Navidad with the Coro Misioneros del Espíritu Santo

The Missionaries of the Holy Spirit (Misioneros del Espíritu Santo) were founded on Christmas Day 102 years ago in Mexico City. This holiday offering from its choir is undated, but appears to be from about 1960.

It presents a delightful conclusion to the blog's seasonal fare for the year, with its simple but well performed program from what I believe to be students at the seminary school, accompanied by electric organ and accordion. The proceedings were directed by Reverendo Padre Anselmo Murillo.

The recording was by Columbia of Mexico, but this 10-inch LP appears to have been issued by the choir. The download includes the usual scans, this time including the labels and a four-page insert with texts in Spanish. I've also included my cleaned-up machine translation of the back cover notes. (I studied three languages in school - none of them Spanish - and wasn't very good at any of them, so that may set your expectations of the translation at an appropriate level.) The sound is good.

Once again, happy holidays to all visitors!

The Misioneros del Espíritu Santo, at a somewhat earlier time than the recording

Christmas Reups: the Bach Choir and the Mennonite Hour Choral Groups

Two reups for you today, both 10-inchers of the seasonal variety.

The first, in response to a request, is an early LP by the Bach Choir, a large amateur ensemble that has been performing in London since 1875. Reginald Jacques, at the helm here, was its conductor for 32 years. This present disk, from 1950, is one of its first recordings

When I posted this initially a number of years ago, I complained that the sound was frustratingly opaque. I have now revisited the files and managed to open up the sonic vistas. I think you will find the results pleasing.

The second reup is an entirely new transfer of a Christmas LP from the Mennonite Hour,  which I first shared a number of years ago here. Joy to the World dates from the late 1950s, I believe.

As with all Mennonite music of the time, the singing is acapella. These are amateur choirs, but they acquit themselves well, although the Male Quartet is overtaxed by the difficult harmonization of "Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming." They apparently believed, as Browning did, that "a man's reach should exceed his grasp. Or what's a heaven for?"

Marian Anderson's First Christmas LP

Today's holiday offering is in response to a plea from reader Musmad. He wrote, "I'd like to put in a request for Marian Anderson's first Christmas album, made in 1952, with Franz Rupp at the piano - a 10-inch RCA LP that has always eluded me. It was made a decade before her still-available seasonal disc with chamber-orchestra accompaniments by Robert Russell Bennett. If you have it I would be grateful for an upload - as I have been on so many previous occasions."

As sometimes happens with requests, I already had the record in the queue for transferring, so here it is for Musmad and for all interested.

The second Anderson holiday LP that Musmad mentions was first issued only a few years before the eminent contralto's 1964 retirement. This earlier album, made when she was about 54, finds her in perhaps fresher voice. The singing is strong and intonation secure, underpinned by her characteristic dignity and depth of feeling.

As Musmad noted, Miss Anderson is accompanied by Franz Rupp, who was her regular pianist from 1940 until her retirement. As might be expected, he is deferential to his distinguished partner, and the piano parts for most numbers can best be described as minimal. Things pick up for the instrumentalist on the second side with Alphonse Adam's "Cantique de Noël" and for the two succeeding songs, which are the only items on the program that could be considered unusual.

The two pieces, "Angel's Song" and "Hallelujah," come from a newly published song cycle "The Blessing," by Frida Sarsen Bucky. They are attractive numbers, and Miss Anderson apparently liked the work of the composer, a refugee from Hitler's Germany. She had recorded one of Bucky's songs for RCA in 1945, and they would collaborate on a children's record for Folkways in 1963.

Details about the Bucky works and the recording itself are scarce. RCA's liner notes are devoted to a reprint of a Time magazine article from December 30, 1946. (The cover to that issue is above.) I've only been able to locate recording data for four of the titles, which come from April 1951 sessions in RCA's New York Studio No. 2.

The label's sound is well balanced but boxy. I have applied an ambient stereo effect to add a bit of air to the proceedings.

I have at least one other early LP by this distinguished singer, if there is interest.

Marian Anderson and Franz Rupp

Birthday in Bethlehem, a Christmas Cantata

Each holiday season I share several LPs with you, and invariably one stands out as my favorite. (Last year it was Henri Tomasi's Noël en Provence.) This Christmas my choice is a brief Christmas cantata called Birthday in Bethlehem, a lovely 10-inch LP that surprised me with the quality of its music and performances.

Birthday in Bethlehem takes the form of a father telling his young son the story of Jesus's birth, with celebratory songs interspersed. Decca/London issued the work late in 1950, in the same set of releases as the Westminster Abbey carol collection that formed my last post.

The vintage cover is unhelpful about the provenance of the recording, its participants and its composers, so I delved into their backgrounds for my own edification.

Frank Kingdon

The song lyrics and connecting narrative are the work of Dr. Frank Kingdon, an American author, columnist, political figure and college president. The fine music for the songs is by the team of Gene Bone and Howard Fenton, Americans whose compositions ranged from art songs to pop music. 

Bone and Fenton apparently did not handle the underscoring for the narrative passages. That music appears to be the handiwork of the very young English composer Charles Dakin. His scoring, which is beautifully done, features the saxophone; Dakin later composed a number of works for that instrument.

Musical America Ad, circa 1950

None of these people are well known today. Perhaps the most recognizable name on the cover is the tenor Eugene Conley, who appeared at the Metropolitan Opera for several years in the 1950s. He is coupled with his then-wife, the mezzo Winifred Heidt, who was herself an artist of considerable stature. Their performances here are all that could be wished, combining elegant vocalism, excellent diction and complete sincerity.

Although Conley, Heidt, Kingdon, Bone and Fenton were Americans, the recording was made in London, very likely during the summer of 1950, when the principals were in Europe for appearances. The date is unclear - Birthday in Bethlehem does not appear in the English Decca discography. That document, however, does list Conley and Heidt as recording a set of operatic arias in September 1950, which came out in November as Decca/London LPS 280. That is the next recording in numerical sequence to the Christmas program, so it seems likely that the holiday album was taped at about the same time.

As for the production's provenance, my guess is that the singers brought the project to the record company. It may have called for spoken narration interspersed with the Bone-Fenton songs. The record company, thinking that the narrative required an underscore, then may have contracted with young Dakin to handle that task. But again, that is pure supposition.

However the project came together, the results are impressive. The fine orchestral playing was under the direction of the 31-year-old Norman Del Mar, an English music specialist who was the principal conductor of the Britten-centered English Opera Group. For this LP, he led the "New Symphony Orchestra," a name that Decca/London was applying to freelance ensembles it assembled for recording purposes.

Lionel Murton

I should also cite the highly effective narrator, the English-Canadian actor Lionel Murton, who radiates the appropriate warmth for this seasonal material. There is more information about the participants in the download, along with the usual scans and photos.

While this is not a major work, and despite appearances, is not really aimed at children, it is an affecting piece. It's a shame it has sunk into obscurity.

Christmas in Westminster Abbey, 1950

London's Westminster Abbey has existed for nearly a millennium, and its choir school for about half that period. This present record has only been around for 66 years, but is historic in its own right.

Information on these matters is hard to find - for me at least - but this is probably the first LP recorded by the choir, although it had made occasional records going back to the 1920s.

William McKie

The selection of carols, mainly familiar, was led by Dr. (later Sir) William McKie, Organist and Master of the Choristers at the Abbey from 1941 to his 1963 retirement. McKie and his choristers had gained notice for the music he programmed for the wedding of Princess Elizabeth in 1947. The accompanist here is Dr. Osborne Peasgood, the abbey's Sub-Organist beginning in 1924. The soloists are not identified, although the bass may be Hervey Alan, who was one of the Lay Vicars there at one time.

The performances on this 10-inch LP are excellent. The vintage recordings, made in the Abbey, are good, although they do not fully convey the structure's vast acoustic, nor the power of its Harrison & Harrison organ.

Choristers assembling before the 1947 royal wedding