A Souvenir of Mitch, from Mitch

I've written before about Mitch Miller, the pop potentate whose first love was classical music, where he was Mitchell Miller, oboe and English horn virtuoso.

Mitch must have been proud of the recordings he made of classical and light music because he made his own CDs to give out to friends and acquaintances, among them Will Friedwald. I am making them available here in tribute to this important personality, thanks to Will.

Mitch had two different CDs. One was his recordings of Vaughan Williams, Cimarosa, J.C. and J.S. Bach, Mozart and Sibelius (The Swan of Tuonela), conducted by Leopold Stokowski and Daniel Saidenberg. The other was of light music fare recorded in the early 50s with Percy Faith, for Columbia (cover above).

We've encountered the Bach and Mozart items on this blog previously (courtesy of Joe Serraglio) - here. And my friend Fred posted the Vaughan Williams on his blog, Random Classics - here - along with a few other items that aren't part of this post. I believe I have seen the Cimarosa elsewhere; can't remember where. The Sibelius is new to me, and is excellent.

I haven't seen the light music LPs offered elsewhere - and actually had vague thoughts of presenting my own copies here. But here are both of them, courtesy of Will. It's So Peaceful in the Country features music of Jimmy Van Heusen and Alec Wilder (whose music Miller promoted for decades). There are two additional items by Wilder on Music Until Midnight - Ellen and Piece for English Horn. Both LPs are exceptionally fine examples of the genre.

Mitch Miller was an unusual combination of artist and pop entrepreneur. As he so often did, Al Hirschfeld captures his subject's spirit in pen and ink, on the caricature that Mitch himself chose to put on the cover of the CDs that he used as his own calling card. It wasn't the only time Mitch was depicted by a famous artist - see Fred's blog post for a wonderful, puckish Norman Rockwell portrait that originally was on one of Miller's Sing Along LPs (perhaps Family Sing Along with Mitch).

One of my first records was a kiddie 78 conducted by Miller, so I have been listening to his music literally all my life - and have thoroughly enjoyed the experience (well, maybe not the sing-alongs). A fond farewell to this important figure.

ADDENDUM - My friend Mel tells me the Percy Faith records were recorded in 1954 and 1955. And I really should have linked you to Will's article on Mitch - it's here.