Curtain Going Up features mash-ups from the recent Broadway hits My Fair Lady, Brigadoon, Carousel, Can-Can, Wonderful Town and South Pacific, along with a selection of Richard Rodgers' waltzes.
All feature the typical Fiedler élan that stops just this side of seeming rushed. This works particularly well with such tunes as "It's a Grand Night for Singing," which ends the program on a high note. If there is little depth in this approach - well, it is the Pops, after all.
The sound also is typical of RCA Victor's efforts for this ensemble. Depending on your own preferences, you could call it big and glamorous, or woolly and indistinct. Note (January 2024): this has now been remastered in ambient stereo).
Several arrangers are credited for these medleys: Leroy Anderson for Carousel and Brigadoon, Jack Andrews for Can-Can, and Dave Terry for Wonderful Town. Also, the arrangement for South Pacific is Anderson's work as well.
The cover is by Mozelle Thompson (a favorite of my friend Ernie). It appears to depict an operetta that is being presented on a particularly tiny stage.
The cover is by Mozelle Thompson (a favorite of my friend Ernie). It appears to depict an operetta that is being presented on a particularly tiny stage.
20 comments:
Gotta love those Mozelle covers! Thanks!
thank you, i love "antique pops". -a.v.
given that the most current music in the contents is MFL from 1956, I would speculate that at least that part was recorded in stereo, since RCA was recording pretty much everything in Boston in stereo by 1956. Released in stereo is another matter. The Similar vintage Grand Canyon Suite was recorded in stereo but never issued in stereo until a Victrola LP in the 1970s. The LP discmate El Salon Mexico, recorded at the same time never got reissued at all. Dont have my hard copy reference book to check right now.
just checked http://www.grandorchestras.com/bostonpops/albums/fiedler_curtain_going_up.html and there is mention of an LSC-2093, so maybe I dont need to run home and haul out my Canfield. The answer would be yes there was a stereo equivalent.
actually, they also list a stereo LSC edition of the Gr Canyon suite i mentioned before. Doesnt exist. So not necessarily reliable source. :-(
Thank you very much for that post. All these blockbuster tunes are so well supported by Fiedler and the great BSO !!
Hi folks - thanks for the comments, as always.
Rootie - thanks for the info. I think those sources sometimes just paste LSC onto the catalog number and assume it exists. As I said, I've never seen one.
Buster - thanks for this! The cover alone is worth it.
I usually visit once a week and just wanted to thank you for this and other sharings!
Steinar - You're always welcome.
Many thanks Buster.
Thanks a lot for sharing the rip and the mono/stereo info!
I just learned yesterday of an exhibit of Mozelle Thompson artwork! In Pittsburgh this November.
https://www.facebook.com/events/1461208450797638/
Buster, thanks for this now-obscure, fun album. Here's a quid-pro-quo:
(1) A compilation in a huge folder (400 MB) of various transfers of now forgotten and unavailable Fiedler albums, both mono and stereo --
Concert in the Park, LSC-2677 (my transfer) highlighting the delicious Shoenherr Austrian Peasant Dances, plus music by William Schumann, Valerius, Victor Herbert, Liszt, Jacques Press, etc.);
Glazunov Raymonda Ballet Suite (late forties, from Camden CAL166 in a transfer that I found on a now-defunct blog and reprocessed to make the sound more vivid and spacious);
Offenbach Gaite Parisienne (Victor LM-1001, c.1949, in a robust performance that is more energetic than his later Living Stereo version; I have considerably reprocessed this to improve its sound & dynamic range);
Gounod: Faust Ballet music (45 rpm Victor record, c.1952, not transferred by me);
Victor LM-1 of 1950: Smetana Moldau and Dvorak Hussites Overture; not my transfer but with some alleged 'improvements' I've tried to add;
Brahms Hungarian dances (another 45 RPM Victor album which I personally did not transfer);
Arthur Fielder Miscellany (a car "mix tape" I made for myself in the late 1970s, from Reader's Digest and RCA Victor stereo LPs, with embedded cover images, including Balfe, Lehar, Vollstedt, Strauss, Kreisler. My fave is "Artist's Quadrille" by Strauss, his arrangement of 'big hits' of the 19th century.
415 MB, mostly mp3s of mono and stereo material, to be deleted by ZS by around 11/18/18.
https://www67.zippyshare.com/d/k49Wp0Rs/20657/Arthur%20Fiedler%20Favorite%20Grab-Bag.zip
--or--
https://www67.zippyshare.com/v/k49Wp0Rs/file.html
Enjoy your little hearts out!
8H Haggis
...and (2) my second Fiedler compilation, all music of the Strauss Family, in old Victors from the forties to the fifties. It includes:
Mr. Strauss Comes to Boston - LM1809 in my own transfer from a mint copy; I think it really sounds spectacular!;
4 Strauss Waltzes (Originally rec. 1942 and then issued on 45 and LP by 1950. Not my own transfers, but I've reprocessed and, I hope, improved them.
Wine, Woman, And Song - Waltz - Op.333; Wiener Blut - Walzer - Op. 354; Artists' Life Waltz; Emperor Waltz, Op. 437.
These performances are truly superb!
Strauss Polkas (originally 78 album M 1049, reissued in 1950 as LM-1226. I worked on these quite a bit, at first thought I'd made them sound QUITE modern and impressive--but, on listening to them today, I think I over-did the treble a bit; sorry.
273 MB, FLAC and mp3; file to be deleted by ZS after 11/18/18.
https://www67.zippyshare.com/d/cQ7gJ2Xv/50213/Strauss%20Family%20-%20Fiedler%20Oldies.zip
--or--
https://www67.zippyshare.com/v/cQ7gJ2Xv/file.html
8H Haggis
A good transfer of Victor LM-1928, Fiedler's c.1954-5 Grand Canyon Suite and Copland El Salon Mexico, may be found on Pablo Varela's blog. It is the original mono release:
https://elbaulcoleccionista.blogspot.com/2015/11/ferde-grofe-por-los-boston-pops.html
I did not know this had *ever* been issued in stereo, though a Fiedler remake of Grand Canyon, done later, was on LSC-2789, a pretty famous 1965 issue that had also short pieces by Bernstein, Mason, and Press:
https://www.discogs.com/Grofé-Bernstein-Boston-Pops-Arthur-Fiedler-Grand-Canyon-Suite-Overture-To-Candide-Odalisque-Prelude/release/4049459
8H Haggis
Finally, a trio of Fiedler albums, dating from c.1940 (Victor 78s) through 1954 (Victor mono) to the 1970s (DG/Polygram stereo).
Fiedler's Favorite Overtures - Shostakovich Festive Ov; Glazunov Springtime; Copland Outdoor Overture; Sullivan's Di Ballo. These were transferred for me by a friend, from his Polydor stereo cassette.
Camden CAL165, recorded c.1940-42 or thereabouts, with Jesus Maria Sanroma, piano, in Liszt's Totentanz and Mendelssohn's PC no. 1. I worked on the Camden transfer quite a bit to improve the VERY dim sound of an upload I once found on a now-defunct blot; used images of the 78 disks embedded into the mp3 files.
Handel: Organ Concertos from Op. 4, with Carl Weinrich, with the Fiedler Sinfonietta. This was uploaded on the now-defunct Random Classics blog as a STEREO record (yes, the original release was on LSC-7047, with some Handel fugues not included here) but Fred, the proprietor of that blog, USED A MONO COPY and did not realize it! His transfer EQ was also *extremely dull* so I reprocessed it and then subjected the mono files to a bit of stereo-ambient enhancement; doesn't sound like true stereo but beggars can't be choosers, and I no longer have my own stereo copy of the 2-LP set. I have to admit, though, that many modern organists have made these pieces sound a lot more fun!
471 MB, both FLAC and mp3 files; cover images included. File will be deleted in *thirty days* after the upload date of 10/18/18.
https://www67.zippyshare.com/d/Rdzi22La/33211/More%20Arthur%20Fiedler.zip
--or--
https://www67.zippyshare.com/v/Rdzi22La/file.html
8H Haggis
Apologies; in my original attempt to post, I had included the c.1954 Grofe Grand Canyon, which I why I mentioned in the top paragraph a 1954 date; but I remembered that Pablo Varela's blog has already done this, so instead in another post I provided THAT link and left it out of the compilation. I should have removed the reference, and changed it to give the date of the Carl Weinrich Handel organ concertos, which was c.1967.
8HH
...Furthermore, the performance of El Salon Mexico on this record mentioned, LM-1928, has been reissued by RCA in a compilation album--but it is distinctly, incontrovertibly, and absolutely NOT stereo. Instead, RCA's engineers have added just a little bit of stereo echo to the mono recording; it bears no resemblance at all to the realistic full stereo done in 1954 and later in the "Living Stereo" and Dynagroove issues by Fiedler. I just played it on 'phones to verify that. Of course, the rest of the CD consists of later recordings (by Ormandy) that are all true stereo.
https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/8117226--copland-appalachian-spring-other-orchestral-works
So, I really wonder if there was a stereo issue of the c.1954-5 Grand Canyon Suite by Fiedler?
8H Haggis
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