A Boston Pops Miscellany

Arthur Fiedler, c. 1935

Summer is here - traditionally the time when orchestras do their "pops" seasons, and none is more celebrated than those of Boston (though in latter days, rivaled by those in Cincinnati). The Boston "Pops" began making recordings 82 summers ago, and purveyed everything from standard repertoire to traditional and contemporary light music. All three are represented here in this batch:

Wagner: Rienzi - Overture and Tannhäuser - Fest-Marsch
Boston Pops Orchestra conducted by Arthur Fiedler
Recorded June 28-29, 1937
Victor Musical Masterpiece set DM-569, two 78-rpm records
Link (FLAC files, 45.17 MB)
Link (MP3 files, 29.84 MB)

Album of Strauss Waltzes
(Wein, Weib und Gesang; Wiener Blut; Künstlerleben; Kaiser; Frühlingsstimmen)
Boston Pops Orchestra conducted by Arthur Fiedler
Recorded 1936-37
Victor Musical Masterpiece set M-445, five 78-rpm records
Link (FLAC files, 103.12 MB)
Link (MP3 files, 67.24 MB)

Piston: The Incredible Flutist - Ballet Suite
Boston Pops Orchestra conducted by Arthur Fiedler
Recorded June 29, 1939
Victor Musical Masterpiece set DM-621, two 78-rpm records
Link (FLAC file, 41.67 MB)
Link (MP3 file, 29.91 MB)

Not being a Viennese waltz aficionado, I can't say how authentic Fiedler's interpretations of Johann Strauss may be, but I certainly enjoyed them - he plays them with all the zest and gusto one could want. The Piston recording is wholly delightful, but the solo flutist is unfortunately not credited. On Fiedler's later (1953) recording, James Pappoutsakis did the honors, and since that gentleman became the BSO's assistant principal flute the year this recording was made, it's quite possible he did the honors on this occasion also.

The Philharmonic Piano Quartet

The Philharmonic Piano Quartet
(L to R: Max Walmer, Ada Kopetz, John Scales, Bertha Melnik)

The great popularity, during the 1940s, of the First Piano Quartet doubtless caused many imitators to be spawned. One that was good enough to get promoted and recorded (by Columbia, in direct competition with the FPQ which was on Victor) was the Philharmonic Piano Quartet, formed by four young Juilliard alumni. Unlike the FPQ's players, which were cloaked in anonymity on the labels, the Philharmonic's were identified as Ada Kopetz, Bertha Melnik, Max Walmer and John Scales (a great name for a pianist, no?), but there's nothing in the album to enable one to match names to faces! (My thanks to a reader for providing another photo that identifies the players by name - see the comments below.) The group made two albums for Columbia, of which this was the first:

"Music For Four Pianos" (arrangements by Moritz Bomhard):
Lecuona: Andalucía
Traditional: Cradle Song
Prokofiev: Peter and the Wolf - "Procession"
Strauss: Du und Du ("Fledermaus Waltzes")
Morganstern: Toccata Guatemala
The Philharmonic Piano Quartet
Recorded April 2, 1949
Columbia Masterworks set MM-852, three 78-rpm records
Link (FLAC files, 54.40 MB)
Link (MP3 files, 37.57 MB)

Can anybody out there identify the melody of the "Cradle Song?" It sounds vaguely familiar but I can't place it for the life of me. The "Peter and the Wolf" excerpt is identified as "Procession", which would lead one to believe the final section will be heard - as indeed it is, but not until after the themes of Peter and the hunters in their original forms are, as well as a bit of the music heard while the bird is taunting the wolf! Sam Morganstern, the composer of the last item, was best known not for his composing but for his musical reference works; I grew up with a dog-eared copy of his "Dictionary of Musical Themes" which he co-authored with conductor Howard Barlow.

Strauss: Till Eulenspiegel (Rodzinski)

I must confess that the choice of "Till Eulenspiegel" for my latest post was inspired by being inundated with emails about "Black Friday" sales.  I get so sick of these, that it puts me into an Eulenspiegel-like attitude, specifically the wish to go upsetting marketplace goods and wares as he does in Richard Strauss' tone poem!  (When did the day after Thanksgiving get the name "Black Friday" anyhow?  It seems to me a recent phenomenon.  In the past the references were always to "after-Thanksgiving Day sales" in the papers.)  So what better time to enjoy this impudent masterpiece than now, and in as brilliant and high-spirited a performance as you are likely to hear anywhere:

Strauss: Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks, Op. 28
Cleveland Orchestra conducted by Artur Rodzinski
Recorded December 14, 1940
Columbia Masterworks set MX-210, two 78-rpm records
Link (FLAC file, 35.43 MB)
Link (MP3 file, 24.27 MB)

It's worth noting that though the piece had been recorded at least a dozen times previously (including a couple by the composer himself), Rodzinski's appears to have been the first to be issued as part of an album set series.  Sets comprising only two records had been marketed for only five years, and then only in the USA.

Strauss: Don Quixote (Piatigorsky & Reiner)

Cover design by Alex Steinweiss
(restored by Peter Joelson)

About a year ago, I posted Emanuel Feuermann's great recording of Richard Strauss' strange and wonderful hybrid of variations, concerto and symphonic poem, "Don Quixote."  Fine as that recording is, I still maintain a great affection for the recording which functioned as its competitor when new, because it was my own introduction to the glories of this great work, about thirty-three years ago:

Strauss: Don Quixote, Op. 35
Fritz Reiner conducting the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra with
Gregor Piatigorsky, cello; Henri Temianka, violin; Vladimir Bakaleinikoff, viola
Recorded November 15, 1941
Columbia Masterworks set MM-506, five 78-rpm records
Link (FLAC file, 84.7 MB)
Link (MP3 file, 48.5 MB)

Both Reiner and Piatigorsky would revisit "Don Quixote" in the recording studio a decade later, though not together - even though both had by then moved to RCA.  Piatigorsky recorded the piece with Munch and the Boston Symphony in 1953, and Reiner recorded it with the Chicago Symphony and cellist Antonio Janigro in 1959.

The Incomparable Emanuel Feuermann

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
Link (FLAC file, 22.17 MB)
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
Link (FLAC files, 76.38 MB)
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
Link (FLAC file, 87.25)
Link (MP3 file, 45.26)

A Fifth of Ormandy

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
Link (FLAC files, 113.89 MB)
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
Link (FLAC file, 97.41 MB)
Link (MP3 file, 48.92 MB)

Albert Coates' 1923 Beethoven Ninth

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, 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
Link (FLAC files, 140.4 MB)
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
Link (FLAC files, 16.74 MB)
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
Link (FLAC file, 49.45 MB)
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.

Finally, an electrical recording by Mr. Coates that I first 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
Link (FLAC file, 24.70 MB)
Link (MP3 file, 9.35 MB)

The Incomparable Leon Goossens

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)
Link (FLAC files, 108.4 MB)
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
Link (FLAC files, 160.97 MB)
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
Link (FLAC file, 23.32 MB)
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
Link (FLAC file, 43.89 MB)
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
Link (FLAC files, 44.53 MB)
Link (MP3 files, 15.79 MB)