Music for All Saints' Day

I can't offer you any music for Halloween - I don't think I have any records of that genre, with the possible exception of Bobby (Boris) Pickett's great "Monster Mash."

I do have music that honors tomorrow - the Feast of All Saints (Hallows), of which today is the eve (een). This 1980 LP comes to us from All Saints' Church, Margaret Street, London. Its Choir is led by Dr. Eric Arnold, who was All  Saints' director of music from 1968 until his death in 1988.

The program consists of music that would be heard during tomorrow's various services - plainsong, a Mass setting by Mozart, and works by English composers, including Bairstow, Bainton and Henschel.

All are well handled by the Choir of four sopranos and eight lay clerks, accompanied by Arnold and by Harry Bramma during the Mozart mass setting. Bramma would serve as the church's director of music from 1989 to 2004.

All Saints maintained a choir school until 1968, when the boys' voices were replaced by sopranos. The Harrison & Harrison organ dates from 1910. The notes to this record plaintively state that "it now needs a complete overhaul," which was subsequently undertaken and completed in 2003.

Exterior brickwork

The church building itself is considered an important piece of English architecture. Dating from the 1850s, it marks the transition from the Gothic Revival style to the Victorian. Architect William Butterfield utilized a polychromatic brick design for the exterior that would be widely adopted for English domestic buildings in years to come. The interior design, with every surface richly patterned, also is far more decorative than what we usually expect to see in the Gothic style - astonishingly so (see the photo below; the LP cover does not do it justice).

The LP recording is good, in the unobtrusive English style of the time. This appears to be the first album on the Church's own label; I am not sure if others followed, but I do know that the Choir has made a number of recordings for Priory over the years. The download includes cover scans, as always, as well as the text insert.

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Church interior - click to enlarge

Marian Anderson: the Complete 1947 Spirituals

I have previously offered two collections of spirituals by the eminent contralto Marian Anderson. One LP collates her 1952 recordings in that genre. The other, an EP, provides a selection from a 1947 session.

Portrait by
Everett Raymond Kinstler

I recently acquired a 10-inch LP that includes all the 1947 recordings. It forms the basis of today's post. (Full disclosure: I reused three of the EP transfers because the smaller disc was in better shape than side 1 of the LP.)

At the time of recording, Miss Anderson was 50 years old, and her voice had lost little of the power and lustre and none of the expressiveness that had made her famous. These recordings, made with her long-time accompanist Franz Rupp, are spellbinding.

I am sending this one out (as the the deejays used to say) to my friend DonR, who is a great fan of Marian Anderson.

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Whiteman, Previn and a Profusion of Limited-Time Uploads

Some of you may have noticed that 8H Haggis has been busily laboring away in the comments sections, providing links to limited-time uploads of mainly rare or unusual classical uploads. These generally feature his savvy improvements to older items in need to repair.

Goodness, has he been busy! Let me get a few other items out of the way first, then I will provide a list of his labors.

First, if you have enjoyed the Paul Whiteman recordings uploaded here or on my friend Lee's blog, please be advised that genial blogger has done it again, this time with 22 new transfers from his extensive collection. Go here for the latest tranche.

Also, let me mention that I recently remastered and reuploaded my collection of 1947-50 Andre Previn Trio recordings. Mind-blowing pianism, I assure you. Here's a link to the original post.

Now back to 8H and his profusion of plenitude. I can only offer the briefest synopsis of what is available - just composer and principal artist(s). See the comments to these posts for what 8H has on offer. I suggest searching on the composer or artist to minimize scrolling.

In the Hanson Conducts MacDowell comments

Bach - Elsner/Reinhardt
Bach - Videro/Sorensen/Friisholm
Ballet Program - Perlea
Bartok - Byrns
Beethoven - Davisson
Beethoven - Goehr
Beethoven - Keilberth
Beethoven - Perlea
Berlioz, Debussy - Dorati
Bizet - Goehr
Borodin - Dorati
Brahms - Dorati
Brahms - Kubelik
Cherubini - Schmitz
Corelli - Goehr
Dukas - Sebastian
Dvorak - Swoboda
Enescu - Ormandy/Kindler
Franck - Wolf
Haydn - Goehr
Haydn - Swarowsky
Kodaly - Roth Quartet
Liszt - Sebastian
Liszt, Weber - Milner/Rother
Mendelssohn - Steinberg
Meytuss, Mossolov - Ehrlich
Mozart - Barchet
Mozart - Lehmann
Mozart - Steinberg
Mozart, Boccherini, Weiner - Starker
Pastorales - Phila Wind Quintet
Prokofiev - Samosud
Prokofiev - Stasevich
Ravel - Dorati
Rimsky - Chalabala
Rossini - Rossi
Schubert - Prohaska
Schubert - Steinberg
Schubert - Susskind
Stravinsky - Dorati
Tchaikovsky - Gauk
Tchaikovsky - Kubelik

In the More Limited-Time Uploads comments

Albeniz - Echaniz
Bach - Haas
Barber - Walter
Bartok - Loveridge/Parry/Webster/Lees
Bartok, Weiner - Dorati
Bartok, Kodaly, Dohnanyi - Gerle/Benoit
Beethoven - Brott
Beethoven - Petri
Beethoven - Stern/Rose/Walter
Beethoven - Swarowsky
Beethoven - Walter
Beethoven - Weingartner
Berwald - Riefling/Benthien Quartet
Bloch, Antheil, Richter - Winograd
Boyce - Lewis
Brahms - Fiedler
Brahms - Swoboda
Brahms - Walter
Busoni - Busch/Walter
Chabrier - Doyen
Cimarosa - Swarowsky
Concert in the Park - Fiedler
Copland - Mitchell
Creston - Mitchell
Dello Joio - Swarowsky
D'Indy - Walter
D'Indy, Dukas - Fistoulari
Dvorak - Walter
Dvorak, Milhaud, Schoenberg - Golschmann
Favorite Overtures - Fiedler
Gershwin - Dorati
Gershwin - Hatto
Gershwin - Sanroma/Fiedler
Gottschalk-Kay - Ormandy
Gould - Mitropoulos
Gounod - Fiedler
Handel - Boult
Handel - Weinrich/Fiedler
Haydn - Swarowsky
Hindemith - Walter
Ibert - Loose/Swoboda
Italian Woodwind Music - Phila Woodwind Quintet
Larsson - Soderstrom/Saeden/Westerberg
Liszt - Sanroma/Fiedler
Mendelssohn - Boult
Mendelssohn - Frugoni/Mrazek/Swarowsky
Modern French Orchestral Miniatures - Rohzdestvensky
Mozart - Newstone
Nielsen - Rudolf
Offenbach - Fiedler
Quantz - Wummer/Valenti
R. Strauss, Offenbach-Dorati - Dorati
Ravel - Walter
Ravel - Wittgenstein/Walter
Romances and Serenades - Lane
Saint-Saens - Frugoni/Swarowsky
Schumann - Walter
Sibelius - Westerberg
Smetana - Fiedler
Smetana - Swarowsky
Strauss Family - Fiedler
Two Centuries of Austrian Piano Music - Demus
Vaughan Williams - Walter
Villa-Lobos - Echaniz

Remember that these uploads will be available only for a matter of 30 days or less. They are on Zippyshare, which has certain peculiarities. When you click on a download link, you may be taken to one or more nuisance tabs or pages. Close those and try the download link again.

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DInah Shore TV Show

In my long-standing Dinah Shore series, I've recently concentrated on her output for Columbia in the 1940s. But today I want to return to her early 1950s recordings for RCA Victor. This particular LP signifies that Dinah had crossed over from hit record maker to the sunny television presence that would become her persona for the next several decades.

Dinah on set in 1952

Dinah Shore TV Show was a 10-inch LP, presented here in its alternative double-EP format. It dates from 1954, by which time the singer had established herself as a welcome visitor in US households via a twice-weekly 15-minute program that had begun in 1952.

Chevrolet sponsored this show and its hour-long successor, and among Dinah's most famous bits was singing the "See the USA in your Chevrolet" song, concluding with a giant kiss to the audience. It was irresistible - you can see one of these ads via the YouTube clip below.
You also can watch a complete early show from this series via this link. The LP purports to be selections taken from these programs, and as far as I can tell, that is indeed the case. The songs are largely well-known specimens from the Great American Songbook, with the possible exception of the Billy Hill-Ted Fiorito-Daniel Richman tune "Alone at a Table for Two" from 1936. Curiously, no orchestra leader is identified on the labels, although Vic Schoen was the show's music director. Regardless, it's a most enjoyable record in good sound.

Chevrolet would continue to sponsor Shore's programs until 1961. (Note that she is leaning on an early Corvette in the cover photo above.) Her subsequent TV series would be sponsored by the American Dairy Association and S&H Green Stamps. My next Dinah post will be a promotional item from that latter show, at which time I will explain Green Stamps to any younger followers out there. My mother made me stick all those stamps into the books, and I think I still have glue residue on the roof of my mouth.

Coverage in Down Beat - click to enlarge

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More Limited-Time Uploads

Our friend 8H Haggis has been lurking in the comments section again, leaving many delectable goodies for those quick enough to pounce on them during the next few weeks.

All of these are on Zippyshare. For those new to that site, it has a annoying habit of generating one or more nuisance tabs or pages when you first click on the download button, offering cures for baldness (I oughta try that one) or spurious software. Just close that tab or page and try the download button again.

Once again, the links below will take you to one of my posts. You then will need to scan the comments page until you find 8H's contribution(s). Well worth the trouble!

Stokowski's broadcast of the Koto Concerto by Henry Cowell, from a tape by 8H's teacher, Lou Harrison - LINK

Stokowski's superb 1947 recording of Dvorak's New World Symphony - LINK

CPE Bach Concertos played and conducted by the very underrated Thomas Schippers - LINK

Four Saint-Saëns tone poems from the NY Philharmonic and Dimitri Mitropoulos - LINK

Mitropoulos's second, stereo recording of the Vaughan Williams Tallis Fantasia, coupled with Schoenberg's Verklaerte Nacht - LINK

Sir Adrian Boult conducts Bartok's Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta and Divertimento for Strings, and Walton's Belshazzar's Feast - LINK

Boult's Somerset recording of Tchaikovsky's Pathetique Symphony - LINK

Walter Goehr's Concert Hall recordings of three of Tchaikovsky's Suites for Orchestra - LINK

Three early Tchaikovsky symphonies in stereo recordings from the legendary Hans Swarowsky - LINK

Gordon Binkerd's First Symphony in the 1959 Edouard van Remoortel recording from St. Louis - LINK


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Follow Along Via Twitter

I know that quite a few readers follow this blog via an RSS feed, as I do myself with many blogs and news sites. I also know that RSS is a kind of creaky technology that is at least a few generations behind all that is current on the web. So I figured I might offer something that is more modern, if you consider something that been around for a decade to be up to date. That's right - I have started a Twitter feed.

This means that every time I post something either here or on Buster's Swinging Singles, I will send out a Tweet, so you can drop everything (hopefully not the baby) and rush right over here for your dose of instant nostalgia.

I may also point out other items of interest on the web. This will be largely confined to music. Unlike your favorite sportswriter or actor, I promise not to opine on politics.

Click the button below to join me on this historic journey.

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The First Recording of Vaughan Williams' Pastoral Symphony

This post is of no significance other than I occasionally like to transfer some of my favorite compositions.

This is the first recording of what I believe to be one of Ralph Vaughan Williams' greatest works, although it is lightly regarded among his symphonies.

It is perhaps unfortunately titled A Pastoral Symphony, which consigns it to what has derisively called the "cow-pat" school of music. At the time it was written, and even at the time of this recording in 1952, it was presumed to be an elegy for the English countryside. In later years, it has been understood instead as a reflection on the composer's time in France as an ambulance driver during World War I.

Vaughan Williams in France

It's of course possible that Vaughan Williams intended the work to be both a meditation on the landscape he knew in England and on the scarred terrain of war-torn France - where so many men were interred. As a corpsman, Vaughan Williams was confronted by death constantly. His response was to produce a symphony of remarkable beauty, heartbreaking and elegiac. Among its effects are a solo bugle, whose sound he would have heard each evening in France, and also at the military funerals he attended; and a wordless soprano solo, perhaps an angel's voice comforting the souls of the dead and welcoming them to a better world.

Or so I imagine. The work does not really have any stated programmatic aim, and can be enjoyed simply as an extraordinary piece of music.

Adrian Boult, Ursula and Ralph Vaughan Williams

The recording could not have a better provenance. It is conducted by Sir Adrian Boult, who led the first performance in 1922. The wordless soprano solo in the final movement is by Margaret Ritchie.

Margaret Ritchie

This album was part of Boult's first recorded cycle of the composer's symphonies, all of which were supervised by Vaughan Williams himself. The sessions were in Kingsway Hall, the most famous venue of the time, with producer John Culshaw and engineer Kenneth Wilkinson.

The download includes the contemporary Gramophone review, together with an advertising insert for the Decca cycle of symphonies, which includes production photos, including the one above. These were among Decca's 1953 offerings in commemoration of Queen Elizabeth's coronation. 

I transferred the first two movements from an English Decca pressing (cover above) and the final two from the London pressing made for export to the US (cover below). [Note (June 2023): This transfer has now been enhanced with ambient stereo processing.]

Marian Anderson in Brahms and Mahler

Here are two uncelebrated but nonetheless remarkable performances by contralto Marian Anderson, one of the greatest artists of the 20th century.

Marian Anderson

This 1950 LP contains the third of her three recordings of Brahms' Alto Rhapsody, and what may be her only recording of Mahler's Kindertotenlieder.

RCA has never re-released the Brahms, and I believe the Mahler has only appeared in a reissue series devoted to conductor Pierre Monteux.

Fritz Reiner's conducting generates notes, staves and whirligigs

In the superb Alto Rhapsody, Miss Anderson is beautifully supported by a recording orchestra conducted by Fritz Reiner, then at the Metropolitan Opera, and the men's voices of the Robert Shaw Chorale. Her earlier (and better known) versions date from 1939 (with the Philadelphia Orchestra and Eugene Ormandy) and 1945 (with the San Francisco Symphony and Monteux).

Monteux also leads his San Francisco band in the Mahler song cycle. Monteux did not conduct Mahler regularly - and this appears to be his only recording of that composer. His rendition is understated, which is perhaps not a fault in this wrenching composition. Miss Anderson's warm voice is well suited to this approach.

Pierre Monteux

The Mahler comes from a February 1950 session in the War Memorial Opera House; the Brahms is from an October 1950 date in the Manhattan Center. The sound from San Francisco is good; from New York even better.

My previous Marian Anderson posts were devoted to spirituals and Christmas carols.

Note (August 2023): these recordings are now available in ambient stereo.

Want More Whiteman?

My friend Lee over at the MY(P)WHAE blog is a great Paul Whiteman admirer, and even more so a fan of Ferde Grofé. Any reader who has a taste for these two important musicians should head over to Lee's place for his recent post of 20 Whiteman recordings from 1925-28, all with Grofé arrangements.

Lee is a talented transfer engineer - you truly will not hear these sides sounding any better. He told me he has some 100 Whiteman 78s in the can, so I am hoping he will favor us with one or more additional posts devoted to that maestro.

While you are on Lee's site, try one or more of his posts devoted to 50s cheap-label cover records or, as Lee calls them, "fake hits." I have just been enjoying the immortal "Get a Job" in an enthusiastic version not by the Silhouettes but the "Promineers." Great fun! Here's a link.