Mitch and the 20th Century Harpsichord

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
Link (FLAC files, 46.37 MB)
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), made with the players who gave the work its première in the spring of 1946:

Rieti: Partita for Harpsichord, Flute, Oboe and Strings (1945)
Sylvia Marlowe, harpsichord; Julius Baker, flute;
Mitchell Miller, oboe; The Kroll Quartet
Recorded c. 1946
Side B of Mercury MG 10012, one 12-inch LP record
Link (FLAC files, 52.44 MB)
Link (MP3 files, 27.62 MB)

Howard Barlow conducts Vaughan Williams

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 The Gramophone.  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 10-inch 78-rpm records
Link (FLAC file, 29.41 MB)
Link (MP3 file, 15.45 MB)

Mitch Miller plays Handel

 

For this debut entry in my new blog, I wish to pay tribute to Mitch Miller, who passed away on Saturday, July 31, 2010, aged 99.  For Americans over a certain age he will always be associated with his series of "Sing Along With Mitch" LPs (and the television show which these inspired, which ran from 1961 to 1966).  One of my very first records, received with my very first record player (at Christmas 1965), was a 6-eyes Columbia LP of "Still More Sing Along with Mitch" which I am listening to in this photo:

 

Long before his career as a sing-along leader, however, Mitchell Miller (as he was billed on his classical recordings) was well-known for his fine oboe and English horn playing.  No less a conductor than Leopold Stokowski admired his playing, and when Stokowski conducted a recording of Dvorak's "New World" Symphony in 1947, he hired Mitch to play the famous English horn solo in the second movement, and insisted that Mitch be credited on the label, at a time when such credits were rarely given.  From 1935 to 1947 he was oboist in the Columbia Broadcasting Symphony Orchestra, who accompanies him on the first of two Handel recordings below:

Handel: Oboe Concerto No. 3 in G minor

Mitch Miller and the Columbia Broadcasting Symphony under Howard Barlow

Recorded June 19, 1939

Columbia 69660-D, one 78-rpm record

Link (FLAC file, 16.3 MB)

Link (MP3 file, 8.34 MB)

Handel: Oboe Sonata in G minor, Op. 1, No. 6

Mitch Miller, oboe; Yella Pessl, harpsichord

Recorded August 4, 1938 (information courtesy of Don Tait)

Victor 15378, one 78-rpm record

Link (FLAC file, 15.51 MB)

Link (MP3 file, 7.28 MB)

Both of these recordings have been transferred from my own 78-rpm shellac records (although, in the case of the Sonata, from a cassette copy, as I no longer own the record).