Early Elliott Carter

Elliott Carter is famously not a composer that many people find comfortable to hear, although he is widely considered one of the greatest American voices of the 20th century - and even into the 21st.

Young Elliott Carter

Notably long-lived, Carter survived until his 104th year, and died only a few years ago - composing to the end. But it's interesting and perhaps instructive to go back to his earlier years and listen to what he devised in his 20s and 30s.

In his late 20s, Carter became the music director for Lincoln Kirstein's Ballet Caravan. The impresario commissioned the young composer to produce a score for a ballet on the Pocahontas tale, which would have choreography by Lew Christensen. Charles Rosen's notes for this present recording state that much of the music comes from 1937, although an orchestrated version did not arrive until 1939. In may be true that some of the music is even earlier - the George Platt Lynes production photo below is dated 1936, when Carter was 28.

Pocahontas production photo

Rosen notes that the music, presented here in its 1941 suite form, is derivative, mentioning Hindemith. I might add the contemporary Russians, and the Americana movement as well - at the time Kirstein was commissioning ballet music from Aaron Copland and Virgil Thomson along with Carter. (Thomson's Filling Station, also choreographed by Christensen, appeared here several years ago.) But the score also has a assured quality and powerful sweep that carries through to Carter's later, more idiosyncratic scores. The performance here by Zurich forces led by modern music specialist Jacques-Louis Monod is very fine.

Rosen considers the Piano Sonata to be a revolutionary work, a "new departure in piano writing with few analogies in the literature of the past." His penetrating analysis in the liner notes is helpful in understanding what Carter is doing, and his performance is sympathetic. This may have been one of Rosen's first published writings on music; he went on to be known as much for his scholarship as his pianism. (Rosen's thoughts on Carter and his music can be found here.) To what Rosen has to say in his notes, I might merely note that Carter also shows the influence of the Americana movement in the sonata's second movement.

The sound on this Epic recording, from about 1962, is quite good. I own other recordings of early Carter works anyone is interested.

Charles Rosen and Elliott Carter in 2007

Johnny Desmond on M-G-M

Balladeer Johnny Desmond first achieved fame as a member of Glenn Miller's Army Air Force Band during World War II, although he had previous big band experience.

After the war he became a solo act, and quickly lined up a record contract with RCA Victor. That label marketed about a dozen Desmond sides in 1946-47, then the singer went looking for a new company. His manager announced that he was going with Majestic late in 1947 - just in time for that small imprint to implode.

Johnny Desmond

So Desmond moved on to the nascent M-G-M operation in 1948, beginning one of his more notable associations with a record label, recording some 50 numbers with that concern into 1951.

12-inch LP on Lion

For some reason, M-G-M saw Johnny as a specialist in French repertoire, and a significant minority of the songs he taped were from or about France. A 1952 10-inch LP gathered eight of these items, and there were enough left over that in 1958 the label could issue a 12-inch version on its budget imprint, Lion.

I have both editions, and this post consists first of the songs on the 10-incher, followed by the extra songs added to the Lion LP, "Johnny Desmond Dreams of Paris." The earlier album has marginally better sound, but there isn't much in it.

To complete the package, I have added Desmond's first M-G-M single, "P.S., I Love You," as well as the attractive ballad "If You Could Care," from 1951. Both are from 78 sources (sonics on the former are not ideal, although listenable).

Desmond worked extensively with guitarist-arranger Tony Mottola, who is in charge of the proceedings on most of not all these songs. Johnny was a romantic balladeer in the Sinatra mold (although he did not sound like The Voice), and Mottola appropriately evokes Sinatra arranger Axel Stordahl in his fine orchestrations.

At this time, Desmond was much better with the dreamy stuff than with up-tempo or novelty scores. Fortunately most of these recordings are of the softer variety, with the exception of "C'est Si Bon" and its follow-up "C'est La Vie," in which Desmond, Mottola and a group called the Quintones try to sound fizzy and end up sounding flat.

Note (December 2023) - these recordings have now been remastered in ambient stereo.

LINK

Kaufman and Milhaud Perform Milhaud

The recordings of violinist Louis Kaufman continue to draw the interest of this blog's readers, so here is another from the files.

Darius Milhaud

As with previous Kaufman records, this presents the music of a contemporary composer, in this instance Darius Milhaud.

The French Milhaud had moved to California and Mills College and became familiar there with Kaufman, who was a very busy Hollywood studio musician. In 1949, the Los Angeles record label Capitol brought them together for this collection of Milhaud compositions.

Louis Kaufman

The longest item here is Milhaud's Violin Concerto No. 2, in its first recording, but the finest work is his Concertino de Printemps, in a dazzling rendition that makes the most of Kaufman's extraordinary intensity. The concerto is well done as well, with an affecting slow movement. Kaufman misses the specific dance character of the final Danses de Jacarémirim, but his virtuosity is worth hearing on its own account.

The sound in this enjoyable program is excellent. In my collecting experience, most Capitol classics of this vintage are reprints of Telefunken originals, including many Mengelberg LPs, but I believe this offering originated with the West Coast label.

The Nearly Complete Sun Valley Serenade

For some time now, the erudite Dave Weiner has been providing session-by-session commentary on the civilian recordings of the Glenn Miller band on Dave's blog, Community Swing.

This has been a real pleasure for me, a Miller fan since I was 10, and when Dave recently covered the songs from the 1941 film Sun Valley Serenade, I decided to do a post of my own. This for two reasons: one, these were among the first Miller items I owned myself, and two, the soundtrack recordings exist in a variety of versions, which Dave neatly straightens out, enabling me to assemble a coherent and nearly complete package.

We start with RCA Victor's 10-inch soundtrack LP, which belatedly came out in 1954 as part of the blitz of Miller recordings that RCA reissued in the wake of The Glenn Miller Story. In 1959, 20th Century Fox issued a Miller soundtrack set that included some but not all of this material - and added one item that isn't found on the RCA edition.

The RCA LP is unusual in that it includes the first version of the gorgeous Harry Warren-Mack Gordon ballad "At Last" (yes, the Etta James song), cut from this film only to turn up in the second Miller pic, Orchestra Wives. Here's Dave: "It’s a great arrangement by Jerry Gray and Bill Finegan, done here as a rhythm ballad, vocalized by Lynn Bari and John Payne. Payne sings for himself, rather reedily and Bari is doubled, as usual, by Pat Friday." I might add that Pat Friday was a superb singer who unfortunately is quite unknown these days. The Pat Friday-Ray Eberle version of "At Last" in Orchestra Wives is even better than this one. Friday, Payne and the Modernaires also do another beautiful Warren-Gordon ballad, "I Know Why" in Sun Valley Serenade.

The RCA LP includes the complete eight-minute "Chattanooga Choo-Choo." It starts with the familiar Tex Beneke-Modernaires vocal, followed by a long section featuring Dorothy Dandridge and the Nicholas Brothers. This is as seen during the film, but minus the sound of the brothers' tap dancing. (Their routine is astonishing, by the way.)

Dorothy Dandridge and the Nicholas Brothers

The album contains what Dave calls the best-ever version of Miller's famous "In the Mood," among several outstanding band features, including Jerry Gray's terrific "The Spirit Is Willing."

But as I mentioned, the RCA LP is not complete. It did not contain the snatch of Miller's theme "Moonlight Serenade" as heard in the movie. So I have added that song from the Fox soundtrack album (which did not contain this first rendition of "At Last" and had truncated versions of "Chattanooga Choo-Choo" and "I Know Why").

Another song, "The Kiss Polka," appears in the film but is not played by the Miller band. However, the band did make a commercial recording of it that I have appended to the download.

I say my version is "nearly complete" because there is one song that was cut from the movie and has never been released. It is called "The World Is Waiting to Waltz Again." Dave, however, has somehow come up with the recording, and it can be heard via his blog post discussing Sun Valley Serenade.

The RCA LP has excellent sound, and is better than the Fox edition, which adds unneeded reverb. The soundtrack also is superior to the Victor commercial recordings of the early 40s. One final note for those who might be curious: the strange whistling sounds heard under the muted trumpet solos during "The Spirit Is Willing" are on both the RCA and Fox records.

Note (July 2023): I have now added an alternate take of "Chattanooga Choo-Choo" to the download, cleaned up from a long-ago bootleg. You will note that Tex's whistling intro is different from the version used in the film. Please excuse the pitch instability and noise on this outtake. Also new in the download is a long document about the film from the American Music Research Center at the University of Colorado-Boulder.

Below, the Miller band as seen during the film, with Lynn Bari as vocalist, John Payne as pianist, the sections all mixed up.

More from Sauter-Finegan, Florence Henderson and Bruno Walter

More today from the Satuter-Finegan Orchestra, Florence Henderson and Bruno Walter (not together, I should add). These are quick follow-ups to some of the posts that have appeared here in recent months. I'd like to say you have been clamoring for them, but that wouldn't be true, so I'll just say that I hope some of you enjoy them!

A few words about each (you can tell I am tired of writing about these particular artists):

Sauter-Finegan Orchestra - Concert Jazz. This is the troupe's fourth LP (I have the third but can't find it), and it follows a familiar path, with some compositions by the individual maestros, some vocals, including an odd version of John Henry, and interesting arrangements. Great sound, a Jim Flora cover and a scan of the second cover, depicting Sauter and Finegan on stage. Recorded in 1954-55.

Florence Henderson - The Best from Fiorello! and The Sound of Music. My first post by the future Mrs. Brady was surprisingly well received by people who didn't know she sang, or who knew she sang but had never heard her do so. Like that initial LP, this album has potted versions of two Broadway hits of the time (1960) - Fiorello! and The Sound of Music. Henderson once again sounds like Mary Martin, which is especially appropriate in the latter score. The Sid Bass arrangements are loungy, which isn't to my taste in this repertoire.

Bruno Walter/Philadelphia Orchestra - Beethoven Symphony No. 6. Another installment from Walter's Beethoven cycle of the 1940s. Here he takes a break from the New Yorkers, and travels to Philadelphia and the Academy of Music for January 1946 sessions. This to my ear is a less successful performance and recording than the efforts with the PSONY, but enjoyable enough. Below, a Columbia ad from 1946 touting this new release among others. The transfer is from an early LP.