Carol Brice and Reiner

Carol Brice, as pictured in the liner notes for her set of Bach Arias

Today I present the first three recordings by North Carolina-born contralto Carol Brice (1918-1985), who, in 1943, became the first African-American to win the Walter Naumberg Award.  The first two of these sets, recorded on the same day, also feature Fritz Reiner and the Pittsburgh Symphony - in fact, since the singing is incidental, Reiner gets the main billing in this gripping performance of Falla's El Amor Brujo:

De Falla: El Amor Brujo (Love by Witchcraft)

Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra conducted by Fritz Reiner, 

with Carol Brice (contralto)

Recorded February 5, 1946

Columbia Masterworks set MM-633, three 78-rpm records

Link (FLAC file, 61.91 MB)

Link (MP3 file, 31.95 MB)

Cover design by Alex Steinweiss
(restored by Peter Joelson)

Next, the first-ever recording of a popular Mahler song cycle:

Mahler: Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen (Songs of a Wayfarer)

Carol Brice (contralto) with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra

conducted by Fritz Reiner

Recorded February 5, 1946

Columbia Masterworks set MX-267, two 78-rpm records

Link (FLAC file, 44.03 MB)

Link (MP3 file, 24.75 MB)

Cover design by Alex Steinweiss
(restored by Peter Joelson)

Finally, from a year later, an album of Bach arias (two from the Magnificat in D, and two from the Mass in B minor), this time conducted by Daniel Saidenberg, and also featuring the talents of Julius Baker (flute) and Albert Goltzer (English horn):

Sacred Arias of Johann Sebastian Bach

Carol Brice (contralto) with the Columbia Broadcasting Concert Orchestra

conducted by Daniel Saidenberg

Recorded April 14, 1947

Columbia Masterworks set MX-283, two 78-rpm records

Link (FLAC files, 52.4 MB)

Link (MP3 files, 30.2 MB)

Cover design by Alex Steinweiss
(restored by Peter Joelson)

As with many of the Steinweiss-illustrated Columbia albums I have been posting lately, the Bach and de Falla sets were kindly provided to me by Ken Halperin of Collecting Record Covers.