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