Today we find him guiding his namesake chorale in an early RCA Victor LP, recorded in 1950, just two years after he founded the group. The repertoire is nostalgic songs from long ago, which had attained newfound popularity in the postwar era. (See, for example, this collection from Jo Stafford and Gordon MacRae, also from 1950 and also including "Sweet and Low" and "In the Gloaming.")
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| The young Robert Shaw |
Soprano Shirlee Emmons joined the chorale on its founding. She later was widely cast by regional opera companies, then became a noted voice teacher and author, including a book on Lauritz Melchior.
Baritone Raymond Keast sang for Shaw as far back as the latter's days with Fred Waring. Keast was in the Broadway casts of Allegro and Song of Norway in the 1940s. He also appeared on the 1955 RCA recording of La Forza del Destino (which included Shaw Chorale).
The accompanist is Raymond Viola. I haven't found much information on him, other than he was one of the artists on a 1952 RCA recording of the Bartok Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion.
RCA later turned this 10-inch record into a 12-incher by adding the six Schubert songs that the chorale's male voices had recorded in 1949. The sound on this version is quite good.
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| The chorale in an informal moment on tour. Shaw is at the center of things, counting the beer bottles. |
Link (Apple lossless):
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Good to see you getting back to the 10" records. :) Thanks!
ReplyDeleteI was about to "correct" you on the Forza del destino reference -- to say that the year was wrong and the Shaw Chorale was not involved -- only to discover when I checked that you were quite right! There is indeed an LP of excerpts from the opera, made in the US, that in all my listening I never encountered. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteAn oddity in the Chorale's discography is their presence as the only vocalists in the FIRST recording of Bernstein's On the Town (which is not, as far as I can tell, the one transferred on the Pearl "Early Bernstein" collection). Half the sides are choral renditions of a few of the songs; the other half contain ballet music. Very odd, coming just after Oklahoma! had made the "cast album" idea viable. I guess Bernstein was still thought too weird and unmarketable for that audience.
JAC - I think I have seen the Lorza del Destino, but I don't own it myself. That Bernstein item sounds fascinating. I don't think I've ever heard it, although I wonder if if could be contained on one of the early Bernstein miscellany LPs in my collection. I'll have to check.
ReplyDeleteBuster, first off this is a long overdue thank you for everything you do. Second, the Robert Shaw/Victor Chorus ON THE TOWN tracks were collected on the CD 'Leonard Bernstein Wunderkind.' If you, or anyone else wants to take a listen, I uploaded here: https://we.tl/t-JSCyzbdMRW
DeleteHi Andy - Many, many thanks for your kind comments and for the Bernstein!
DeleteAndy - I much enjoyed these recordings. The ballads in this score are extraordinary, and not sufficiently celebrated.
DeleteSo many Bernstein collections have been issued by now, that I wouldn't venture to state authoritatively on that. When I wrote a "Bernstein's theater writing" article not long after his death, the only way for me to hear that one was to have it played for me, when I visited the Library of Congress. (Other sound archives may have owned a copy as well.) But that was a while ago, of course.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Buster. I live in metro Atlanta and went to several of Mr. Show's concerts with the Atlanta Symphony. I was fortunate to attend his last "Christmas with Robert Shaw" concert.
ReplyDeleteRich
Rich - A great memory. I think I have an LP or CD of one of his Christmas concerts.
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