Henri Sauguet: Piano Concerto No. 1

Henri Sauguet

Henri-Pierre Poupard, better known as Henri Sauguet (he took his mother's maiden name for his professional career), was born in Bordeaux 116 years ago tomorrow (May 18, 1901). He is one of those composers on the periphery of 20th-century European music who, like Vittorio Rieti, first came to my attention through Sylvia Marlowe's championing his work - in Sauguet's case, a Suite Royale for solo harpsichord, a skillful modern evocation of Couperin and Rameau which Marlowe recorded for American Decca in the early 1960s (tacked on at the end of an LP whose main attraction was Falla's Harpsichord Concerto). Sauguet's essentially conservative style made him one of the few Western composers acceptable to the Soviet musical establishment; he wrote a cello concerto for Rostropovich, and Vasso Devetzi had a success there with this piano concerto, the first of three, of which this is the first recording:

Henri Sauguet: Piano Concerto No. 1 in A Minor (1934)
Arnaud de Gontaut-Biron (Gaveau piano) with the
Paris Conservatory Orchestra conducted by Roger Désormière
Recorded June 29, 1943
French Columbia LFX 911 and 912, two 78-rpm records
Link (FLAC files, 40.57 MB)
Link (MP3 files, 28.29 MB)

The pianist on this recording, Arnaud de Gontaut-Biron (1897-1985), was a French nobleman, a member of a family that in earlier generations had produced several famous soldiers; one of these served in the American Revolutionary War. This appears to be Arnaud's only recording.

Honegger: Symphony No. 2 (Munch, 1942-44)

In time for Bastille Day this year, I present an artifact from one of the darkest periods in French history - the Nazi occupation of 1940-44.  This is Arthur Honegger's war-haunted Symphonie pour orchestre à cordes of 1941, in the first of three studio recordings made by his friend and champion Charles Munch (1891-1968).  This appears, in fact, to be the 51-year-old conductor's first recording of any symphony; his great recording career as music director of the Boston Symphony was still years in the future.  This recording, made only a year after the work's composition, with retakes of the middle two sides made a year and a half later, sizzles with intensity:

Honegger: Symphony No. 2 for string orchestra
Paris Conservatory Orchestra conducted by Charles Munch
Recorded October 15-16, 1942, and March 1, 1944
French HMV W 1600 through W 1602, three 78-rpm records
Link (FLAC files, 63.29 MB)
Link (MP3 files, 36.83 MB)

UPDATE (July 11): My beloved old HP 7410, which I had thought finished a month ago, managed to scan some record labels for me this afternoon, among them more legible scans of W 1600 through W 1602 than I had been able to obtain with its cheap Canon replacement.  (Mind you, those French HMV red labels are hard to read under the best of circumstances!)  Anyone interested can download them in a zip file here.  (I've also replaced the original download files with new ones incorporating the new scans.)

Bruno Walter in 18th Century Music

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 Walter, a Jew formerly active in Berlin, 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
Link (FLAC file, 46.62 MB)
Link (MP3 file, 25.73 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
Link (FLAC file, 36.38 MB)
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
Link (FLAC files, 62.66 MB)
Link (MP3 files, 34.15 MB)

The Handel recording is particularly rare, as it received no US issue during the 78-rpm era (although Victor is known to have allocated a set number, M-952, for it).  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.

Weingartner in 18th Century Music

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
Link (FLAC file, 19.71 MB)
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
Link (FLAC file, 32.37 MB)
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
Link (FLAC files, 34.14 MB)
Link (MP3 files, 18.06 MB)