.43 MB)

As I mentioned earlier this year, when I posted several galleries of Steinweiss record covers of which this "Messiah" set was one, somebody at Columbia had a really wicked sense of humor, making this Masterworks Set No. 666! I suspect Goddard Lieberson himself had a hand in this - he was head of Masterworks by this time. Am I the only one who finds this funny? Look at this picture of the two spines for the two albums - dotted with crosses, as if to ward off the evil influence of the fatal number:

The Flonzaley Quartet and After

2011-11-21T18:58:00.004-05:00

The Flonzaley Quartet

Today I present the legendary Flonzaley Quartet in the only complete 20th century quartet they recorded, the Dohnányi Op. 15. This is one of their rarer recordings; in fact, I am unaware of any LP or CD transfer of this set, though most of the Flonzaleys' other early electrical sets were covered by Biddulph in a pair of double-CD packages during the 1990s. Well, here it is, in a transfer I originally offered in 2008:

Dohnányi: Quartet No. 2 in D-Flat, Op. 15
The Flonzaley Quartet
Recorded October 20 and 21, 1927
HMV DB 1135 through 1137, three 78-rpm records
Mediafire link (FLAC files, 69.3 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 files, 26.74 MB)

The Flonzaley Quartet disbanded in 1929, but its members (which by this time were Adolfo Betti and Alfred Pochon, violins; Nicholas Moldavan, viola; and Iwan d'Archambeau, cello) continued to work in other quartets. One of these was the Stradivarius String Quartet, in which Pochon and d'Archambeau were joined by Wolfe Wolfinsohn, first violin, and Marcel Dick, viola. In 1937 the group made a handful of recordings for Columbia, of which perhaps the most important is this Mendelssohn quartet (again, originally offered in 2008):

Mendelssohn: Quartet No. 3 in D, Op. 44, No. 1
The Stradivarius String Quartet
Recorded January 27, February 4, April 19 and 22, 1937
Columbia Masterworks Set 304, three 78-rpm records
Mediafire link (FLAC files, 59.77 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 files, 24.47 MB)

Violist Moldavan went on to become a founding member (along with violinists William Kroll and Nicolai Berezowsky and cellist Jack Gottlieb) of the Coolidge Quartet, a very interesting group: named after that patron saint of 20th century chamber music, Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge (whose own String Quartet in E minor the group recorded); they started a project to record the complete Beethoven quartets, but abandoned it after No. 8 when the war and the Petrillo recording ban of 1942-44 intervened. They also recorded quite a few American works, including quartets by Griffes, Loeffler, Mason, and by their own second violinist Berezowsky, as well as Roy Harris' piano quintet (with the composer's wife, Johana, at the piano). Their first recording was of this Hindemith quartet (also a 2008 transfer):

Hindemith: Quartet No. 3, Op. 22
The Coolidge Quartet
Recorded May 20, 1938
Victor Musical Masterpiece Set M-524, three 78-rpm records
Mediafire link (FLAC files, 48.93 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 files, 25.77 MB)

Finally, for anyone interested, I have put up three videos on YouTube with my own harpsichord- and piano-playing; here are the links:

Maple Leaf Rag
Hovhaness: Dark River and Distant Bell
"Linus and Ludwig"

Bach's "Wachet auf" Cantata (Robert Shaw)

2011-11-18T08:18:00.001-05:00

One of the best-loved Bach cantatas, that on the Nicolai chorale "Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme," is presented today in a recording by that greatest of choral conductors, Robert Shaw (1916-1999). This cantata was written for the 27th Sunday after Trinity, a Sunday that occurs infrequently, only when Easter is particularly early in the year - in fact, I don't think the next 27th Sunday after Trinity will happen until 2035. Well, I wasn't willing to wait that long to share this recording. Taking note of the fact that the 27th Sunday after Trinity was also, always, the last Sunday before Advent, and also of the fact that this coming Sunday is the last Sunday before Advent for 2011, I decided that this weekend would be a liturgically appropriate time to present this recording, so here it is:

Bach: Cantata No. 140, "Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme"
Soloists, RCA Victor Chorale and Orchestra conducted by Robert Shaw
Recorded c. 1947
RCA Victor Red Seal set DM-1162, four 10-inch 78-rpm records
Mediafire link (FLAC file, 64.47 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 file, 32.57 MB)

The soloists are Suzanne Freil, soprano, and Paul Matthen, bass, who sing two duets, and Roy Russell, tenor, who sings the recitatives preceding these duets. For the first of the duets Joseph Fuchs provides a violin obbligato, and for the second, the oboe obbligato is played by Robert Bloom.

The Musical Art Quartet

2011-11-15T20:27:00.002-05:00

The Musical Art Quartet

This evening, I present one of two recordings made for Columbia's 1928 Schubert Centennial by the Musical Art Quartet (Sascha Jacobsen and Paul Bernard, violins; Louis Kaufman, viola, and Maria Roemaet-Rosanoff, cello), founded in 1926 by four students at the Institute of Musical Art in New York (now known as the Juilliard School), and still in existence in 1941, when Heifetz and Jesús Maria Sanromá made a famous recording of Chausson's Concert, Op. 21, with them. One of its members, violist Louis Kaufman, achieved prominence later as a violinist in Hollywood (he left the Quartet in 1933), but at the time of the Quartet's founding, its leader, Sascha Jacobsen, was the famous one - he had been yet another Russian-Jewish child prodigy (and, as such, was immortalized in a 1922 Gershwin song, "Mischa, Jascha, Toscha, Sascha"). I originally offered their recording of Schubert's A minor Quartet, Op. 29, in May 2009:

Schubert: Quartet No. 13 in A minor, Op. 29, D. 804 and
Schubert: Quartet No. 11 in E, Op. 125, No. 2 - Minuetto
Musical Art Quartet
Recorded January 9, 11 and 12, and March 12, 1928
Columbia Masterworks Set No. 86, four 78-rpm records
Mediafire link (FLAC files, 83.64 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 files, 33.53 MB)

I suppose the Juilliard String Quartet, founded in 1946 and still going strong some sixty-five years later, can be considered a successor organization to the Musical Art Quartet, and so I present them too, in their first recording of Berg's "Lyric Suite" from an early Columbia LP. The original lineup of the Quartet, consisting of Robert Mann and Robert Koff, violins; Raphael Hillyer, viola, and Arthur Winograd, cello, is heard on this recording:

Alban Berg: Lyric Suite
Juilliard String Quartet
Recorded April 19, 1950
Columbia Masterworks ML-2148, one 10-inch LP record
Mediafire link (FLAC files, 73.74 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 files, 32.96 MB)

This was one of my earliest uploads, from May, 2007, made before I had done any transfers from actual 78s. This recording was also issued as a 78-rpm set, Columbia MM-957, which, I imagine, is even rarer than the LP. I don't believe this recording was ever reissued on a standard 12" LP.

Weingartner's Earliest Beethoven and Brahms Recordings

2011-11-13T22:06:00.003-05:00

This is to be my last "reissue" of acoustically recorded material. It comprises three of the earliest recordings of complete symphonies conducted by Felix Weingartner (1863-1942) - two symphonies by Beethoven and one by Brahms. I confess that I hesitated before offering the two Beethoven recordings, since Satyr has also offered them, and, in the case of the Seventh Symphony, he had markedly superior source material, since the first record of my set is badly cracked! So, I encourage you to get Satyr's transfers, but for those who may want to compare American pressings of these recordings against Satyr's English ones, or for those who may want the FLAC upgrades of my transfers, here they are:

Beethoven: Symphony No. 7 in A, Op. 92 and
Weingartner: The Tempest - Dance of the Sprites
London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Felix Weingartner
Recorded June 1, 1923, and November 6, 1924
Columbia Masterworks Set No. 1, five 78-rpm records
Mediafire link (FLAC files, 100.02 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 files, 38.27 MB)

Beethoven: Symphony No. 8 in F, Op. 93
London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Felix Weingartner
Recorded November 27, 1923
and
Rachmaninoff-Wood: Prelude in C-Sharp minor
New Queen's Hall Orchestra conducted by Sir Henry J. Wood
Recorded December 4, 1922
Columbia Masterworks Set No. 2, four 78-rpm records
Mediafire link (FLAC files, 83.35 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 files, 32.26 MB)

It will be noted that the American version of the Beethoven 8th has a very curious filler, which is different from the filler in the English version - that being another excerpt from Weingartner's "Tempest" incidental music. Yet another reason to get Satyr's download in addition to mine.

Finally, here is the Brahms symphony:

Brahms: Symphony No. 1 in C minor, Op. 68
London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Felix Weingartner
Recorded November 28, 1923, and March 21, 1924
Columbia Masterworks Set No. 9, five 78-rpm records
Mediafire link (FLAC files, 106.16 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 files, 44.13 MB)

There was also something a little extra with the Brahms set - the original four-page leaflet that accompanied the album. These leaflets are considerably rarer than the records - in fact, of the five or six early US Columbia Masterworks sets that I have seen with the original albums, this is the only one I have ever seen with such a leaflet. Particularly interesting is the back page where the first eleven Masterworks sets are outlined and described - Columbia was obviously very proud of this (then) new series! I have included scans of this leaflet in this download.

Earlier today, I fulfilled an intention that I announced on this blog one year and twenty days ago: that of performing the solo keyboard part of Bach's Fifth Brandenburg Concerto on a modern piano. This was with a local chamber orchestra, Da Salo Solisti, and I was quite pleased with how it went. I understand that a video was made by one of the orchestral players, whose hobby is A/V production, and I have hopes that it might make it onto Youtube. Stay tuned!

Mozart by Catterall and Harty

2011-11-11T10:11:00.001-05:00

Arthur Catterall

This is the third and last installment of my Arthur Catterall series, and comprises two Mozart recordings he made with Hamilton Harty, the latter as both pianist and conductor. Catterall was the leader (first violinist) in the Hallé Orchestra, a post he held from 1912 until 1925. As Harty was music director of the Hallé from 1920 to 1934, their joint association lasted five years, and it was during this time that these recordings were made. First came a Mozart sonata, which apparently was the first uncut recording of any sonata (which was, curiously, identified as "Opus 8, No. 1" on the labels):

Mozart: Violin Sonata in A, K. 526
Arthur Catterall, violin; Hamilton Harty, piano
Recorded April 27, 1923
English Columbia L 1494 through 1496, three 78-rpm records
Mediafire link (FLAC files, 53.12 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 files, 20.19 MB)

Then in 1924 came this recording of a Mozart concerto:

Mozart: Violin Concerto No. 5 in A, K. 219
Arthur Catterall, violin, with orchestra conducted by Hamilton Harty
Recorded April 10, 1924
English Columbia L 1592 through 1595, four 78-rpm records
Mediafire link (FLAC files, 77.85 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 files, 28.99 MB)

April 10, 1924 was a busy day for Catterall and Harty, who, prior to recording the Mozart, did the Bach Concerto for two violins with John S. Bridge, second violinist in Catterall's quartet. That recording can be heard at the CHARM website.

There's a little bonus: I had the original album for the English Columbia issue, which contained slightly pedantic liner notes for the concerto printed on each record sleeve above the window for the label. Quite a difference from the flowery wimble-wamble printed as liner notes in contemporary US sets! An introductory paragraph or two appears in a box below the label on the first sleeve. I typed all these into a text file that is included with the downloads.

The Mozart violin concertos were relatively well-served during the late acoustic era. Three were available complete: besides this one, No. 3 in G was recorded by Yelly d'Aranyi for Vocalion (which Grumpy's Classics Cave has available here), and No. 4 in D was recorded twice - a famous recording by Kreisler with Landon Ronald for HMV (available commercially from various labels), and one by Riele Queling with Frieder Weissmann for Parlophone.

Symphonies on American Odeon

2011-11-09T10:26:00.000-05:00

Today I present two samples from the earliest album set series to be offered to the American record buyer, that of Otto Heineman's General Phonograph Corporation, drawing on masters recorded by Parlophon in Germany, and released on the Odeon label. (For an excellent article about the American Odeon label, click here.) The first of these may well, in fact, be the very first complete symphony issued in an album in the USA - ironically, of an "unfinished" symphony - Schubert's:

Schubert: Symphony No. 8 in B minor, D. 759 ("Unfinished")
Orchestra of the German Opera House, Berlin, conducted by Eduard Mörike
Recorded November 22, 1921
American Odeon 5008 through 5010, three 78-rpm records
Mediafire link (FLAC files, 55.88 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 files, 22.92 MB)

The Schubert "Unfinished" has the distinction of being the symphony recorded the most times during the acoustic era - eighteen - but only nine of these recordings were intended as unabridged, and this is the first one of those. I say "intended" because this recording actually omits four bars between sides 1 and 2.

Next is a sample of one of the earliest Beethoven symphony cycles on record. Perhaps "cycle" is a misnomer, since different conductors were used, but in the twilight of the acoustic era, two companies in Germany vied with each other for the honor of having all the Beethoven symphonies recorded and on sale. The first to start its series, in 1923, was Deutsche Grammophon (using five different conductors, among them Fried, Klemperer and Pfitzner), but before they could finish (Nov. 1925), Parlophon (using two conductors -Mörike and Frieder Weissmann) had started and finished their series. All of the Parlophon series were released in albums by American Odeon.

Beethoven: Symphony No. 6 in F, Op. 68 ("Pastorale")
Berlin Opera House Orchestra conducted by Frieder Weissmann
Recorded November 21 and 24, 1924, and January 21, 1925
American Odeon 5086 through 5090, five 78-rpm records
Mediafire link (FLAC files, 111.44 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 files, 41.71 MB)

When I had both of these sets in my possession three to four years ago, I did not, alas, have a scanner. The Schubert album even had liner notes printed on the inside front cover, which I did transcribe into a text file that I include with the download. But I have no way of showing what the lovely purple labels looked like, other than to show this rather badly-made photo of a Richard Tauber record from the same series, that is currently being offered on eBay:

The Catterall Quartet

2011-11-06T13:44:00.002-05:00

Label showing Victor sticker for importation into the USA

Part 2 of my reissue series devoted to Arthur Catterall continues with all three complete string quartets recorded and issued by the Catterall Quartet (Arthur Catterall and John S. Bridge, violins; Frank S. Park, viola; Johan C. Hock, cello) - Beethoven's Op. 18, Nos. 1 and 2, and Brahms' Op. 51, No. 1. (The group also subsequently recorded a third Beethoven quartet, presumably complete, on nine sides - No. 13 in B-Flat, Op. 130, a work otherwise unrecorded acoustically - but this, alas, was unissued.) Here are the details:

Beethoven: Quartet No. 1 in F, Op. 18, No. 1 and
Tchaikovsky: Quartet No. 2 in F, Op. 22 - Scherzo
Catterall Quartet
Recorded May 8, 1922, and April 30 and June 18, 1923
HMV D 947 through D 950, four 78-rpm records
Mediafire link (FLAC files, 94.53 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 files, 31.75 MB)

Beethoven: Quartet No. 2 in G, Op. 18, No. 2
Catterall Quartet
Recorded June 19, 1923, and May 6, 1924
HMV D 997 through D 999, three 78-rpm records
Mediafire link (FLAC files, 67.22 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 files, 23.27 MB)

Brahms: Quartet No. 1 in C minor, Op. 51, No. 1
Catterall Quartet
Recorded June 18 and 19, 1923
HMV D 791 through D 794, four 78-rpm records
Mediafire link (FLAC files, 89.84 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 files, 31.38 MB)

Included in all three packages is a text file containing information about all the Catterall Quartet's recordings, for both HMV and Columbia, of which I'm aware.

The Catterall Quartet's recording career for HMV effectively ended when the Virtuoso String Quartet was formed by the Gramophone Company in 1924. The Catterall Quartet moved to Columbia after the introduction of electrical recording, but their repertoire there consisted mainly of potboilers, the only Beethoven being the slow variations movement of Op. 18, No. 5 (the only Beethoven quartet that Columbia's "star" ensemble of the period, the Léner Quartet, didn't record until the 1930s). Here is that sole Beethoven recording:

Beethoven: Quartet No. 5 in A, Op. 18, No. 5 - Andante cantabile
The Catterall Quartet
Recorded June 16, 1926
English Columbia 9141, one 78-rpm record
Mediafire link (FLAC file, 21.13 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 file, 7.9 MB)

Walton: First Symphony

2011-11-04T14:28:00.001-04:00

Sir Hamilton Harty

Today I offer the first recording of William Walton's First Symphony, by the man who commissioned it, Sir Hamilton Harty (1879-1941). The ink was barely dry on the score when the recording was made - or at least, barely dry on the finale, for Walton had completed the first three movements, and Harty had conducted them, in December 1934, before the finale was finished! Then, in November, 1935, the completed work was finally played by the BBC Symphony under Harty, and a mere month later, this recording was made, with the London Symphony. It was a rare honor for a British symphony to be recorded soon after its première; even Vaughan Williams' Fourth Symphony, completed the same year, had to wait two years for its first recording:

Walton: Symphony No. 1 in B-Flat minor (1935)
London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Sir Hamilton Harty
Recorded December 9 and 10, 1935
English Decca X 108 through 113, six 78-rpm records
Mediafire link (FLAC files, 98.94 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 files, 43.88 MB)

The Walton Symphony is a new transfer. Back in 2008 I offered these two acoustically recorded sets featuring the not-yet-knighted Hamilton Harty, one as conductor and one as pianist:

Bach: Suite No. 2 in B minor, BWV 1067, for flute and strings
Robert Murchie, flute, with orchestra conducted by Hamilton Harty
Recorded January 20, 1924
English Columbia L 1557 and 1558, two 78-rpm records
Mediafire link (FLAC file, 45.79 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 file, 17.31 MB)

Brahms: Clarinet Trio in A minor, Op. 114
H. P. Draper, clarinet; W. H. Squire, cello; Hamilton Harty, piano
Recorded October 21, 1924
English Columbia L 1609 through 1611, three 78-rpm records
Mediafire link (FLAC files, 74.98 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 files, 30.35 MB)

Both are first recordings of these works; the Bach Suite is slightly abridged (64 bars cut from the fast section of the Ouverture, and the return of the slow section omitted altogether).

Arthur Catterall and William Murdoch

2011-11-03T11:12:00.000-04:00

Arthur Catterall

This is to be the first of three posts dealing with uploads I originally offered in 2007-08, featuring the British violinist Arthur Catterall (1883-1943). Here are three sonata recordings he made in 1923-24 with the Australian pianist William Murdoch (1888-1942). The first is an abridged version of Beethoven's "Spring" Sonata:

Beethoven: Violin Sonata No. 5 in F, Op. 24 ("Spring")
Arthur Catterall, violin; William Murdoch, piano
Recorded June 6, 1923
English Columbia L 1231 and 1232, two 78-rpm records
Mediafire link (FLAC file, 38.89 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 file, 13.82 MB)

This recording was intended as a replacement for an earlier version by Albert Sammons (also with Murdoch at the piano) that had been issued five years earlier with the same record numbers. Catterall undertook a number of such re-recordings in June of 1923, not just of violin repertoire but also of piano trio movements with Murdoch and cellist W. H. Squire. Presumably Sammons was persona non grata at Columbia in 1923, as he was then making records for Vocalion!

The following were not planned as replacements, but as brand-new recordings:

Brahms: Violin Sonata No. 3 in D minor, Op. 108
Arthur Catterall, violin; William Murdoch, piano
Recorded November 18, 1923
English Columbia L 1535 through 1537, three 78-rpm records
Mediafire link (FLAC files, 53.22 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 files, 21.37 MB)

Franck: Violin Sonata in A Major
Arthur Catterall, violin; William Murdoch, piano
Recorded November 18, 1923, and April 11, 1924
Columbia Masterworks Set No. 33, four 78-rpm records
Mediafire link (FLAC files, 75.01 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 files, 30.06 MB)

The Franck was issued only in America, and even then it took two tries to get it right! The original issue, Masterworks Set No. 23, had been of only three of the work's four movements, and out of order to boot.

Symphonies from Sir Landon

2011-11-01T11:19:00.002-04:00

Back in 2008 I posted three acoustically-recorded symphonies conducted by the Gramophone Company's "house conductor," Sir Landon Ronald (1873-1937). Actually, he wasn't yet "Sir" when the first of these was made (he was knighted in 1922):

Dvořák: Symphony No. 9 in E minor, Op. 95 ("From the New World")
Royal Albert Hall Orchestra, conducted by Landon Ronald
Recorded November 1, 1919, and September 8 & November 29, 1921
HMV D 536, 537, 587 and 613, four 78-rpm records
Mediafire link (FLAC files, 90.14 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 files, 33.38 MB)

All movements are cut except the Scherzo, and I've spelled out the cuts in detail, in a text file accompanying the download. As of July, 2010, this had proven my most popular download, with Mediafire calculating 545! Sir Landon did re-record the "New World" electrically, and complete, in 1927. This is available from Historic Recordings, in Damian's fine transfer.

Landon Ronald's next recording of a symphony was of Beethoven's Fifth, a work that holds the distinction of being the symphony recorded complete the most times during the acoustic era. Ronald's version is the fifth, after Friedrich Kark's for Odeon (in 1910), Artur Nikisch's for Deutsche Grammophon (1913), Josef Pasternack's for Victor (completed in 1917) and François Ruhlmann's for Pathé (of unknown date, but surely before 1922):

Beethoven: Symphony No. 5 in C minor, Op. 67
Royal Albert Hall Orchestra, conducted by Sir Landon Ronald
Recorded in September and October, 1922
Victor Blue Label 55250 through 55253, four 78-rpm records
Mediafire link (FLAC files, 95.07 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 files, 37.89 MB)

I have the original album, a handsome "Music Arts Library of Victor Records" production, and I have included JPEGs of each sleeve, on each of which are printed liner notes in a florid style characteristic of the time.

Ronald also re-recorded the Beethoven Fifth electrically. He did not, however, re-record the Tchaikovsky "Pathétique" (this job fell to Albert Coates):

Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 6 in B minor, Op. 74 ("Pathétique")
Royal Albert Hall Orchestra, conducted by Sir Landon Ronald
Recorded in January, May and June, 1923
Victor Blue Label 55240 through 55244, five 78-rpm records
Mediafire link (FLAC files, 123.66 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 files, 42.7 MB)

Sir Landon made two further acoustical recordings of symphonies: the Schubert "Unfinished" (a complete version of 1923 to replace an abridged version of 1912), and the Brahms Second. The latter can be heard at the CHARM website. He alse made the first electrical recording of a symphony: Tchaikovsky's Fourth (which, again, is available in Damian's transfer at Historic Recordings).

The L.S.Q. and the L.S.Q.

2011-10-30T20:02:00.000-04:00

Léner String Quartet

In the early 1920s English Columbia had two different string quartet ensembles that could claim the initials "L.S.Q." The first was the London String Quartet, which began recording for Columbia in 1914, then about 1920 jumped ship and moved to Vocalion. They eventually returned in 1924, but while they were away, a different "L.S.Q." came on board - the Léner String Quartet, founded in 1918 by four students at the High School of Music in Budapest: Jenö Léner, Jozsef Smilovits, Sándor Roth and Imre Hartman. At first they were heard on records only in isolated string quartet movements, usually abridged, but by 1923 they had recorded their first complete quartet, Mozart's K. 465 (a work they never re-recorded):

Mozart: Quartet No. 19 in C, K. 465 ("Dissonance")
Léner String Quartet
Recorded November 7 & 8, 1923
English Columbia L 1545 through 1548, four 78-rpm records
Mediafire link (FLAC files, 81.76 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 files, 31.38 MB)

The following year they recorded their first complete Beethoven quartet - and they would become famous for being the first group to record a complete Beethoven cycle:

Beethoven: Quartet No. 14 in C-Sharp minor, Op. 131
Léner String Quartet
Recorded February 11, 21, 22 and August 25, 1924
English Columbia L 1581 through 1585, five 78-rpm records
Mediafire link (FLAC file, 116.2 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 file, 43.77 MB)

The above two sets had the distinction, along with the Léners' recording of Haydn's Op. 76, No. 5, of being the first complete string quartets available to the American record buyer, being part of the initial release of Columbia's new "Masterworks" album series of complete works. The Beethoven was Set No. 6, the Haydn No. 7 and the Mozart No. 8. (The first five had all been symphonies.)

In 1924 the London String Quartet returned to the English Columbia fold, their initial release being this first complete recording of Haydn's "Emperor":

Haydn: Quartet in C, Op. 76, No. 3 ("Emperor")
London String Quartet
Recorded December 15 and 17, 1924
English Columbia L 1633 through 1635, three 78-rpm records
Mediafire link (FLAC files, 73.38 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 files, 25.96 MB)

By this time the London String Quartet was being led by James Levey, with founding members Thomas Petre, H. Waldo Warner and C. Warwick Evans covering the other parts.

For those interested in the London String Quartet, I highly recommend a new release on the Music & Arts label, a survey of their concerts at the Library of Congress from 1943-1951.

Some Early Orchestral Red Seals

2011-10-28T10:24:00.002-04:00

Leopold Stokowski, 1924

As I mentioned earlier, back in 2008 I posted a whole series of acoustical orchestral and chamber music recordings. Most of these were of European (chiefly British) origin, simply because that's where most of this recording activity took place. I did offer two American-made sets, however, and here they are:

Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 5 in E minor, Op. 64 - Andante and
Rimsky-Korsakov: Dance of the Tumblers (from "The Snow Maiden")
Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra conducted by Leopold Stokowski
Recorded April 20 and March 19, 1923
Victor Red Seal 6430 and 6431, two 78-rpm records
Mediafire link (FLAC files, 50.01 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 files, 18.3 MB)

This recording is complete as issued; apparently, there was no thought of recording the entire symphony (which, of course, Stokowski did several times in subsequent years). An incredible wealth of information about Stokowski's recordings can be found at Larry Huffman's amazing site, http://www.stokowski.org/.

Alfred Hertz

Wagner: Parsifal - Prelude and Good Friday Spell
San Francisco Symphony Orchestra conducted by Alfred Hertz
Recorded January 24, 26, 31 and February 2, 1925
Victor Red Seal 6498 through 6500, three 78-rpm records
Mediafire link (FLAC files, 74.17 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 files, 26.25 MB)

Alfred Hertz (1872-1942) was the San Francisco Symphony's second music director (the first was Henry Hadley), and this was the first appearance on records of that organization, whose concertmaster at the time was Louis Persinger, Yehudi Menuhin's (and later Ruggiero Ricci's) first violin teacher. Hertz himself was intimately associated with Wagner's "Parsifal," having given the first performances of the opera outside of Bayreuth with the Metropolitan Opera, New York, in 1903.

Marjorie Hayward and Una Bourne

2011-10-26T10:42:00.000-04:00

Marjorie Hayward

The British violinist Marjorie Hayward (1885-1953) and the Australian-born pianist Una Bourne (1882-1974) were both veterans of the recording studio as soloists when, in 1918, they began the partnership for which they are best remembered, with an abridged version of Beethoven's "Kreutzer" Sonata. They went on to do abridged versions of the Franck and Elgar sonatas, which can be heard at the CHARM website, and, with the coming of electrical recording, they set down Mozart's K. 378 and Grieg's Op. 45 sonatas, which Damian's 78s has available for download. And here is the Beethoven collaboration that started it all:

Beethoven: Violin Sonata No. 9 in A, Op. 47 ("Kreutzer") (abridged)
Marjorie Hayward, violin; Una Bourne, piano
Recorded February 20, 1918
HMV C 844 and C 854, two 78-rpm records
Mediafire link (FLAC file, 48.32 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 file, 17.28 MB)

Una Bourne's most substantial recording as a solo pianist is this one of Grieg's Op. 7 sonata, which appears to have been the only recording of the entire work made during the 78-rpm era, though Grieg himself had recorded two of its movements in 1903 (the best transfer of these is Ward Marston's, on his own CD label, Marston Records). It is only slightly abridged, with about a minute's worth of music cut from the finale:

Grieg: Piano Sonata in E minor, Op. 7
Una Bourne, piano
Recorded April 20, 1921
HMV C 1023 and C 1027, two 78-rpm records
Mediafire link (FLAC file, 48.24 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 file, 16.65 MB)

The Composer as Accompanist

2011-10-24T12:30:00.003-04:00

John Ireland

Back in 2008 I offered two different recordings featuring composers as piano accompanists in their chamber works. One of these was John Ireland (1879-1962), who made at least two such recordings of which I am aware. One was of his First Violin Sonata, with Frederick Grinke, for Decca in 1945. This has turned up on a Dutton CD, but I am unaware of any subsequent release of the other recording, that of the Cello Sonata with Antoni Sala, with, as a filler, a solo piano piece by Ireland, which I present here:

Ireland: Cello Sonata in G minor (1923)
Antoni Sala, cello; John Ireland, piano
Recorded October 25, 1928
and
Ireland: April (1925)
John Ireland, piano
Recorded February 18, 1929
English Columbia L 2314 through L 2317, four 78-rpm records
Mediafire link (FLAC files, 59.62 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 files, 26.73 MB)

I know very little about Antoni Sala, other than that he was Spanish and was the cellist on a fine Parlophone recording of the Arensky Piano Trio, Op. 35, with Eileen Joyce and Henri Temianka, which turned up some years ago on a Biddulph double CD set devoted to Temianka.

Walter Piston

There could hardly be imagined a more different musical idiom than that of the other composer-pianist whom I present here, Walter Piston (1894-1976), in one of his very rare appearances on records as a performer. Here he accompanies Louis Krasner in his Violin Sonata, a recording which appeared only a month before Krasner's famous recording of the Berg Violin Concerto, which Krasner commissioned:

Piston: Sonata for Violin and Piano (1939)
Louis Krasner, violin; Walter Piston, piano
Recorded November 24, 1939
Columbia Masterworks set MX-199, two 78-rpm records
Mediafire link (FLAC files, 39.01 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 files, 21.22 MB)

This recording was reviewed in the TIME magazine issue of August, 1941, where Piston is described as an "atonalist." He was hardly that! Wonder if the review had him mixed up with Berg?

Columbia had two sets of music by Piston on its catalogue during the 78-rpm era; here's the other one:

Piston: String Quartet No. 1 (1933) and
Cowell: Movement for String Quartet (Quartet No. 2, 1934)
Dorian String Quartet
Recorded September 27, 1939
Columbia Masterworks Set M-388, three 78-rpm records
Mediafire link (FLAC files, 55.52 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 files, 27.23 MB)

The cellist in the Dorian String Quartet was the 23-year-old Bernard Greenhouse; the other members were Alexander Cores and Harry Friedman, violins, and David Mankovitz, viola.

The National Gramophonic Society, Part 2

2011-10-22T18:20:00.001-04:00

Paul Juon

Here's the second of two posts to deal with the re-uploads of my National Gramophonic Society sets, featuring two electrical recordings of chamber works in which woodwinds are prominent. By far the lesser known of these works is the Chamber Symphony by Paul Juon (1872-1940). This delightful work, which despite its title is really an octet for piano, woodwinds and strings, was published as such in 1905 with a dedication to Julius Block, the agent of Edison who recorded so many Russian musicians on cylinders, including Juon himself. When I first uploaded this recording in 2007, I had done the side join in the first movement incorrectly, owing to the lack of either a score or a modern continuous-play recording. Since then I have had access to a score (which can be had here at the Internationam Music Score Library Project), and this error has now been corrected. Unfortunately the score also revealed that cuts had been made in the last two movements. Despite this, it's a fine performance, featuring Rae Robertson (one-half of Bartlett and Robertson) on piano, and Leon Goossens on oboe:

Paul Juon: Chamber Symphony in B-Flat, Op. 27
New Chamber Orchestra conducted by Charles Kreshover
Recorded December 31, 1929, by Columbia
National Gramophonic Society 144 through 146, three 78-rpm records
Mediafire link (FLAC files, 61.54 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 files, 28.53 MB)

Leon Goossens also performs on the other work presented here, that of the Mozart Quintet for Piano and Winds, which features Kathleen Long as the pianist. The ensemble is rounded out by Frederick Thurston (clarinet), John Alexandra (bassoon), and Aubrey Brain (horn):

Mozart: Quintet in E-Flat, K. 452, for piano and winds
Kathleen Long (piano) and ensemble
Recorded March 19, 1928, by Columbia
National Gramophonic Society 121 through 123, three 78-rpm records
Mediafire link (FLAC files, 45.69 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 files, 20.83 MB)

Happy Birthday, Franz Liszt!

2011-10-21T11:10:00.001-04:00

Tomorrow is the 200th anniversary of the birth of Franz Liszt (born October 22, 1811), and, to celebrate, I'm taking a little break from my reissue postings to offer something kinda fun. I must say at the outset that I cannot count myself a Liszt fan, although I do recognize his pre-eminent position as a pianist (and oh, if only he had lived a few years longer, he could have left us a recording of his playing!). But as a composer, it seems to me that he took himself too seriously about 90% of the time. Of course, most of the Romantics did this, but in Liszt's case, it usually backfired. I suspect his essential temperament was a fun-loving one - no doubt, he had fun playing the piano! - and the works of Liszt that I usually enjoy hearing are those that exhibit this, such as the Hungarian Rhapsodies and the Mephisto Waltz. I also enjoy hearing Liszt in "fun" arrangements, such as the one I offer here:

Liszt: Liebestraum No. 3 in A-Flat
and
Chopin: Nocturne in E-Flat, Op. 9, No. 2
J. H. Squire Celeste Octet
Recorded January 29, 1932
Columbia DX 362, one 78-rpm record
Mediafire link (FLAC files, 22.43 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 files, 9.24 MB)

Perhaps J. H. Squire (1880-1956) didn't intend these salon orchestra arrangements, played by an ensemble consisting of strings, piano, harmonium and, yes, celesta, to be fun, but that's how they come across nearly a century later. Notice how the two cadenzas in the "Liebestraum" are played by the pianist in the group, as if in acknowledgement of their essential un-transcribability!

A number of Edison Blue Amberol cylinders played by the Moss-Squire Celeste Orchestra, which I presume was a precursor to the Squire Celeste Octet, can be heard online at the USCB's Cylinder Digitization Project. These are fun, too.

The National Gramophonic Society, Part 1

2011-10-19T14:44:00.000-04:00

The National Gramophonic Society was founded in 1923 by Compton Mackenzie, under the aegis of his new magazine, "The Gramophone." Its aim was to promote and record complete works of chamber and instrumental music that had hitherto been neglected by the major record companies as being unprofitable.

In my heyday as a collector I had about a dozen of these sets, including the very first issue which is pictured above. Either through borrowing copies back or working from tapes I had made, I managed to upload nine such sets in 2007-08; three of these I have already posted on this blog. This is to be the first of two posts to take care of the others. Here are four acoustically-recorded sets:

Beethoven: Quartet No. 10 in E-Flat, Op. 74 ("Harp")
Spencer Dyke String Quartet
Recorded July 30, 1924, by Columbia
National Gramophonic Society A, B, and C, three 78-rpm records
Mediafire link (FLAC files, 72.2 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 files, 27.48 MB)

Schoenberg: Verklärte Nacht, Op. 4 (version for string sextet)
Spencer Dyke String Sextet
and
Schubert: Piano Trio No. 2 in E-Flat, Op. 100
Harold Craxton, Spencer Dyke and B. Patterson Parker
Recorded October 10 and December 30, 1924, and January 7, 1925, by Columbia
National Gramophonic Society H, I, K, L, M, N, O, and P, eight 78-rpm records
Mediafire link (FLAC files, 198.73 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 files, 69.9 MB)

Brahms: String Sextet No. 1 in B-Flat, Op. 18
Spencer Dyke String Sextet
Recorded May, 1925, by Parlophone
National Gramophonic Society Z, AA, BB, CC, and DD, five 78-rpm records
Mediafire link (FLAC files, 83.87 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 files, 33.06 MB)

Eugene Goossens: Two Pieces for String Quartet, Op. 15;
Orlando Gibbons: Fantasias Nos. 6 and 8;
Purcell: Four-Part Fantasia No. 4 in C minor
Music Society String Quartet
Recorded May, 1925, and February, 1926, by Parlophone
National Gramophonic Society DD, FF, and BBB, three 78-rpm records
Mediafire link (FLAC files, 43.17 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 files, 16.35 MB)

These were first recordings of all the works concerned, and in the case of the Schoenberg, probably the first recording of any of his music. It should be mentioned that the cellist in the Music Society String Quartet was none other than John Barbirolli, some of whose earliest recordings as a conductor were made for the N.G.S. and can be heard at the CHARM website.

Albert Coates' 1923 Beethoven Ninth

2011-10-17T21:10:00.003-04:00

This was one of my most popular uploads when I offered it before, back in November 2007, with over 300 hits. It's the fabled acoustical recording of the Beethoven Ninth, by that great recording pioneer, Albert Coates (1882-1953). I must say at the outset that the sound quality is not optimal - my source is a second-, possibly third-generation cassette dub sent to me by Frank Forman in 2003 (in exchange for some tapes I made for him of some of my acoustic chamber music sets - the link at the right about these is to Frank's online discography), but it's quite listenable, and gives some idea of what the recorders in 1923 were able to accomplish with an orchestra of 39 players and a mighty chorus of eight! Frank's tape had, as a filler, short pieces by Liadov and Debussy that I also transferred, as a separate upload.

Beethoven: Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125
Symphony Orchestra and Chorus conducted by Albert Coates
Recorded in October and November, 1923
HMV D 842 through 849, eight 78-rpm records
Mediafire link (FLAC files, 140.4 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 files, 69.13 MB)

Liadov: Kikimora - Orchestral Fairy Tale, Op. 63
Debussy: Golliwog's Cakewalk (from "Children's Corner")
Symphony Orchestra conducted by Albert Coates
Recorded October 28, 1921, and April 25, 1922
HMV D 620, one 78-rpm record
Mediafire link (FLAC files, 16.74 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 files, 8.24 MB)

A month after posting these, I posted the following additional early recording by Albert Coates:

Strauss: Tod und Verklärung, Op. 24
Symphony Orchestra conducted by Albert Coates
Recorded April 27 and May 11, 1923
HMV D 743 and 744, two 78-rpm records
Mediafire link (FLAC file, 49.45 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 file, 18.92 MB)

This posting represented the first in a long series of transfers of acoustically-recorded major symphonic and chamber works. I had amassed quite a collection of these - some 150 discs - by 2003, mostly through various dealers (among them Raymond Glaspole, Dave Canfield, Peter Fülöp and others), when I was forced to dispose of most of my 78 collection. Fortunately, a friend and fellow collector had the foresight to ensure that most of these very rare acoustical sets wound up in his hands, so that I was able to borrow them back for the purpose of making these transfers. Among these was another acoustically-recorded Beethoven Ninth, or at least the first two movements of it - in fact almost certainly the first recording of the work ever made:

Beethoven: Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125 - first two movements
Neues-Symphonie Orchester conducted by Bruno Seidler-Winkler
Recorded c. 1923
Deutsche Grammophon 69607 through 69609, three 78-rpm records
Mediafire link (FLAC files, 89.86 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 files, 31.04 MB)

This recording actually turned up some years ago on a Japanese Wing CD, but in a truly terrible transfer. The Scherzo (on two sides) is not complete; after the Trio is heard, only the opening (the first twelve notes) of the Scherzo "da capo" is played before cutting to the Coda. It's a relatively easy matter to manufacture a "da capo," by pasting in a copy of the first side at that point, and so I offer two different FLAC/MP3 files of the Scherzo: one "as is" and the other with a "da capo" inserted.

Finally, to return to Mr. Coates for a recording that I offered in 2009, when his birthday (April 23) was being celebrated by various RMCR denizens:

Bach (orch. Esser): Toccata in F, BWV 540
London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Albert Coates
Recorded February 18, 1932
Victor 11468, one 78-rpm record
Mediafire link (FLAC file, 23.39 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 file, 9.49 MB)

Symphonies from Sir Henry

2011-10-16T10:51:00.000-04:00

The reissues continue, with a trio of recordings by the great British conductor Sir Henry J. Wood (1869-1944). Among these are the first two complete recordings of symphonies made by Sir Henry, the Franck from 1924 and the Haydn "Surprise" from 1925. Previously, he had recorded the Schubert "Unfinished" (in 1919, re-recorded in 1923), the Beethoven "Eroica" (in 1922) and the Tchaikovsky "Pathétique" (in 1923), but these had all been abridged. The Franck and Haydn are not, but they sure are fast! The Franck takes 31 minutes, and the "Surprise" takes 18.

Franck: Symphony in D minor
New Queen's Hall Orchestra conducted by Sir Henry J. Wood
Recorded July 2, 9, and 16, 1924
Columbia Masterworks Set No. 10, four 78-rpm records
Mediafire link (FLAC files, 83.33 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 files, 34.77 MB)

Haydn: Symphony No. 94 in G, "Surprise" and
Järnefelt: Praeludium
New Queen's Hall Orchestra conducted by Sir Henry J. Wood
Recorded February 5, March 25 and 26, 1925
English Columbia L 1668 through 1670, three 78-rpm records
Mediafire link (FLAC files, 62.68 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 files, 22.79 MB)

Sir Henry had a long recording career with Columbia, spanning from 1915 to 1934, before he moved to Decca in 1935. For Decca he made recordings of Beethoven's Fifth, Vaughan Williams' London Symphony, and Elgar's Enigma Variations, and this one of Dvořák's Symphonic Variations:

Dvořák: Symphonic Variations, Op. 78 and
Handel-Wood: Sailors' Dance and Rigaudon
Queen's Hall Orchestra conducted by Sir Henry J. Wood
Recorded April 1 and 2, 1937
English Decca X 182 through 184, three 78-rpm records
Mediafire link (FLAC files, 58.16 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 files, 24.41 MB)

Coming up next: recordings by Albert Coates, including his 1923 Beethoven Ninth!

Lennox Berkeley: Divertimento

2011-10-13T21:36:00.000-04:00

Who nowadays remembers Lennox Berkeley (1903-1989)? It seems to me he is in danger of being forgotten, although there is a Society that aims to prevent this. I hope it succeeds, for he deserves better. During his lifetime his music was championed by some quite eminent musicians, among them Dennis Brain, Julian Bream and Yehudi Menuhin. Of the 20 or so works by Sir Lennox (he was knighted in 1974) that I have heard, perhaps my favorite is this charming neoclassical Divertimento, scored for a Haydn-sized orchestra, commissioned by the BBC in 1943 (the year the above photo was made) and dedicated to Nadia Boulanger; I'm especially fond of its last movement, a rondo, with its slithery main tune. This is its first recording, and perhaps the first recording of any of his works.

Berkeley: Divertimento in B-Flat, Op. 18
London Chamber Orchestra conducted by Anthony Bernard
Recorded March 25, 1948
English Decca AK 1882-83, two 78-rpm records
Mediafire link (FLAC files, 37.62 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 files, 18.1 MB)

This is another "reissue" of a recording I originally uploaded in 2007.

Happy Birthday, Ralph Vaughan Williams!

2011-10-12T22:17:00.000-04:00

Today was Ralph Vaughan Williams' birthday (born October 12, 1872), and to acknowledge this, another "reissue" of uploads that I originally made in 2008, which was a Vaughan Williams anniversary year (he died 50 years prior). This features Sir Malcolm Sargent conducting two works, the Overture to his incidental music for Aristophanes' "The Wasps," and "The Lark Ascending":

Vaughan Williams: The Wasps - Overture
Hallé Orchestra conducted by Malcolm Sargent
Recorded July 3, 1942
Columbia Masterworks 71605-D, one 78-rpm record

and

Vaughan Williams: The Lark Ascending - Romance for Violin and Orchestra
David Wise with the Liverpool Philharmonic conducted by Sir Malcolm Sargent
Recorded April 18, 1947
English Columbia DX 1386-87, two 78-rpm records

Mediafire link (FLAC files, 56.49 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 files, 24.98 MB)

Sir Malcolm was knighted in the year that the second of these two Vaughan Williams recordings was made; before that, he was billed on labels as "Dr. Malcolm Sargent," as he is in this recording of a Schubert Overture (which is not a reissue but a new upload):

Schubert: Overture in the Italian Style, in C Major, D. 597
Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Malcolm Sargent
Recorded March 21, 1944
English Columbia DX 1157, one 78-rpm record
Mediafire link (FLAC file, 18.74 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 file, 7.82 MB)

Martinů: Sinfonietta Giocosa

2011-10-11T19:58:00.000-04:00

The Autumn 2011 issue of Classical Recordings Quarterly features an excellent article (the first of two) on recordings of works by the Czech composer Bohuslav Martinů (1890-1959) made during his own lifetime. As it happens, one of these première recordings, that of the Sinfonietta Giocosa, which for me is one of Martinů's most delightful scores, is one that I had transferred and uploaded back in 2007. It features the work's dedicatee, pianist Germaine Leroux (pictured above, with the composer on the right and Leon Barzin, the conductor at the work's first performance in New York in 1942, on the left). The piece is essentially a piano concerto, one of at least nine that Martinů wrote - there are, besides the Sinfonietta Giocosa, five numbered piano concertos, two concertinos (one for left hand), and a concerto for two pianos.

Martinů: Sinfonietta Giocosa, for piano and small orchestra (1940)
Germaine Leroux, pianist, with the
Czech Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Jaroslav Krombholc
Recorded c. 1947
Supraphon G 14905-07, three 78-rpm records
Mediafire link (FLAC files, 62.88 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 files, 30.27 MB)

My transfer is derived from a cassette copy that I made from the 78s in 2003, shortly before having to dispose of all the 78s I then owned for financial reasons.

Respighi's Ancient Airs and Dances

2011-10-10T12:25:00.000-04:00

Here's another "reissue," of something I originally uploaded in 2007. This is the first recording of Respighi's Second Suite of Ancient Airs and Dances (although minus the first movement), performed by the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Vincenzo Bellezza (1888-1964). The labels credit the Royal Opera Orchestra, Covent Garden - where Bellezza certainly was active - but Philip Stuart's "LSO Discography" (which can be seen here) claims otherwise. Another oddity about the labels is that they credit two harpsichordists - Messrs. Fornarini and Coop - even though they didn't play on two of the sides, including the one pictured above!

Respighi: Ancient Airs and Dances - Suite No. 2 (movements 2-4)
London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Vincenzo Bellezza
Recorded June 20 and 24, 1930
HMV C 2345 and 2346, two 78-rpm records
Mediafire link (FLAC files, 40.27 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 files, 16.54 MB)

The Incomparable Leon Goossens

2011-10-07T23:33:00.001-04:00

I started this blog over a year ago with some oboe recordings (by Mitch Miller), so it seems fitting that I should return to posting uploads of vintage recordings by celebrating that supreme exponent of the instrument, Leon Goossens (1897-1988). I present no less than eight concertos recorded by him between 1937 and 1950, three of which I have offered before (on RMCR, in 2007 - the concertos by Albinoni, Vivaldi, and Scarlatti-Bryan). I have decided to offer these uploads in two batches, one containing Baroque oboe concertos, and the other containing 20th-century works, both original and arrangements:

Part One:
Albinoni: Concerto in D, Op. 7, No. 6
Handel: Concerto No. 1 in B-Flat
Marcello: Concerto in C minor (& Fiocco: Arioso)
Vivaldi: Concerto in D minor, Op. 8, No. 9 (& Albinoni: Allegro)
Mediafire link (FLAC files, 108.4 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 files, 46.11 MB)

Part Two:
Cimarosa-Benjamin: Concerto (& Bach: Sinfonia from "Easter Oratorio")
Eugene Goossens: Concerto in One Movement, Op. 45
Scarlatti-Bryan: Concerto No. 1 in G (& Pierné: Aubade)
Richard Strauss: Concerto for oboe and small orchestra
Mediafire link (FLAC files, 160.97 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 files, 70.48 MB)

The Cimarosa, Marcello and Strauss recordings have had quite a bit of currency over the years, the others perhaps somewhat less so. The conductors include Eugene Goossens, Leon's eldest brother (in the Handel, the earliest of these recordings), Malcolm Sargent (in the Cimarosa), Alceo Galliera (in the Strauss), and Walter Susskind (in the rest).

Eugene Goossens is also heard as a conductor on the following two recordings of Baroque arrangements, which I originally uploaded in 2007:

Bach-Goossens: Suite in G (after French Suites Nos. 3 and 5)
London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Eugene Goossens
Recorded June 25, 1931
HMV C 2273, one 78-rpm record
Mediafire link (FLAC file, 23.32 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 file, 9.58 MB)

Scarlatti-Tommasini: The Good-Humoured Ladies - Ballet Suite
London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Eugene Goossens
Recorded June 29, 1936
RCA Victor Red Seal set M-512, two 78 rpm-records
Mediafire link (FLAC file, 43.89 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 file, 23.03 MB)

Finally, one of the earliest recordings billing Leon Goossens as a soloist - again, this is a "reissue," having been originally uploaded in 2008:

Mozart: Oboe Quartet in F, K. 370
and
Bach: Sinfonia to Cantata No. 156
Leon Goossens, oboe, and the Spencer Dyke String Quartet
Recorded in May, 1925 by English Parlophone
National Gramophonic Society Q, R, S, three 10-inch 78-rpm records
Mediafire link (FLAC files, 44.53 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 files, 15.79 MB)

FLAC Update

2011-10-04T20:26:00.000-04:00

Well, I've done it - I've managed to get all my old posts updated with new links to FLAC files of my uploads. In a few cases (mostly those for which I wanted to add text or picture files to the ZIPped folders), I've re-uploaded the original MP3 files, too, and provided new links for those. In at least one case (the Khatchaturian Masquerade Suite under Arthur Fiedler) I've added a cover scan which I wasn't able to do earlier.

I still have about 50 or 60 files on my Mediafire account containing uploads that I posted to RMCR (rec.music.classical.recordings) prior to establishing this blog, and my next project will be to upgrade these to FLAC files. Stay tuned!

Columbia Masterworks Blue Label -D Series (1924-1951)

2011-09-25T16:48:00.000-04:00

This may well be my magnum opus in the field of discography. It's something I've been working on, off and on, for the past fifteen or twenty years. This is a numerical listing of all known (and a few conjectured) issues in the American Columbia 67000-D, 17000-D, 11000-D and 19000-D series, including an artist index. Much of this information has been culled from WERM, the Rigler-Deutsch index and from Columbia catalogs, and I hope it will prove useful to collectors. As with my previous discographic efforts, this is downloadable as a PDF file.

Mediafire link (PDF file, 833 KB)

I do apologize for my long absence from posting; I have had some health concerns this summer (getting old's a bitch, ain't it!?!), but I'm hanging in there, and I've also been spending a lot of my free time actually listening to other downloads that have tended to accumulate without my quite realizing it! I probably won't be doing too many new uploads in the near future, but I have started a project that will probably occupy the next few weeks - that of going back to old posts and adding FLAC files. I've already modified the first post of 2011 (the Beethoven Piano Quartet) and the last post of 2010 (the Shostakovich piano concerto, et al) to include them, and will work backwards from there, so if you want to upgrade to FLACs, keep checking those older posts. If there's any interest I might also post some examples of my program-note writing; about 10-12 years ago I was active in writing these for local concert organizations like the Georgia Sinfonia.

More Victor Numerical Set Listings

2011-05-28T18:19:00.000-04:00

As a sort of appendix to my post earlier this week of my listing of Victor Musical Masterpiece sets, I present listings of four contemporaneous classical and semi-classical series. These are:

1) The Concert Series (C-1 to DC-45), a semi-classical line featuing many Gilbert & Sullivan sets;
2) The Black Label Classics (G-2 to DG-32), begun in 1940 as a cheap classics line, but which morphed into yet another semi-classical series;
3) The "Victor Showpiece" Sets (SP-1 to SP-16), a short-lived series of two-record sets presented in colorful gatefold paper folders; and
4) The "Red Seal Deluxe" Sets (V/DV-1 to V/DV-30), classical sets pressed in red vinyl.

As with the other listings, this is downloadable as a PDF file:

Mediafire link (PDF file, 69 KB)

The First Recording of a Bach Orchestral Suite, via the Library of Congress

2011-05-25T14:13:00.000-04:00

I have only within the last 24 hours discovered the joys of the Library of Congress' "National Jukebox." Despite the rather appalling name, the "National Jukebox" is a treasure trove of early recordings, which can be streamed, but not downloaded - though the playlist feature enables one to hear the streamed recordings in any order one wishes. At present some 10,000 sides are available, most if not all of them Victor recordings from the acoustic era. I have taken advantage of the playlist feature to create a playlist containing what seems to me, as a devout Bachoholic, to be one of the most important recordings on the website - that of the Bach Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D, BWV 1068, recorded in 1917 by the Victor Concert Orchestra under Josef Pasternack (though, apparently, Rosario Bourdon actually conducted the last of the four sides). This is the first recording of a Bach orchestral work with pretentions to completeness, or at least the first Bach orchestral work recorded by an orchestra (since the famous 1915 Kreisler-Zimbalist recording of the Double Concerto, also accessible through the website, was accompanied by a string quartet). The Overture is cut to fit one side - twelve bars are cut from the end of the fast section and the final slow section isn't played - but the remainder of the work is complete, even to the repeats. A fascinating glimpse into how Bach was played a hundred years ago - when Bach was played at all! This was very unusual repertoire for the time.

Link to Library of Congress playlist

Victor Musical Masterpiece 78 Sets: A Numerical Listing

2011-05-23T14:11:00.000-04:00

I'm back, folks! I certainly didn't mean to let this much time elapse since my last posting, but I assure you I have been far from idle. I have merely been working on a companion for the Columbia numerical listing of the last post, and here it is. This is a similar listing of all Victor Musical Masterpiece sets from its inception in 1927 to its demise in 1951 (actually it was merely transferred to 45 rpm, and then to LP, but that is beyond the scope of this listing), as before downloadable as a PDF document. There are quite a few gaps in the sequence, especially in the M-900s and the DM-1400s, so anyone with information on those entries which I have had to mark "unknown" is invited to come forward. Meanwhile, here's the link to this work-in-progress:

Mediafire link (PDF file, 571 KB)

Columbia Masterworks 78 Sets: A Numerical Listing

2011-04-19T13:33:00.000-04:00

This is my first foray into discography by means of this blog. I present here a listing of all US Columbia Masterworks 78-rpm album sets known to me between 1924 (when the series began) and 1951 (when the series effectively ended with the takeover of LP), in numerical order, downloadable as a PDF document. All 1,000+ regular series sets (prefixed "M-" from 1939 on), as well as all 33 Opera sets and all 355 "X-" sets (two-record sets) are included, and for us Steinweiss fans, data on which sets are known to me to be graced with his inimitable cover designs. Individual record numbers for each set, manual and automatic sequence, are given, but not matrix numbers or recording dates, most of which can be found on the CHARM website anyway. This is intended to be a checklist printable on 65 pages of letter-size paper, not a complete discography, but I hope it will prove useful for collectors nevertheless.

Mediafire link (PDF file, 577 KB)

Weingartner in 18th Century Music

2011-04-14T21:06:00.000-04:00

The Austrian conductor Felix Weingartner (1863-1942) is best-remembered for his interpretations of 19th Century masters, especially Beethoven and Brahms (he was the first to record all nine Beethoven symphonies), but he was equally adept in earlier music. Recently, Satyr gave us Weingartner's fine version of Mozart's 39th Symphony (from a pioneering 1923 recording, one of five complete symphonies Weingartner recorded acoustically), and so I answer with three works: the famous "Toy Symphony" formerly attributed to Haydn but now thought to be by one Edmund Angerer, a brisk, no-nonsense version of Mozart's "Eine kleine Nachtmusik," and a rarely-heard set of selections from Handel's opera "Alcina." The details and links to the downloads:

Haydn [attrib.]: Toy Symphony
Symphony Orchestra conducted by Felix Weingartner
Recorded April 7, 1931
Columbia 7242-M, one 78-rpm record
Mediafire link (FLAC file, 19.71 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 file, 8.04 MB)

Mozart: Serenade in G, K. 525 ("Eine kleine Nachtmusik")
London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Felix Weingartner
Recorded February 17, 1939
Columbia Masterworks set MX-187, two 78-rpm records
Mediafire link (FLAC file, 32.37 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 file, 15.38 MB)

Handel: Alcina - Dream Music and Ballet Music
Paris Conservatory Orchestra conducted by Felix Weingartner
Recorded July 21, 1939
Columbia Masterworks set X-164, two 78-rpm records
Mediafire link (FLAC files, 34.14 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 files, 18.06 MB)

A Survey of Victor's Generic Covers, Part 2

2011-04-11T14:49:00.000-04:00

In the last post I showed examples of the initial group of generic covers used for Red Seal album sets, all of them unveiled at the time when the brand name of the label was still officially just "Victor." In the spring of 1946, "RCA" was added to the head of the brand name, making it "RCA Victor." (The last Victor 12-inch Red Seal record I have seen with a "Victor-only" label is 11-9155, "The Bells of St. Mary's" and "The Lord's Prayer," by the Victor Chorale under Robert Shaw. 11-9156 is the first record of M-1050, the Bach Brandenburg Concertos Nos. 3 and 4 by the Boston Symphony under Koussevitzky, an issue of May 1946.) Sometime thereafter, four new generic cover designs were unveiled, using the new brand name in a box, with a full-color representation of Nipper in another box to the right. Two of these were signed by Frank Decker:

The following design is unsigned, though it looks like another Frank Decker to me:

And the last of these new covers was signed "stahlhut." This is almost certainly Henry Stahlhut, who also designed covers for magazines like Gourmet and Fortune:

All of these designs, and the ones in the previous post, continued to be used by RCA Victor on 45-rpm sets and even on a few early LPs.

A Survey of Victor's Generic Covers, Part 1

2011-04-07T19:22:00.000-04:00

I've been sharing a bunch of Alec Steinweiss' Columbia cover designs lately, including generic ones, and, for a change of pace, offer the answer of Columbia's main competitor, Victor, to some of those designs. In 1943 Steinweiss unveiled an appealing generic design for back issues in the Columbia catalog to replace the drab "tombstone" cover. Victor's generic covers were equally drab in the early 40s, but that changed, probably in 1945, with the introduction of four new cover designs signed by Frank Decker. Here are two of them:

In 1946, the brand name "Victor" officially became "RCA Victor" on the labels and covers, and so the designs were modified, replacing "VICTOR Red Seal Records" with "RCA VICTOR Red Seal Records" in a box and adding a line-drawing of Nipper to the side:

As I said, there were four of these 1945 designs in all, but I do not have the other two in their original "Victor-only" form (though I know they exist, for I have owned examples in the past). I do have them as 45-rpm sets, however, with the modified form:

There were four additional generic designs a year or two later, which will be the subject of the next installment.

Incidentally, fans of Steinweiss' work will want to obtain the Taschen book, formerly priced at $500 as a limited edition, but now at Amazon for $44.09 in general release. It's well worth that, and contains over 250 of his cover designs for Columbia, Decca, London and other labels. A magnificent production indeed! The Amazon link is here.

Lucien Cailliet's Pictures

2011-04-05T21:16:00.000-04:00

Maurice Ravel's 1922 orchestration of Mussorgsky's piano suite, "Pictures at an Exhibition," has for so long been a part of the standard orchestral repertory that one is apt to forget that many other people have tried their hand at orchestrating it too. Among these were Sir Henry Wood, Leopold Stokowski, and the subject of this week's upload, Lucien Cailliet (1897-1985), French-born American composer, conductor, arranger and clarinettist. In 1919 he joined the Philadelphia Orchestra in the latter two capacities, and eventually became Eugene Ormandy's orchestrator of choice. In 1937 his version of Mussorgsky's masterpiece was unveiled and immediately elicited comparison with Ravel's, most of it negative (perhaps unsurprisingly). Nevertheless it is worth a listen. There are a few places where I think I actually prefer Cailliet's orchestration (the trombones in "Bydlo" as opposed to Ravel's tuba, for example), and all of the Promenades are there (Ravel had omitted the one before "Limoges"). Judge for yourself - here's the only known recording of this arrangement, made shortly after its première:

Mussorgsky (orch. Cailliet): Pictures at an Exhibition
Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Eugene Ormandy
Recorded October 17, 1937
Victor Musical Masterpiece set DM-442, four 78-rpm records
Mediafire link (FLAC file, 67.73 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 file, 35.28 MB)

Last summer, I uploaded another Cailliet orchestration conducted by Ormandy, of a suite from Purcell's opera "Dido and Aeneas." This MP3 file is still available, and a FLAC file has been added:

Purcell (arr. Cailliet): Dido and Aeneas - Suite
Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Eugene Ormandy
Recorded August 9, 1939
Victor Musical Masterpiece set M-647, two 78-rpm records
Mediafire link (FLAC file, 38.54 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 file, 20.53 MB)

Kempff's First "Hammerklavier"

2011-03-29T22:41:00.000-04:00

The mightiest of Beethoven's piano sonatas, the "Hammerklavier," was slow to come to records in its original form. Its first recording, in 1930, wasn't by a pianist at all, but by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra under Felix Weingartner, in Weingartner's own orchestration. Then when Artur Schnabel undertook his pioneering cycle of all the Beethoven sonatas, the "Hammerklavier" was one of the last to be released in his series, appearing in 1936 as the tenth of twelve volumes devoted to the sonatas. About the same time, this utterly different interpretation by Wilhelm Kempff (very controlled, while Schnabel's was hell-for-leather with fistfuls of wrong notes) appeared, the first of three recordings he was to make of the work:

Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 29 in B-Flat Major, Op. 106 ("Hammerklavier")
Wilhelm Kempff, piano
Recorded c. 1935-36
Brunswick-Polydor set BP-4, five 78-rpm records
Mediafire link (FLAC files, 102.02 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 files, 45.44 MB)

Jean Sibelius, when Kempff visited him in Finland, requested that he play the slow movement of the "Hammerklavier." When Kempff finished, Sibelius said, "You did not play that as a pianist but rather as a human being."

This set was one of only eight that American Brunswick presented as album sets in about 1937, in its new red-label Brunswick-Polydor series. The entire series was withdrawn after the American Record Corporation (at the time, the parent company of both Brunswick and Columbia) was sold to CBS a year later.

Steinweiss' Generic Covers

2011-03-25T15:09:00.000-04:00

Part 5 of my Steinweiss covers series is a survey of the various designs he did, or that I suspect he did, for Columbia Masterworks 78-rpm sets. From about 1940 to 1943, Masterworks sets without unique covers (and this was the vast majority of them) came in plain grey covers with the title and artist information enclosed within a box, as shown in my earlier post this month devoted to Enrique Arbos' Spanish Album. The highest-numbered sets that I have seen with this type of cover (nicknamed the "tombstone" cover in collectors' circles) are M-537 (Beethoven's String Quartet No. 12, by the Budapest Quartet) and X-234 (Ravel's Rapsodie Espagnole, Rodzinski/Cleveland), both from 1943. After that, an attractive new generic design was unveiled which, though unsigned by Steinweiss, appears to be his work (in particular, the lower-case rendering of "columbia" is a hallmark of his style). I like to call this the "polka-dot" cover, and it appeared with three background colors - black, blue and maroon:

This was used for all extant sets in the back catalog without unique cover designs, as well as a few new sets like the Barber and Haydn symphonies pictured above. The highest-numbered sets I have seen with the "polka-dot" cover are M-578 (French Arias by Martial Singher) and X-256 (Elizabethan Suite by Bartlett and Robertson).

The next generic cover design appeared in 1947, and it is the only one that's actually signed by Steinweiss. It features a Greek statue in the background, three large spots for work, artist and album details, and smaller spots showing various instruments, a singer and a conductor. This came in four background colors - red, blue, green and what was probably meant to be gold or bronze, though in practice it usually shows up as a rather icky shade of yellowish-tan. Collecting Record Covers has several examples of the blue and gold, so I present here a red cover (I don't have a green one):

Again, this was used for all extant sets in the back catalog plus a few new ones. The highest-numbered that I have seen with this design are MM-730 (Brahms' Violin Sonata No. 3, by Issac Stern) and MX-288 (Ravel's Left Hand Concerto, by Casadesus and Ormandy).

In 1948 came not one, but at least four new generic covers, keyed to various genres of music. For example, orchestral music was issued with this cover:

String and chamber music with this one:

and all other instrumental music with this type of cover:

Vocal music was issued with this type of cover:

All of these cover designs came in a variety of colors as well. I've also seen green and red for the conducting hand, and light blue for the strings. These designs were used primarily for new issues, with back issues continuing to use the Greek statue of 1947. Original Steinweiss designs became fewer as the set numbers passed c. MM-750 and MX-300. Actually, all Columbia 78 sets from this period are pretty scarce, since Columbia introduced the LP about this time and sales of 78s plummeted.

A Gallery of Steinweiss Covers, Part 4

2011-03-24T14:01:00.000-04:00

Today is Alex Steinweiss' 94th birthday! For my next installment of the Columbia Masterworks Steinweiss gallery, I present the last covers in my collection that adorn the sets with MM- prefixes (i.e., the Masterworks 78 sets of three records or more), beginning with a couple that I missed earlier. The "Robin Hood" set (MM-583) is from late 1945, and the Beethoven "Pastorale" (MM-631) numerically belongs to 1946 though it must have been issued out of sequence, as the cover bears a date of 1947. My copy of this, alas, is not in very good condition - there were some brown spots along the right side which are not part of the design! My thanks to Peter Joelson for his restoration work on this image.

The next two covers (MM-688 and MM-703, both from 1947) have appeared on this blog before, when I uploaded transfers of the recordings contained therein. But here they are in sequence, and with the left border displayed this time (which, unfortunately, display water damage caused by the Great Georgia Flood of 2009):

Finally, two from 1948. I've also seen the Mahler 5th (MM-718) with a generic cover. My guess is that Columbia rushed copies of this set to the stores for the 1947 Christmas trade before the cover shown here was ready (the generic-cover copy that I saw had Christmas 1947 greetings to the original owner written inside):

To be continued, with a survey of Steinweiss generic covers....

Walton's Viola Concerto: The First Recording

2011-03-22T21:48:00.000-04:00

William Walton's first fully mature work, his 1929 Concerto for Viola and Orchestra, was written for the dean of English viola players, Lionel Tertis, who, however, declined to play it at first (the honor for the first performance went to a young Paul Hindemith). Tertis did eventually take it up, but when in 1937 the time came for Decca to make the first recording, Tertis had retired from playing, so he suggested that Frederick Riddle (1912-1995), the principal violist of the London Symphony, be engaged for the session. Riddle's interpretation became the composer's favorite. Perhaps Riddle's background as a chamber music player - he later formed a famous string trio with Jean Pougnet and Anthony Pini that made many fine recordings - accounted for a more intimate presentation of Walton's concerto than virtuosos like Tertis or William Primrose (who also recorded the work with the composer conducting) were able to deliver.

Walton: Concerto for Viola and Orchestra
Frederick Riddle with the London Symphony conducted by William Walton
Recorded December 6, 1937
Decca Album No. 8, three 78-rpm records
Mediafire link (FLAC files, 54.91 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 files, 24.74 MB)

This set, incidentally, was one of the few English Decca recordings to be issued by American Decca as part of its domestic album series, before that series was given over largely to popular material.

Early Schubert by the Guilet Quartet

2011-03-16T14:42:00.001-04:00

Back in November, Squirrel's Nest gave us a transfer of the first recording of Bartók's Fourth String Quartet played by the Guilet String Quartet for a Concert Hall limited edition release of 1946. A year later, the same ensemble and label, in a general release this time, offered the early Schubert quartet which I present here, a recording mentioned in TIME Magazine's May 26, 1947 issue. The article mentions Schubert's being 20 years old when he wrote it, but it's now believed he was actually 16, and that this is the last of five quartets Schubert wrote in 1813. Whatever its genesis, it's a charming work well played by the Guilet ensemble:

Schubert: String Quartet in E-Flat, D. 87 (Op. 125, No. 1)
The Guilet String Quartet
Recorded c. 1946-47
Concert Hall Society Release AE, three vinyl 78-rpm records
Mediafire link (FLAC files, 45.81 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 files, 29.52 MB)

A Gallery of Steinweiss Covers, Part 3

2011-03-13T15:11:00.000-04:00

The Steinweiss gallery continues with seven Columbia Masterworks covers from early 1947. Here are the first two, MM-644 (a ten-inch set) and MM-650:

The next two are MM-652 and MM-661. Steinweiss often used a hammer-and-sickle motif on covers featuring works by Soviet composers - remember, the USSR were still officialy our friends in 1947:

Someone at Columbia had a wicked sense of humor, reserving for the "Messiah" set the fatal number of MM-666! This set is in two volumes, with the same cover design used for both:

To continue, with MM-669 and MM-671:

Immediately following this was perhaps the cleverest Steinweiss cover of all, that for MM-672, the Delius Violin Concerto. It's just been posted by Collecting Record Covers - don't miss it!

To be continued...

Columbia Spanish Album (1930)

2011-03-09T14:06:00.001-05:00

This week I present a program of Spanish music mostly conducted by the man who was considered in the first half of the 20th century to be the dean of Spanish conductors, Enrique Fernández Arbós (1863-1939). Here he leads the Madrid Symphony Orchestra in works by Isaac Albéniz, Tomás Bretón and Joaquin Turina, in a set that was a mainstay in the US Columbia catalogue for 20 years: mentioned in a TIME magazine article of Nov. 10, 1930, the set was still listed in the 1949 Columbia Catalog. My copy dates from about halfway between this timespan; the "tombstone" cover pictured above was used by Columbia from c. 1940-43 for most of its Masterworks albums. By this time, the album was designated "Vol. 1" since a Vol. 2, with works by Granados, Bretón, Turina, and Arbós himself, had appeared in 1938.

Arbós (pictured above in 1894) shares the limelight in this album with one other conductor, Maurice Bastin (misspelled "Bustin" on the record labels), about whom I can find nothing on the Internet. He leads the Orchestra of the Théatre Monnaie, Brussels, in two dances from De Falla's "La Vida Breve," the second one of which also features a wordless chorus.

Columbia Spanish Album, Vol. 1 - featuring:

De Falla: La Vida Breve - Two Dances
Brussels Monnaie Theatre Orchestra under Maurice Bastin

Bretón: En la Alhambra and Polo Gitano
Albeniz: Intermezzo from "Pepita Jiménez" and Navarra
Turina: Danzas Fantásticas, Nos. 2 and 3
Madrid Symphony Orchestra conducted by Enrique Fernández Arbós

Recorded c. 1928-29
Columbia Masterworks Set M-146, five 78-rpm records
Mediafire link (FLAC files, 95.8 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 files, 42.39 MB)

This isn't the first time that Señor Arbós has had to share the conducting credits in one of my uploads. Back in 2007, I uploaded to RMCR a recording of Bach's Orchestral Suite No. 3 conducted by Désiré Defauw, which had as a filler a Corelli Sarabande conducted by Arbós. This is still available, as are new FLAC files:

Bach: Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D Major
Brussels Royal Conservatory Orchestra conducted by Désiré Defauw
Recorded March 27-29, 1929
and
Corelli (arr. Arbós): Sarabande (from Sonata in D minor, Op. 5, No. 7)
Madrid Symphony Orchestra conducted by Enrique Fernández Arbós
Recorded April 6, 1929

English Columbia 9916 through 9918, three 78-rpm records
Mediafire link (FLAC files, 66.16 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 files, 25.76 MB)

A Gallery of Steinweiss Covers, Part 2

2011-03-07T14:20:00.000-05:00

For my next installment of Columbia Masterworks album covers by Steinweiss, I present six covers from late 1945-early 1946. Here are the first two, MM-589 and MM-591:

This cover for the Ormandy Beethoven Ninth (MM-591) is one of two unique Steinweiss designs for the same set. The other, which I possessed many years ago but no longer do, showed four hands - one white, one black, one red and one yellow - coming from each side of the cover at right angles to touch a globe in the center, all on a light blue background. This graphic illustration of "alle Menschen werden Brüder" must have been controversial at the time, and may have been replaced by the above, more innocuous cover; however, I have no way of knowing which design actually came first. To continue with two more covers (MM-596 and MM-604):

MM-604, incidentally, was Issac Stern's debut recording. To continue, with MM-608 and MM-570:

Though the Ormandy "New World" with its album number of MM-570 would appear to be out of sequence here, it actually was issued after the Franck Symphony, whose individual record numbers are 12312-D through 12317-D, while the Dvorak's are 12328-D through 12332-D.

To be continued....

Mogens Wöldike's Haydn

2011-03-02T14:45:00.000-05:00

This week I present what I believe to be the first recording of a Haydn symphony by the great Danish conductor Mogens Wöldike (1897-1988). His stereo Vanguard recordings of Haydn symphonies with the Vienna State Opera Orchestra became famous, and rightfully so, but I don't think this particular symphony - No. 91 in E-Flat, one of three written in 1788 for the Count d'Ogny - was among that Vanguard series.

Haydn: Symphony No. 91 in E-Flat Major and
Haydn: Twelve German Dances (1792) - Nos. 1 to 6
Danish State Broadcasting Chamber Orchestra conducted by Mogens Wöldike
Recorded c. 1949
HMV Z 7016 through 7018, three 78-rpm records
Mediafire link (FLAC files, 63.01 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 files, 27.34 MB)

A Gallery of Steinweiss Covers, Part 1

2011-02-26T13:18:00.000-05:00

No links to sound files in this post - sorry! In my last post I stated my intention to devote an entire entry to those wonderful Alex Steinweiss covers for Columbia Masterworks 78 sets. Since writing that, I have discovered a marvelous blog, Collecting Record Covers, which is in the process of systematiclly putting up scans of all the Steinweiss covers, classical and popular, that the blogger, who specializes in collecting record covers, owns. And this blogger owns a lot of them - far more than I! So, in these posts I will merely fill in the gaps that I perceive, all scanned from albums in my own possession.

Steinweiss, as many of you may know, was the art director at Columbia from 1939 through the 40s, and in this capacity designed over 300 covers for the Masterworks series alone (along with quite a few for the Popular and Children's series). His first Masterworks cover appears to be that for Set M-415, "Music of Victor Herbert" conducted by Kostelanetz, which appeared in 1940 (this is pictured at the above-mentioned blog, in a far better scan than I could manage). There were, of course, earlier-numbered sets for which his cover designs exist, but they seem to have all been reissues of sets that had previously appeared with plain generic covers. Here are two of those:

The Mahler was originally released in 1937, the Fauré early in 1939. Steinweiss's designs date from c. 1943-44.

In the early years of his work for Columbia, Steinweiss appears to have focused on designing covers for the Popular sets; relatively few of the Masterworks sets numbered in the M-400's (roughly, 1940 to 1942) have his designs. By the time the series hit M-500, however, a majority of the Masterworks sets were carrying his designs, and, from roughly M-550 to MM-700 (1945-47), almost all of them did. Here are a couple from late 1942:

This cover for the 10-inch set of Schumann "Frauenliebe und Leben" isn't signed by Steinweiss, and therefore may not be his, but the Mendelssohn "Scotch" Symphony definitely is. Both date from 1943:

And here are two from 1945 (the Lily Pons set is another 10-inch set):

To be continued....

Two More Symphonies from Philadelphia

2011-02-21T14:51:00.000-05:00

Back in October, I posted two symphonies played by the Philadelphia Orchestra under its longtime music director, Eugene Ormandy, from their earliest recording period with RCA Victor (and I have now added FLAC files at that post, here). Today, I present the first recordings made by the same forces after jumping ship from RCA Victor to Columbia during the Petrillo recording ban of 1942-44. Here are the "Fabulous Philadelphians" under Eugene Ormandy in two standards of the orchestral repertoire, Beethoven's 7th and Brahms's 4th. These are fine performances that can be enjoyed on their own merits today, but they faced stiff competition in the Victor catalogues at the time: Toscanini/New York in the Beethoven and Koussevitzky/Boston in the Brahms. One thing the competition didn't have: those marvelous Steinweiss covers! (One of these days, I'm going to do an upload of nothing but Steinweiss' Columbia covers - I have about 40 of these altogether.)

Beethoven: Symphony No. 7 in A Major, Op. 92
Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Eugene Ormandy
Recorded November 19, 1944
Columbia Masterworks Set MM-557, five 78-rpm records
Mediafire link (FLAC files, 82.83 MB)

Mediafire link (MP3 files, 40.16 MB)

Brahms: Symphony No. 4 in E minor, Op. 98

Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Eugene Ormandy

Recorded November 19, 1944

Columbia Masterworks Set MM-567, five 78-rpm records

Mediafire link (FLAC files, 93.91 MB)

Mediafire link (MP3 files, 44.39 MB)

The First Mrs. Casals?

2011-02-17T15:02:00.000-05:00

The Portugese cellist Guilhermina Augusta Xavier de Medim Suggia Carteano Mena (1885-1950), or, to give the name by which she is generally remembered, Guilhermina Suggia, was generally believed to be the first wife of Pablo Casals, although there is no evidence that they were actually married. Certainly she was his student and, from 1906 to 1912, his lover, and she even billed herself as "Mme. P. Casals-Suggia" for a time. After they separated, Suggia retained her admiration for Casals. In 1927, she married Jose Mena, an X-ray specialist. Upon her death, her Stradivarius cello was bequeathed to the Royal Academy of Music in Britain, to be sold to fund a scholarship for young cellists.

Suggia made a handful of recordings, including two concertos that Casals never recorded - the Lalo D minor, and this one of the Haydn D major (which, incidentally, was one of John Barbirolli's first conducting assignments for HMV):

Haydn: Concerto in D, for cello and orchestra
Guilhermina Suggia, with orchestra conducted by John Barbirolli
Recorded July 12-13, 1928
HMV D 1518 through 1520, three 78-rpm records
Mediafire link (FLAC files, 65.57 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 files, 25.92 MB)

Through Deems' Looking Glass

2011-02-13T18:10:00.000-05:00

If people today remember Deems Taylor (1885-1966) at all, it is as the master of ceremonies for the groundbreaking Disney motion picture "Fantasia" (1940), a role parodied by Elmer Fudd in the Warner Brothers cartoon "A Corny Concerto" (pictured above). Here is what he really looked like (pictured in 1930 with his four-year-old daughter, Joan Kennedy Taylor, while working on his opera "Peter Ibbeston"):

Even in his lifetime, Deems Taylor's work as an advocate for classical music in various roles (broadcaster, journalist) overshadowed his composing. He served as intermission commentator for the New York Philharmonic radio broadcasts, was music critic for the New York World, and was a best-selling author - "Of Men and Music" and "The Well-Tempered Listener" are written versions of his radio talks and remain witty and entertaining today. Yet his work as a composer is not without merit. Judge for yourself: I present the first recording of his Suite, "Through the Looking Glass," based, of course, on Lewis Carroll's immortal "Alice" books. This delightful work was once quite popular, but has disappeared from the repertory; there is no recording currently available on CD, which is a great pity. The second movement in particular ("Jabberwocky") is as fine a piece of tone-painting as I know.

Deems Taylor: Through the Looking Glass - Suite, Op. 12
Columbia Broadcasting Symphony conducted by Howard Barlow
Recorded November 9, 1938, under the supervision of the composer
Columbia Masterworks Set MM-350, four 78-rpm records
Mediafire link (FLAC files, 67.58 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 files, 35.68 MB)

This was the first recording by Howard Barlow and the Columbia Broadcasting Symphony; there would be quite a few more over the next two years before Columbia signed up major orchestras like the New York Philharmonic, the Cleveland Orchestra and the Chicago Symphony. Among these was the recording of the Vaughan Williams English Folk Song Suite which I uploaded last October. This is still available at the previous post here, but now a FLAC file is available as well:

Mediafire link (FLAC file, 29.41 MB)

Robin Hood on Young Peoples Records

2011-02-10T16:33:00.000-05:00

Well, this is a little bit of a change of pace. I present today a pair of records that I had and loved as a kid, Young Peoples Records' 1950 presentation of the Robin Hood story. Admittedly, the tale is a bit sugar-coated in this version, with the Sheriff of Nottingham presented as a cowardly buffoon (one can hardly imagine the real Sheriff submitting as meekly to his eventual fate as this one does) - but how well-characterized he is, by the Metropolitan Opera tenor George Rasely (1889-1965). And how wonderful are the tunes! I really repsonded, as a youngster (and still do), to the maddeningly memorable, ersatz-Elizabethan songs, and the Sportsman's Song on side 3 owes quite a bit to Gilbert & Sullivan with its choral repetitions of the soloist's words. The music was written by Herbert Haufrecht (1909-1998), about whom I can find out little other than that contained in his New York Times obituary here. The narration is by Alexander Scourby (1913-1985), best-known as the first person to record the entire Bible, on talking books for the blind in the early 1940s - click here to see the American Federation of the Blind's page about Scourby. And the script and lyrics are by Raymond Abrashkin (1911-1960), a frequent collaborator on Young Peoples Records, as was the conductor, Max Goberman.

Abrashkin-Haufrecht: Robin Hood
Soloists, chorus and orchestra conducted by Max Goberman
Recorded c. 1950
Young Peoples Records 1010-11, two 10-inch vinyl 78-rpm records
Mediafire link (FLAC file, 37.75 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 file, 20.89 MB)

As I said, I had these records as a child, but I re-acquired the set about five years ago from an online dealer, and therefore obtained what I didn't have previously, namely, the original double sleeve (the front of which is pictured above). The lyrics and text of the story are reproduced inside, and they are provided as JPG files with this download.

I had several dozen Young Peoples Records (and records on its affiliated label, Children's Record Guild), which, even in the early 1970s, were still available as 78s in specialized outlets. Therefore I was fascinated by David Bonner's book about them which appeared in 2008. (David's blog, named after his book, "Revolutionizing Children's Records," is among my blog links at right. His first post of 2009 contains a bit written by yours truly.) In the wake of the book's appearance, I transferred four Young Peoples Records on classical music subjects, all dating from the late 1940s, and posted them to the RMCR newsgroup. These are still available, along with a new FLAC version; here are the details:

The Wonderful Violin (script and narration by Douglas Moore)
Mischa Mischakoff, violin
Young Peoples Records 311, one 10-inch vinyl 78-rpm record

Said the Piano to the Harpsichord (script by Douglas Moore)
David Allen, Gilbert Mack, Sylvia Marlowe
Young Peoples Records 411, one 10-inch vinyl 78-rpm record

Round and Round - Fun and Facts on the Fugue
David Allen, Gene Lowell Chorus, Horace Grenell (piano)
Young Peoples Records 431, one 10-inch vinyl 78-rpm record

Weber: Rondo for Bassoon and Orchestra
Eli Carmen (bassoon) with orchestra conducted by Max Goberman
Young Peoples Records 1009, one 10-inch vinyl 78-rpm record

All four records in one ZIP file with JPGs of the covers.
Mediafire link (FLAC files, 63.66 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 files, 31.51 MB)

At the same time I uploaded a ridiculously abridged recording of Prokofiev's "Peter and the Wolf," from a Cricket 78 that has been in my possession since I was seven years old (and, I'm afraid, sounds like it!):

Prokofiev: Peter and the Wolf (abridged)
Reginald Carol (narrator), with orchestra
Cricket C-11, one 7-inch vinyl 78-rpm record
Mediafire link (FLAC file, 15.36 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 file, 6.39 MB)

Denis Matthews in Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven

2011-02-04T18:39:00.000-05:00

The British pianist and musicologist Denis Matthews (1919-1988) was most closely associated with the music of the great Viennese Classical masters, especially Mozart and Beethoven. Perhaps his most famous recording is that of the Beethoven Horn Sonata, made in 1944 with Dennis Brain, both Den(n)ises being in R.A.F. uniform at the session; this has been reissued on a Testament CD along with an equally fine Beethoven Clarinet Trio featuring Matthews, Reginald Kell and Anthony Pini. But I present here a trio of single 78-rpm records, each featuring a solo piano work by a member of the First Viennese School:

Haydn: Sonata in E, Hob.XVI:31
Recorded April 25, 1949
English Columbia DX 1655, one 78-rpm record

Mozart: Fantasia and Fugue in C, K. 394
Recorded September 16, 1942
English Columbia DX 1095, one 78-rpm record

Beethoven: Rondo in G, Op. 51, No. 2
Recorded April 25, 1949
English Columbia DX 1595, one 78-rpm record

All played by Denis Matthews, pianist
Mediafire link (FLAC files, 65.28 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 files, 28.78 MB)

Denis Matthews, along with Myra Hess, Louis Kentner and Frank Merrick, made pioneering recordings of the piano music of John Field. Last summer, just before starting this blog, I transferred his record of two John Field nocturnes; this is still available, and I have just added FLAC files as well:

John Field: Nocturne in E minor and "Midi" Rondo in E
Denis Matthews, pianist
Recorded June 22, 1945
Columbia 72525-D, one 78-rpm record
Mediafire link (FLAC files, 20.18 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 files, 8.23 MB)

At the same time I made available a "John Field Suite" orchestrated by Sir Hamilton Harty, one of whose movements is the same "Midi" Rondo that Matthews recorded. This is also still available, as are new FLAC files:

Harty: A John Field Suite and
Elgar: Serious Doll (from "Nursery Suite")
Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Malcolm Sargent
Recorded March 15 and May 7, 1943
English Columbia DX 1118-20, three 78-rpm records
Mediafire link (FLAC files, 54.25 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 files, 22.89 MB)

The First One-To-A-Part Brandenburg

2011-01-31T12:51:00.000-05:00

This week I present something quite special: it's the earliest recording known to me of any of Bach's Brandenburg Concertos where each part is taken by a single player. This is the norm nowadays, especially in Concertos Nos. 3 and 6, but until about the 1960s it was quite rare (more often, they were played with full symphonic-sized string sections!). The players are Reinhard Wolf and Kurt Oberländer, violas; Paul and Sylvia Grümmer, viole da gamba; Wolfram Kleber, cello; Hermann Menzel, double bass; and Eta Harich-Schneider, harpsichord. They are billed collectively as "Soloists of the Berlin Philharmonic" on the label, pictured above, and are conducted by Alois Melichar (1896-1976).

Bach: Brandenburg Concerto No. 6 in B-Flat, BWV 1051
Soloists of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Alois Melichar
Recorded c. 1933
Polydor 15066-67, two 78-rpm records
Mediafire link (FLAC files, 45.76 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 files, 17.77 MB)

My thanks go to Tully Potter for providing the names of the individual players. Mr. Potter's name is well-known to those of us who collect historical string recordings on CD, as he has contributed many program notes for these; and he has lately published a wonderful biography of Adolf Busch which anyone interested in great music-making in the first half of the 20th century should check out. Busch was responsible, incidentally, for the second-ever one-to-a-part Brandenburg - his splendid version of No. 3, made two years after this Melichar No. 6 recording, which is readily available on CD, from EMI, Pearl and other labels.

The Budapest Quartet Play Dvořák

2011-01-27T17:50:00.000-05:00

A string quartet with a Hungarian name, consisting of four Russians playing the music of a Czech composed in America - what could be more international than that? Here is the great Budapest String Quartet with its classic lineup of Joseph Roisman and Alexander Schneider (violins), Boris Kroyt (viola) and Mischa Schneider (cello), pictured above in that order in 1940. Here they play Dvořák's "American" Quartet in a 1940 recording, one of their last for RCA Victor before they jumped ship and moved to Columbia where they remained for the rest of their career (until 1967; in all fairness, Columbia promoted the ensemble far more extensively than RCA ever did). This was once available on a Biddulph CD but this is now long out-of-print. Here's a nice Frank Decker cover from my copy of the 78 set, one of the most attractive of the generic designs RCA used for its album covers in the late 1940s:

Dvořák: Quartet No. 12 (old No. 6) in F, Op. 96 ("American")
Budapest String Quartet
Recorded February 2, 1940
RCA Victor set DM-681, three 78-rpm records
Mediafire link (FLAC files, 58.47 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 files, 29.45 MB)

Back in 2008, I transferred another great Dvořák recording by the Budapest Quartet with assisting artists, of the String Sextet; this is still available, and I have just made new FLAC files of this recording as well:

Dvořák: Sextet in A, Op. 48
Budapest String Quartet with Watson Forbes (viola) and John Moore (cello)
Recorded May 31, 1938
Victor Musical Masterpiece set M-661, four 78-rpm records
Mediafire link (FLAC files, 70.58 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 files, 33.32 MB)

Happy 100th, Lady Barbirolli!

2011-01-21T12:49:00.000-05:00

Monday will mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of Evelyn Rothwell, latterly known as Lady Barbirolli (1911-2008), oboist (a student of Leon Goossens, with whom she shared a wonderfully expressive way of playing the instrument) and the wife of conductor Sir John Barbirolli. They are both pictured above, in a photograph accompanying the Daily Telegraph's obituary of her, which can be read here; she died only three years ago, one day after her 97th birthday. To celebrate her birthday, I present the first two recordings she made in collaboration with her husband, both oboe concertos arranged by him from works in other media by Corelli and Pergolesi. (Actually, all but one of the movements of the Pergolesi arrangement are now thought to be by other composers.) Here are the details:

Corelli (arr. Barbirolli): Concerto in F for oboe and strings
Recorded June 7, 1946
HMV C 3540, one 78-rpm record

Pergolesi (arr. Barbirolli): Concerto in C minor for oboe and strings
Recorded March 25, 1948
HMV C 3731, one 78-rpm record

Both by Evelyn Rothwell with the Hallé Orchestra conducted by John Barbirolli
Mediafire link (FLAC files, 41.96 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 files, 17.78 MB)

The sources for both works are spelled out in text files accompanying the recordings.

The Barbirollis' third recorded collaboration, a 2-disc set of the Mozart Oboe Concerto from December, 1948, can be heard at the CHARM website.

Schubert as Finished by Ernst Křenek

2011-01-17T21:10:00.000-05:00

This week I present one of Schubert's finest unfinished works, the Piano Sonata in C major, D. 840. He left only the first two movements completed, with two others in fragmentary form. Most pianists are content to play just the two completed movements, but not Eduard Erdmann - some of whose recordings Satyr has been giving us lately. In 1921, Erdmann asked Ernst Křenek (1900-1991) to complete the sonata for him. Křenek (pictured above as a young man) obliged, and his version was published in 1923. It's a fine one which is all but forgotten today, and it appears to have been recorded only twice. In the 1950s it was included as part of Friedrich Wührer's traversal of Schubert's piano sonatas in three Vox Boxes, but before that it had been recorded by Ray Lev for the Concert Hall Society in its subscription series. It is this version which I present here:

Schubert-Krenek: Piano Sonata in C major, D. 840 and
Schubert: Allegretto in C minor, D. 915
Ray Lev, piano
Recorded c. 1947
Concert Hall Society set B-3, four red vinyl 78-rpm records
Mediafire link (FLAC files, 53.12 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 files, 34.24 MB)

Ray Lev (1912-1968) was an unfortunate figure among American pianists; in 1950 she was identified as a Communist sympathizer by the "Red Channels" report naming 151 alleged Communists in the entertainment industry. This effectively ended her career and a comment on one blog that I've seen actually speculates that she committed suicide (she died on my fifth birthday, May 20, 1968) - see here. The excellent Wikipedia article about her, written by my friend and fellow record collector David Hoehl, can be found here. Her recording of the Schubert C Major Sonata is excellent but may not be to all tastes; it's considerably more brisk than Wührer's or any others that I've heard (Kempff, Richter).

The Witeks' Bach Double

2011-01-11T18:13:00.000-05:00

Today I present an early recording of the Bach Double Concerto by a husband-and-wife team that I can find very little information about, Anton Witek and Alma Rosengren-Witek. He was principal violinist of the Boston Symphony from 1910 to 1918, and most of what I can find out about him online is because of this, since http://www.stokowski.org/ has a page devoted to principal players of the Boston Symphony with a paragraph of information about him here (you'll need to scroll down the page to find it, and it's a big page!). From an article in the New York Times dated May 8, 1926, a preview of which is available here, we learn that Alma Rosengren of Lindsborg, Kansas, had been his pupil before marrying him. If anyone out there has any further information about these two, I'd love to hear it! Meanwhile, enjoy their forthright performance of the Bach Double Concerto, obviously made by Columbia to replace their 1924 acoustic recording by Arthur Catterall and John S. Bridge (with Hamilton Harty conducting) which was deleted at the same time this one was issued. (This Catterall-Bridge recording can be heard at the CHARM website.)

Bach: Concerto in D minor, for two violins and strings, BWV 1043
Alma Rosengren-Witek and Anton Witek, violins, with string orchestra
Recorded in July, 1928
English Columbia 9681 and 9682, two 78-rpm records
Mediafire link for FLAC files (41.91 MB)
Mediafire link for MP3 files (16.67 MB)

Edwin Fischer's Chamber Orchestra

2011-01-06T17:53:00.000-05:00

The piano playing of Edwin Fischer (1886-1960) has been widely documented in CD reissues, which is only right, considering that he was one of the greatest pianists of the 20th century. (Alfred Brendel, who celebrated his 80th birthday this week, was one of his students.) Less well known, however, is his work as a conductor. He left a number of recordings of Bach and Mozart concerti, on which he conducted his own chamber orchestra from the piano, and these have been reissued widely. But he also left a few recordings of purely orchestral works, including this first recording of Mozart's Symphony No. 33 in B-Flat, K. 319:

Mozart: Symphony No. 33 in B-Flat, K. 319 and
Bach: Suite No. 3 in D - Air
Edwin Fischer's Chamber Orchestra
Recorded October 13, 1936
Victor Musical Masterpiece Set DM-479, three 78-rpm records

and, in the same package:

Bach: Ricercar a 6 from "The Musical Offering" (arr. Fischer)
Edwin Fischer's Chamber Orchestra
Recorded January 5, 1933 (78 years ago yesterday)
Victor 8660, one 78-rpm record

With this post I am now offering a choice between FLAC or MP3 file formats. Here are the links for this Fischer Chamber Orchestra package:

Mediafire link (FLAC files, 79.58 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 files, 36.14 MB)

Interestingly enough, both orchestral sessions outlined above also were devoted to works for piano and orchestra: the Mozart symphony session in 1936 also produced a wonderful recording of Mozart's Rondo for piano and orchestra in D, K. 382, and the major work recorded at the 1933 session that produced the Bach Ricercar was the Bach D minor clavier concerto.

Beethoven: Piano Quartet

2011-01-02T06:45:00.000-05:00

I realize that I have been neglecting chamber music lately, so for my first post of the new year I offer this recording of Beethoven's Piano Quartet in E-Flat, Op. 16 (the one that's arranged from a Quintet for piano and woodwinds). It features the French pianist E. Robert Schmitz (1889-1949), better known as a Debussy specialist, with Feri Roth, Ferenc Molnar and Janos Scholz of the Roth String Quartet. This was from the group's pre-1940 lineup; about that time, Roth reorganized the ensemble with three completely different players. Both groups recorded extensively for Columbia from about 1934-42 and their discography includes works by Dohnányi, Roy Harris, and Roussel in additional to more standard Classical repertoire. Six works played by them are available on the CHARM website; if you haven't explored this site's available sound files, you really owe it to yourself to do so - only, do so when you have plenty of time to spare! Among the files there is the filler to this set, a Haydn minuet (from Op. 76, No. 5), which I didn't include in this download since my copy has a fairly noticeable lamination crack that would require a lot of work to tame. Just search on "LX610" (the British issue of this filler) in the "Free text search" and it should come up. Anyway, here are the details for my Beethoven download:

Beethoven: Piano Quartet in E-Flat, Op. 16
E. Robert Schmitz (piano) with members of the Roth String Quartet
Recorded May 20, 1938
Columbia Masterworks Set 348, four 78-rpm records
Mediafire link (FLAC files, 55.69 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 files, 23.87 MB)

Shostakovich: First Piano Concerto

2010-12-28T22:28:00.000-05:00

Here is the first recording of Shostakovich's First Piano Concerto, for piano, trumpet and strings. It's played with panache by the Australian pianist Eileen Joyce (1908-1991), accompanied by the Hallé Orchestra (with principal trumpeter Arthur Lockwood) under the tragically short-lived Leslie Heward (1897-1943). This recording was actually presented about a month ago by Tin Ear at The Music Parlour, as part of a series of Leslie Heward recordings, but that derived from a 1985 LP transfer, whereas mine is from the actual 78s (American pressings of British matrices), so I hope Tin Ear will forgive my encroachment upon his territory. Besides, with my transfer you also get the filler side, a solo piano recording by Eileen Joyce of two Scriabin preludes. And it gives me an excuse to present another Steinweiss cover:

This is the third copy of MM-527 that I have owned; the first I acquired on a hot summer day in 1976, when I was thirteen. I was strolling the streets of downtown Decatur, Ga., probably going from the library to catch the bus home, when I spied a new used-bookshop called Cantrell's Books and Things at 112 E. Ponce de Leon Avenue (now the site of a folk art gallery intriguingly called "Wild Oats and Billy Goats"). Going in, I found that among the "things" were one wall lined with 78-rpm classical sets going for 50 cents per disc. I had about four and a half dollars on me, so I bought as much as I could afford, namely, two sets: one was Beethoven's Op. 132 quartet played by the Budapest Quartet (Columbia MM-545) and the other was this Shostakovich piano concerto recording. I had recently discovered Shostakovich and knew several of the symphonies but none of the concertos. I loved Op. 35 on first hearing; it is still one of my favorite Shostakovich works, and this is still my favorite recording of it.

Shostakovich: Piano Concerto No. 1 in C minor, Op. 35 (+ 2 Scriabin Preludes)
Eileen Joyce, piano; Arthur Lockwood, trumpet;
Hallé Orchestra conducted by Leslie Heward
Recorded October 24, 1941
Columbia Masterworks MM-527, three 78-rpm records
Mediafire link (FLAC files, 56.81 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 files, 28.63 MB)

Another record by Miss Joyce is this one of two Beethoven bagatelles, including the ever-popular "Für Elise":

Beethoven: Bagatelle in C, Op. 33, No. 2 and "Für Elise"
Eileen Joyce, piano
Recorded May, 1940
English Columbia DX 974, one 78-rpm record
Mediafire link (FLAC files, 15.32 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 files, 7.2 MB)

And from Leslie Heward, two recordings that I uploaded previously, of Haydn and Mozart, which are still available:

Haydn: Symphony No. 103 in E-Flat ("Drum Roll")
Mozart: Adagio and Fugue in C minor, K. 546
Hallé Orchestra conducted by Leslie Heward
Recorded September 29 and 25, 1941
Columbia Masterworks MM-547, three 78-rpm records
English Columbia DX 1056, one 78-rpm record
Mediafire link (FLAC files, 82.75 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 files, 34.94 MB)

Handel Organ Concertos

2010-12-19T13:18:00.000-05:00

This week I present several recordings of Handel organ concertos by two British organists that, decidedly, represent a bygone style of playing this music! Featured first is George Dorrington Cunningham (1878-1948), who went by the rather unfortunate initials "G. D." (I wonder if they had the same connotations in those days?), and who was appointed Birmingham City Organist in 1924. E. Power Biggs was one of his students. His recordings of two Handel concerti, with George Weldon and the City of Birmingham Orchestra, were made late in his life, and exhibit a considerably beefier style of Handel playing than we are accustomed to today, with a big organ sound and a full symphonic-sized string orchestra accompaniment:

Handel: Organ Concerto No. 2 in B-Flat, Op. 4, No. 2 and

Handel: Organ Concerto No. 4 in F, Op. 4, No. 4

G. D. Cunningham (organ) and the

City of Birmingham Orchestra conducted by George Weldon

Recorded June 4, 1945

English Columbia DX 1358 through 1360, three 78-rpm records

Mediafire link (FLAC files, 59.19 MB)

Mediafire link (MP3 files, 25.99 MB)

If the Cunningham performances seem oversized, they're positively sedate compared to what follows. Cunningham's student, and successor as Birmingham City Organist, was George Thalben-Ball (1896-1987), who here turns in a performance of Handel's Organ Concerto in B-Flat, Op. 7, No. 3, as arranged and orchestrated by Sir Henry J. Wood. Thalben-Ball's playing is flamboyant, to say the least, and the Wood orchestration, for full symphony orchestra with brass and percussion, is certainly anachronistic but it's great fun! Handel's original ordering of the movements is also altered, and this perfomance interpolates not only the Minuet from "Berenice" but also a big cadenza by Thalben-Ball that takes up most of the last side.

Handel: Organ Concerto No. 9 in B-Flat, Op. 7, No. 3 (arr. Henry J. Wood) and

Arne: Organ Concerto No. 6 in B-Flat - Allegro moderato

George Thalben-Ball (organ) and the

Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Walter Susskind

Recorded June 4, Sept. 23, and Oct. 11, 1948

HMV C 3814 through 3816, three 78-rpm records

Mediafire link (FLAC files, 59.9 MB)

Mediafire link (MP3 files, 27.31 MB)

Sir Henry Wood, of course, was a great conductor who left a fair number of recordings himself (though his recorded legacy hardly does him justice), and among these were several featuring Baroque music. One of the very first uploads I ever offered, way back in the spring of 2007, was one of him conducting two Bach Brandenburg Concertos, and this is still available for those who may have missed it the first time:

Bach: Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 in G and

Bach: Brandenburg Concerto No. 6 in B-Flat

Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sir Henry J. Wood

Recorded June 16, 1932 (#3) and June 12, 1930 (#6)

Columbia 68084-D, 67842-D, and 67843-D, three 78-rpm records

Mediafire link (FLAC files, 53.32 MB)

Mediafire link (MP3 files, 20.4 MB)

Robert Shaw's Bach Magnificat

2010-12-13T11:59:00.000-05:00

This week I present the first-ever recording of Bach's great Magnificat in D, the Virgin Mary's hymn of praise uttered while pregnant with the Christ Child (Luke 1:46-55). This features the dean of American choral conductors, Robert Shaw (1916-1999) in one of his earliest recordings, from about 1947 (it was reviewed in the March 1948 issue of Time Magazine - see here). The chorus is the RCA Victor Chorale; the soloists are Suzanne Freil, soprano; Blanche Thebom, mezzo-soprano; Ernice Lawrence, tenor; and Paul Matthen, bass; and the orchestra is made up of New York musicians including William Vacchiano (of the New York Philharmonic), trumpet; Robert Bloom (of the NBC Symphony), oboe d'amore; and Arthur Lora (also of the NBC Symphony), flute.

Bach: Magnificat in D, BWV 243
Soloists, RCA Victor Chorale and Orchestra conducted by Robert Shaw
Recorded c. 1947
RCA Victor set DM-1182, five 10-inch records
Mediafire link (FLAC file, 70.95 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 file, 33.64 MB)

It would be impossible to overestimate the influence that Robert Shaw had on American choral singing. Toscanini famously said, after a 1945 performance of the Beethoven Ninth for which Shaw had trained the chorus, "in Robert Shaw I have at last found the maestro I have been looking for." Shaw's influence on the musical life of my native city, Atlanta, is also incalculable. To this day Atlanta is a city with many enthusiastic choral groups. Shaw was music director of the Atlanta Symphony during my formative years (from 1967, when I was four, to 1988) and his choral concerts with the ASO and the ASO chorus were always big events. In the spring of 1998 I was fortunate enough to hear one of his last performances, of the Bach B minor Mass. I was sitting in the front row of Atlanta's Symphony Hall, and from the very start, with that big shout of "KYRIE" from the chorus I was jolted out of my seat, and remained on the edge the entire evening. A magnificent performance in every way, the fruit of over fifty years of living with this great music.

The Other (not Sigmund) Romberg

2010-12-08T12:08:00.000-05:00

The German cellist and composer Bernhard Romberg (1767-1841) was an almost exact contemporary of Beethoven, whose works for the cello are still widely used as teaching pieces. We have him to thank, unfortunately, for there being no Beethoven cello concerto - Beethoven offered to write one for him, but Romberg turned him down, saying that he preferred to play his own works. Among these are ten cello concertos, eleven string quartets and three symphonies, plus this Toy Symphony that enjoyed a certain popularity in the 1800s. It's a delightful piece in four movements with an especially enjoyable Rondo finale, and a score is downloadable from the Petrucci Music Library here.

Bernhard Romberg: Toy Symphony (Symphonie burlesque, Op. 62)
New Symphony Orchestra conducted by Dr. Malcolm Sargent
Recorded Sept. 16, 1929
HMV C 1776, one 78-rpm record
Mediafire link (FLAC file, 21.33 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 file, 8.7 MB)

Band Classics, part 2

2010-12-02T22:10:00.000-05:00

This post is a follow-up to my August post of recordings by Arthur Pryor's Band, though the range is a little bit broader, including a few "popular" selections, and including one recording in the spirit of the Christmas season - though it actually was recorded four days after Christmas, 1909, and released for the Easter 1910 trade! Perhaps a hundred years ago the Hallelujah Chorus was associated more with Easter than with Christmas, which makes sense, given its placement in the Handel oratorio. In any case, it's sung here by a mighty chorus of eight, accompanied by Sousa's Band. It's one of thirteen pieces in this collection of downloads, from five different concert bands, one from south of the border and one from "across the pond." Here are the details (fuller discographic information is given in the text file included with the downloads):

EMMETT: Dixie (Pryor's Band, 1907)
GOTTSCHALK: The Dying Poet (Sousa's Band, 1912)
GOTTSCHALK: The Last Hope (Vessella's Italian Band, 1914)
HANDEL: Hallelujah Chorus (Victor Chorus and Sousa's Band, 1909)
LAMPE (arr.): Sunny South Medley (Pryor's Band, 1908)
MEYERBEER: Coronation March (Pryor's Band, 1918)
PERRY: The Warbler's Serenade (Pryor's Band, 1913)
PRYOR: The Whistler and His Dog (Pryor's Band, 1913)
ROSSINI: Semiramide Overture (Police Band of Mexico, 1907)
SOUSA: Wedding March (Sousa's Band, 1918)
TCHAIKOVSKY: Overture 1812 (H.M. Grenadier Guards Band, 1915)
VERDI: Reminiscences of Verdi (Sousa's Band, 1912)
WAGNER: A Dream of Wagner - Fantasie (Pryor's Band, 1912)

Of the music itself it isn't necessary to say much, except that Sousa's "Wedding March" was composed in 1918 to replace those of Wagner and Mendelssohn due to anti-German sentiments during World War I - which, thank goodness, it obviously didn't do! And I make no apologies for including "Dixie" - a grand old tune still loved by many of us Southerners even though the words no longer really represent us. What better excuse to enjoy a band arrangement?

Mediafire link (FLAC files, 143.2 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 files, 53.62 MB)

All of these are Victor recordings except the one of Tchaikovsky's "Overture 1812," which was one of the few acoustic recordings made by the Grenadier Guards Band for English Columbia to be released in the US by American Columbia.

Mischa Elman plays Fauré

2010-11-27T19:04:00.000-05:00

A few weeks back, Nick of Grumpy's Classics Cave (see my list of blogs at the right) presented us with a rare Albert Sammons recording of Gabriel Fauré's Violin Sonata in A, Op. 13. Here's my answer to that wonderful upload - a somewhat less rare, perhaps, though certainly not common, recording of the same work beautifully played by Mischa Elman (1891-1967). As far as I am aware, this 1941 recording for Victor has never been reissued on CD, although a later Elman recording of the sonata, for Decca in the 1950s, has turned up in a 4-CD Testament box set along with sonatas by Beethoven, Brahms, Franck, Grieg and Handel. It's rather a surprise to me that this recording was even made, as the Fauré Sonatas were considered music for the connoisseur in those days (perhaps they still are!), and the Victor catalogue of 1941 already boasted a recording by Elman's arch-rival Heifetz, which, in turn, had replaced a recording by Jacques Thibaud. Elman observes the first movement's exposition repeat, something rarely done on 78-rpm records.

Fauré: Violin Sonata No. 1 in A major, Op. 13
Mischa Elman, violin; Leopold Mittmann, piano
Recorded Spring, 1941
Victor Musical Masterpiece set DM-859, three 78-rpm records
Mediafire link (FLAC files, 62.88 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 files, 28.7 MB)

Britten for St. Cecilia's Day

2010-11-21T20:08:00.000-05:00

Monday, November 22, is the feast day of St. Cecilia, the patron saint of musicians, and also the 97th anniversary of the birth of Benjamin Britten (1913-1976). To celebrate, here are three works (one of them a re-upload) by that great genius, all dating from the 1940s and all recorded within a year of their premières. First, appropriately enough, is his "Hymn to St. Cecilia," Op. 27, for a capella 5-part chorus, with words by W. H. Auden. It was begun while Britten was living in the USA, but not completed until he was on his way back home to England in 1942, the ship he was on under constant threat from German U-boats. This first recording of the piece features the Fleet Street Choir, an amateur group that racked up several important gramophonic firsts, including first complete recordings of Byrd's Mass for Five Voices, Vaughan Williams' Mass in G minor, and Randall Thompson's "Alleluia."

Britten: Hymn to St. Cecilia, Op. 27
(+ Holst: This Have I Done For My True Love, Op. 34, No. 1)
Fleet Street Choir, directed by T. B. Lawrence
Recorded January 28, 1943
English Decca K 1088-89, two 78-rpm records
Mediafire link (FLAC files, 77.18 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 files, 29.33 MB)

Next, something rather more familiar - the Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra (Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Purcell), Op. 34. The BBC, by the way, often angered the composer when announcing the work by giving only its subtitle and omitting the "Young Person's Guide" part! Given Britten's lifelong interest in providing musical experiences for children (almost every one of his operas includes parts for child singers), his irritation is understandable. This first recording of the piece is conducted by Sir Malcolm Sargent, who also gave the concert première in 1946, and who conducted and narrated the film version, "Instruments of the Orchestra." Pictured below is the Steinweiss cover design for the American Columbia issue of this set:

Britten: The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra, Op. 34
(+ Bach-Sargent: Suite No. 3 in D - Air)
Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Sir Malcolm Sargent
Recorded October 26, 1946
Columbia Masterworks Set MM-703, three 78-rpm records
Mediafire link (FLAC files, 54.81 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 files, 25.53 MB)

Purcell's shadow also hangs heavily over the String Quartet No. 2, which was composed in 1945 to commemmorate the 250th anniversary of Purcell's death. This is a re-upload of a recording I originally posted in May 2008, and includes Britten's only recording as a violist in the filler, the Purcell Fantasia Upon One Note:

Britten: String Quartet No. 2 in C, Op. 36
(+ Purcell: Fantasia upon One Note, arranged for string quintet)
Zorian String Quartet
Recorded October 12, 1946
HMV C 3536-39, four 78-rpm records
Mediafire link (FLAC files, 82.89 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 files, 34.67 MB)
John Amis, married to Olive Zorian, the leader of the ensemble on this recording, recalled Britten's reticence talking about his own music during rehearsals for this work. Amis "listened and would occasionally ask about some detail or comment with delight, 'Oh, I see, this new tune is really the old one upside down,' or something like that, at which Ben would look hard at the score and say, 'Oh, is it? Fancy that?' Sometimes he would wink as he said it. At other times it was difficult to know whether he was fooling or not." This anecdote comes from Humphrey Carpenter's fine 1992 biography of the composer.

Constant Lambert Conducts

2010-11-15T23:49:00.000-05:00

This week I present several rare recordings by Constant Lambert (1905-1951), conductor, composer, raconteur, writer and wit. As a conductor, he was renowned for his interpretations of Russian and English music, and both are featured in these downloads. From Russia we get Lambert's brilliant and exciting interpretations of two tone poems, Tchaikovsky's Hamlet and Glazunov's Stenka Razin, and from England the Purcell Chaconne in G minor in a string orchestra arrangment. (This is not the famous Purcell Chacony, as the first volume of the World's Encyclopedia of Music erroneously states - but an arrangement of No. 6 of the Ten Sonatas in Four Parts, which is also in G minor and also in the form of a chaconne.) These three different recordings feature three different orchestras, and in fact the Glazunov was the first appearance of the Liverpool Philharmonic on records. Here are the details:

Tchaikovsky: Hamlet - Overture-Fantasia, Op. 67
Hallé Orchestra conducted by Constant Lambert
Recorded October 9, 1942
Columbia Masterworks set MX-243, 2 78-rpm records
Mediafire link (FLAC file, 43.11 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 file, 22.31 MB)

Glazunov: Stenka Razin - Symphonic Poem, Op. 13
Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Constant Lambert
Recorded December 22, 1942 and January 12, 1943
English Columbia DX 1107 and DX 1108, 2 78-rpm records
Mediafire link (FLAC file, 35.87 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 file, 16.24 MB)

Purcell, arr. Whittaker: Chaconne in G minor, Z. 807
Philharmonia String Orchestra conducted by Constant Lambert
Recorded October 12, 1945
English Columbia DX 1230, 1 78-rpm record
Mediafire link (FLAC file, 22.15 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 file, 8.98 MB)

Back in 2008 I uploaded another Constant Lambert recording, in tandem with one by Walter Goehr, as both featured orchestral works of Bizet in their first recordings. These have been re-uploaded; the details:

Bizet: Carnival (from "Roma" Suite)
Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Constant Lambert
Recorded October 29, 1943
English Columbia DX 1136, 1 78-rpm record
Mediafire link (FLAC file, 17.37 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 file, 6.63 MB)

Bizet: Symphony in C Major (+ Danse Bohemienne from "Fair Maid of Perth")
London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Walter Goehr
Recorded November 26, 1937
Victor Musical Masterpiece Set DM-721, 4 78-rpm records
Mediafire link (FLAC files, 67.45 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 files, 32.23 MB)

Mozart by the Pro Arte Quartet

2010-11-11T12:44:00.001-05:00

Here is one of three Mozart string quintets recorded by the original members of the Pro Arte Quartet, an ensemble which is still with us today (and poised to celebrate its centennial in 2012). From 1921 to 1939 its members were Alphonse Onnou and Laurent Halleux, violins; Germain Prevost, viola; and Robert Maas, cello. All but Maas were founding members of the ensemble, which was formed in Belgium in 1912. The Pro Arte Quartet began recording for HMV in 1931, commencing with their famous Haydn series which ultimately ran to 29 string quartets, most of them in their first recordings. Their recorded output during the 1930s was vast, some 280 issued 78-rpm sides, and included collaborations with pianists Artur Rubinstein, Alfredo Casella, and, most famously, Artur Schnabel.

As I mentioned above, they recorded three Mozart string quintets with British-born violist Alfred Hobday (1870-1942). Hobday got around; he's featured as second violist in innumerable quintet and sextet recordings of the period, not just with the Pro Arte but also with the Budapest Quartet, and he was in the very first recording of a Mozart quintet, that of K. 516 in G minor with the London String Quartet in 1917, which has been transferred by Jolyon -see here. My transfer is of the Quintet in D, K. 593:

Mozart: String Quintet No. 5 in D, K. 593
Pro Arte Quartet with Alfred Hobday, second viola
Recorded November 18, 1936
Victor Musical Masterpiece set DM-350, three 78-rpm records
Mediafire link (FLAC files, 56.68 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 files, 24.47 MB)

Alfred Hobday's wife was the pianist Ethel Hobday, née Sharpe (1872-1947). Her recording, with the London String Quartet, of Schumann's Piano Quintet for Vocalion was the one which converted Compton Mackenzie, who founded Gramophone Magazine in 1923, into a gramophile. Alas, I don't have that (though Jolyon does - see the link above), but I do have her recording of Elgar's Piano Quintet, made for the National Gramophonic Society in 1925. Elgar himself had been approached to play the piano part in this recording, but he declined, recommending Mrs. Hobday instead. I have re-uploaded this recording, which I originally transferred early in 2008:

Elgar: Piano Quintet in A minor, Op. 84
Ethel Hobday, piano, with the Spencer Dyke String Quartet
Recorded December, 1925 by Vocalion
National Gramophonic Society NN through RR, five 78-rpm records
Mediafire link (FLAC files, 96.56 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 files, 36.97 MB)

Gladys Ripley sings "Sea Pictures"

2010-11-07T19:13:00.000-05:00

This post features the British contralto Gladys Ripley (1908-1955), a beautiful woman with a beautiful voice, whose life, sadly, was cut short by throat cancer at the age of 47 (the age I am now!). Here she sings Elgar's fine orchestral song cycle, "Sea Pictures" (composed in 1897-99) with, as a filler, a surprisingly gloomy song by Haydn, "The Spirit's Song" ("Hark! Hark what I tell to thee"). This 1946 recording features the collaboration of that greatly underrated conductor, George Weldon (1908-1963), who conducts the Philharmonia Orchestra.

Elgar: Sea Pictures, Op. 37 (+ Haydn: The Spirit's Song)
Gladys Ripley, contralto
Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by George Weldon
Recorded May 28, 1946
HMV C 3498 through C 3500, three 78-rpm records
Mediafire link (FLAC files, 63.46 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 files, 32.17 MB)

I have up several other George Weldon recordings with the orchestra of which he was Music Director from 1944 to 1951, the City of Birmingham Orchestra. (That's Birmingham, England, of course - not Birmingham, Alabama! Those of us here in the Southern US have to be reminded of that periodically.) The first of these is a new offering, and the others are re-uploads of transfers I made over three years ago; however, the Dvořák symphony upload now contains scans of the booklet for the set that I was unable to provide earlier. Here are the details:

Sibelius: King Christian II Suite - Elegie and Musette
City of Birmingham Orchestra, conducted by George Weldon
Recorded March 22, 1945
Columbia DX 1220, one 78-rpm record
Mediafire link (FLAC files, 18.53 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 files, 7.76 MB)

Edward German: Welsh Rhapsody
City of Birmingham Orchestra, conducted by George Weldon
Recorded April 16, 1945
Columbia DX 1274 and 1275, two 78-rpm records
Mediafire link (FLAC file, 43.43 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 file, 19.7 MB)

Dvořák: Symphony No. 5 in F, Op. 76, and
Glinka: Ruslan and Ludmilla - Overture
City of Birmingham Orchestra, conducted by George Weldon
Recorded June 25-27, 1945 (Dvořák) and June 7, 1946 (Glinka)
Columbia DX 1315 through 1319, five 78-rpm records
Mediafire link (FLAC files, 104.7 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 files, 47.28 MB)

For those interested in reading further about George Weldon, there's a free downloadable biography (in PDF format) available here.

Early Haydn by Beecham

2010-11-04T12:03:00.002-04:00

This time I present what I believe to be Sir Thomas Beecham's only recording of an early Haydn symphony, or indeed any Haydn symphony other than the last twelve (the "London" Symphonies, Nos. 93-104). Someone correct me if I'm wrong! Anyway, here is Haydn's Symphony No. 40 in F Major, composed in 1763, and performed by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra under Beecham in this April 20, 1948 recording, from a set of 2 HMV 78s (DB 6823 and 6824):

Mediafire link (FLAC files, 35.47 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 files, 15.75 MB)

On the eve of the Haydn anniversary year, 2009 (the 200th anniversary of his passing), I uploaded to RMCR four vintage recordings of his symphonies by four different British conductors (including Beecham). I've re-uploaded these; here are the details:

Haydn: Symphony No. 22 in E-Flat Major ("The Philosopher")
London Baroque Ensemble, conducted by Karl Haas
Recorded July 4, 1951
Parlophone SW 8122 and 8123, 2 78-rpm records
Mediafire link (FLAC files, 37.7 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 files, 17.35 MB)

Haydn: Symphony No. 45 in F-Sharp minor ("Farewell")
London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Sir Henry J. Wood
Recorded April 19, 1934
Columbia LX 323 through 325, 3 78-rpm records
Mediafire link (FLAC files, 57.34 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 files, 24.42 MB)

Haydn: Symphony No. 95 in C minor
London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Sir Hamilton Harty
Recorded October 14, 1935
Decca K 798 and 799, 2 78-rpm records
Mediafire link (FLAC files, 38.17 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 files, 16.33 MB)

Haydn: Symphony No. 102 in B-Flat Major
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Sir Thomas Beecham, Bart.
Recorded June and October, 1949
HMV DB 9449 through 9451, 3 78-rpm records
Mediafire link (FLAC files, 48.67 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 files, 25.55 MB)

Finally, for anyone interested in hearing my own piano playing, about this time last year I participated in a Haydn commemorative concert at my church, the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Gwinnett in Lawrenceville, Ga. From this concert I have uploaded two works: the "Gypsy Rondo" Piano Trio in G (with violinist Laura Reynolds and cellist James Woodall), and the wonderful Andante with Variations in F minor for piano solo. Enjoy, but don't expect note-perfect playing!

Mediafire link (FLAC files, 95.58 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 files, 35.6 MB)

Howard Barlow conducts Vaughan Williams

2010-10-29T11:37:00.000-04:00

Here's a delightful recording conducted by the all-but-forgotten Howard Barlow (1892-1972), a broadcasting pioneer and champion of unusual repertoire (you can find a nice appreciation of his legacy here). This is of Gordon Jacob's orchestration of Vaughan Williams' military band classic, the English Folk Song Suite (1923). In 1940, when this recording was issued, this may well have seemed unusual repertoire, and indeed it appears to be the first (and, in the 78-rpm era, only) recording of the 1924 Jacob orchestration, which has since become standard.

Of course, for me, a good excuse to listen to any Barlow-Columbia Symphony recording is to hear the beautiful oboe playing of Mitch Miller, and here he doesn't disappoint - just listen to that oboe solo at the beginning of the second movement!

This recording was also issued, naturally enough, in England, and was reviewed in the September 1940 issue of Gramophone - see here (it's about halfway through the article). The recording was still listed in the 1954-55 UK Columbia Catalogue, though it was slated for deletion with that issue.

Vaughan Williams (arr. Jacob): English Folk Song Suite
Columbia Broadcasting Symphony, conducted by Howard Barlow
Recorded December 19, 1939
Columbia Masterworks set X-159, two ten-inch 78-rpm records
Mediafire link (FLAC file, 29.41 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 file, 15.45 MB)

Janáček's Confidential Letters

2010-10-25T13:48:00.000-04:00

Here is the first recording of the last major work by Leoš Janáček, his String Quartet No. 2 of 1928 (subtitled "Confidential Letters" on the record labels, though nowadays more commonly translated as "Intimate Letters"). The quartet, like many of the works of Janáček's last ten years, was inspired by his unrequited love for Kamila Stösslová, a married woman 38 years his junior, and its title was Janáček's own. It is played in this recording by the Černý Quartet, which was really the Prague String Quartet - however, the recording was made during the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia (in about 1943), and the Nazis forbade "nationalistic" names for native organizations, so the ensemble became known after its violist, Ladislav Černý (1891-1975). The other players were Alexander Plocik and Herbert Berger, violins; the cellist was either Iwan Vectomov or Josef Simandl.

Janáček: String Quartet No. 2 ("Confidential Letters")
Černý Quartet
Recorded c. 1943
Ultraphon G 12968 through G 12970, three 78-rpm records
Mediafire link (FLAC files, 57.03 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 files, 24.63 MB)

About two years ago I posted an earlier Prague String Quartet recording, which I have re-uploaded:

Dvořák: String Quintet in E-Flat, Op. 97
Prague String Quartet with Richard Kosderka, second viola
Recorded November 17, 1937
Victor Musical Masterpiece set DM-811, four 78-rpm records
Mediafire link (FLAC files, 83.76 MB)
Mediafire link (MP3 files, 37.65 MB)

As you all can see, I am back after my hiatus with the Bach Brandenburg. It went reasonably well, despite the fact that a string broke on my harpsichord just minutes before the concert, as I was tuning it. I don't think I'll be playing the harpsichord again any time soon. Temperamental beasts, they are. I've even changed my picture on this blog from one of me playing the harpsichord to one of me as I looked when I began seriously collecting 78-rpm records. I love the Brandenburg #5 and would gladly play it again, but the next time it will be on a modern piano. After all, if Cortot, Serkin, Lukas Foss and Murray Perahia could play it, beautifully, on the piano, why can't I? Their recordings, especially Cortot's, blow all the harpsichord recordings of the piece out of the water. If only Artur Schnabel had recorded it! - it was in his repertoire.