Wallenstein Conducts Gershwin and Rodgers, Plus Reups

Robert Russell Bennett's suites from Oklahoma! and Porgy and Bess are still popular, and in the case of the Gershwin opera, his version is probably heard more often than the opera itself or Gershwin's own suite Catfish Row.

Bennett was closely associated with both composers, as the chosen orchestrator of many of their Broadway productions. He did the original orchestration of Oklahoma! and created the suite from Porgy following Gershwin's death, at the request of Fritz Reiner.

Robert Russell Bennett and Alfred Wallenstein

Bennett also collaborated with conductor Alfred Wallenstein, who led the 1935 premiere of a suite from Bennett's opera Maria Malibran. When Wallenstein became conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic in 1943, he quickly recorded the Bennett suites from Oklahoma! and Porgy. The recording of the Rodgers suite dates from August 1944. The Gershwin may have been even earlier, possibly soon after the 1942 revival of the opera.

Decca had rights to both scores, issuing both the original cast album of Oklahoma! in 1943 and selections from Porgy and Bess in 1940 and 1942 with Todd Duncan and Anne Brown of the original 1935 cast. The Decca moguls may have seen the Bennett suites as ways to get the music into even more hands - the suites were shorter and less expensive than the full shows. In the 1946 ad down below, Decca touts the Wallenstein album right along with the Oklahoma! cast album.

This 10-inch LP transfer dates from 1949. The performances are sympathetic and Decca's sound is adequate.

Reups

Conrad Salinger - A Lovely Afternoon (remastered, repitched). The eminent Hollywood orchestrator Conrad Salinger made just one LP.  This latest remaster is the best yet, fixing pitch issues on the original. Thanks to StealthMan for the transfer!

Sonny Burke - Mambo Jambo (remastered). Bandleader Sonny Burke's version of "Mambo Jambo" helped to popularize the mambo in the U.S. This 10-inch LP has his original recordings.

Miss Sadie Thompson (OST remastered). There's a bit of George Duning among the source material and Lester Lee-Ned Washington songs on this forgotten 10-inch soundtrack from a Rita Hayworth flick.

Danny Kaye - Decca DLP 5033 (remastered). The first LP from the comedian-singer-actor, and a very good one.

Larry Adler in Vaughan Williams and Benjamin. The great harmonica player in scores written for him by Ralph Vaughan Williams and Arthur Benjamin.

Copland - Red Pony, Thomson - Acadian Songs and Dances (Scherman). Early recordings of film music by Aaron Copland and Virgil Thomson.

Copland - Our Town, Thomson - The Plow That Broke the Plains (Scherman). More movie music from Copland and Thomson, again led by Thomas Scherman, on the M-G-M label.

1946 ad

Gould Conducts Gould, Direct to Disc

When I recently posted the first recording of Morton Gould's Spirituals for Orchestra, dating from 1946, longtime blog reader Centuri asked me if I had this rendition, conducted by the composer and recorded direct to disc in 1978.

I have owned a copy of the record almost since it came out, so I am pleased to be able to fill Centuri's request with this post - particularly so, because it also includes a definitive account of Gould's Foster Gallery. That composition, dating from 1939, makes mischievous use of Stephen Foster tunes in one of Gould's most interesting scores

Morton Gould at work

All this is presented in what was then considered state-of-the-art sound. For those not versed in the short-lived "direct-to-disc" fad, it involved cutting the master disc for the subsequent vinyl record right at the recording site, eliminating tape recording and the post-production procedures that dimmed the sonics of most vinyl records by removing them several generations from the original sound.

In this instance, the results are mixed. The performance itself is all one could wish, with Gould leading the London Philharmonic at Watford Town Hall, a frequent recording site for the London orchestras. But the sound is recessed, in a manner that was then coming into fashion - a taste that has persisted to this day. I find it frustrating to have the sound of a great orchestra clouded by the resonance of an empty hall. But many disagree, of course, and you may love it. I will say that the sonics are vivid, present and wide-ranging, so in that sense the direct-to-disc approach was a success. The engineer on site was Bert Whyte, who guided the well-regarded Everest classical recordings in the early years of stereo.

Although we may differ on the quality of the sound, perhaps we can agree that the cover is hideous. It either represents a microscopic view of the world's most elaborate stylus approaching the world's dirtiest record groove, or a cheap brooch suspended over a menacing purple valley. Either way, it doesn't seem to have much to do with Morton Gould and his music.

One final note on the sound: although direct to disc was a short-lived phenomenon, digital recording was not. Just before his Crystal Clear sessions, Gould had conducted the London Symphony at the same location for the first digital recordings ever made in England. These would eventually come out on the Varese Sarabande label as vinyl pressings - CDs were five years in the future.

Bert Whyte in the early 1950s

Easy Listening from Weston and Kostelanetz

Some people think all easy listening music sounds alike, but a wide variety of sounds falls within that category - everything from bachelor pad effusions to today's New Age noodling. Even early heroes of the genre such as Paul Weston and Andre Kostelanetz display differing approaches to the same music.

Today's post of 10-inch LPs by the two maestri is evidence, including as it does contrasting versions of the poignant Noël Coward song "I'll Follow My Secret Heart."

Weston betrays his big-band background by arranging the song for sections of the orchestra. Here and throughout the program, he tends to deploy the strings as he would a saxophone choir, while giving the piano part to the harp, to choose a perhaps oversimplified example.

With Kostelanetz, there is no lack of strings and harp, but you may be conscious of more counter-melodies in the texture and far more rubato and dynamic contrasts in the musical line.

I don't mean to imply that I prefer Kostelanetz - sometimes a simpler approach is better, and Weston's approach conveys the emotion that Coward was evoking more effectively than his counterpart.

Paul Weston

In truth, there is much to enjoy in both versions, and throughout both LPs, and the sound throughout is excellent. Kostelanetz's disc dates from 1950, and Weston's from 1952. Kosty (or Columbia) calls his Eight All-Time Hits, which is true for seven of the numbers. But the Victor Young tune, "Beautiful Love," while it has been recorded a number of times, is not a standard. Weston's album is titled Melodies for Sweethearts, which doesn't convey that it comprises waltz tunes.

I might mention that my friend Lee of the blog "Music You (Possibly) Won't Hear Anyplace Else" has featured a number of excellent Kostelanetz discs in the recent past. I hope he won't think I am trying to crowd him off the Kosty korner!

1943 Life magazine ad

Bartok from Sándor and Ormandy, Plus Miaskovsky

Not long ago, I featured György Sándor's sublime rendition of Rachmaninoff's Second Piano Concerto, mentioning that at the time of recording in early 1946, the pianist was about to premiere the Third Piano Concerto of the recently deceased Béla Bartók.

Cover of 78 set

Both the premiere and this subsequent recording were with with the Philadelphia Orchestra and Eugene Ormandy. Columbia issued the Bartók as a 78 set (M-674) that year, and then transferred it to the new LP format in 1949. There, it was coupled with the Ormandy recording of the Symphony No. 21 of the then-living Russian composer Nikolai Miaskovsky (today usually transliterated as Myaskovsky), set down in 1947.

Sándor and Bartók

Sándor was a Bartók pupil and was closely associated with that master. He would record the Third Concerto two more times, first with the young Michael Gielen and a Vienna orchestra in 1959, and then with Adám Fischer and the Hungarian State Orchestra in 1990. As a bonus to the Philadelphia recording, I've transferred the Vienna rendition and included it in the download. Originally on the Vox label, it is an early stereo effort, with Sándor crowded over to the right of the sound stage. My transfer is from a later Turnabout pressing.

Both Bartók performances are quite good. As might be expected, the Philadelphians have more tonal allure than the Vienna band, but the playing on both is alert and Sándor is impressive, as always.

Miaskovsky

Don't skip the Miaskovsky symphony, which is well worth getting to know and wonderfully handled by Ormandy and his troops. The Chicago Symphony and Frederick Stock commissioned the work, which dates from 1940, but did not record it, to my knowledge. The first recording was by Nathan Rachlin (aka Natan Rahklin) with the USSR State Symphony Orchestra in 1941.

Both the Bartók 78 set and the subsequent LP have covers by Alex Steinweiss. The LP art has fun with stereotypes, as that artist often did. I'm not sure what he is depicting on the 78 cover. A piano hammer? An avocado? Perhaps someone more perceptive than I am can decipher it.