Christmas Music with Harpist Dorothy Remsen

Dorothy Remsen was the principal harpist of several US orchestras, including Minneapolis, Buffalo and the National Symphony, before settling in for a long career on Hollywood sound stages. She can be heard on everything from the E.T. soundtrack to classical, pop and jazz recordings.

On this, which may be her only solo recording, she performs nine compositions written for the harp and appropriate to the Christmas season.

Two of the works were written for her: "The Psalmist" by noted film composer David Raksin and "Revery" by Disney Studios' Clifford Vaughan.

Most of the rest were prepared by famed harpists for their own use, including two works apiece by Marcel Tournier and Marcel Granjany, and single compositions from Carlos Salzedo and Louise Charpentier. The record opens with a work by French composer Marcel Samuel-Rousseau.

Dorothy Remsen

Remsen (1921-2010) was a native of New London, CT and a graduate of the Eastman School. In addition to her symphonic and film work, she has a long listing of pop and jazz credits (see this page), including records by Ella Fitzgerald, June Christy, Henri René, Percy Faith, Mel Tormé, the Beach Boys, Paul Horn, the Carpenters, Earth, Wind & Fire, Sister Sledge, Natalie Cole and Frank Sinatra. Her film score include works by John Williams, Elmer Bernstein, Jerry Goldsmith, James Horner, Bronislaw Kaper, Henry Mancini, Hans Zimmer and many others; also Robert Craft recordings of Boulez, Stockhausen and Stravinsky.

This record was apparently a production of Remsen and her husband, but is well recorded and of course beautifully played. My apologies for the brief pressing fault in the Clifford Vaughan piece. Discogs dates the LP to 1967; I might have guessed the 1970s.

Carols from London and Mount Holyoke, Plus More

We start off this season's holiday shares with an early Columbia LP that combined two 78 sets, one from England and one from the US  - one from the Celebrity Quartette, the other from the Mount Holyoke College Glee Club.

Also today, we have another welcome contribution from David Federman - details below.

The Celebrity Quartette

On the LP, the better known ensemble may be the Celebrity Quartette, a super-group of sorts selected from among the finest song and oratorio exponents that the UK had to offer. I believe this was an ad-hoc group; at any rate, English Columbia later recorded an ensemble with a somewhat different members under the same grand title.

Gladys Ripley, Isobel Baillie

For this edition, Columbia brought together soprano Isobel Baillie, contralto Gladys Ripley (recently heard here in music of Constant Lambert), tenor John McHugh and bass-baritone Harold Williams. Herbert Dawson provides the understated organ accompaniment.

Harold Williams, John McHugh

The repertoire is familiar fare, save perhaps for "Christians, Awake," the lovely Anglican hymn that is not heard as often in the US. All are exceptionally well done; the singers may be celebrities, but they are suitably reverent in this religious fare. Isobel Baillie is featured throughout, and Harold Williams is impressive in the Coventry Carol.

English Columbia issued four of the six carols in late 1947. Columbia in the US brought all six out in a 78 set in 1949, combining them with the Mount Holyoke set for this LP that same year.

The Mount Holyoke College Glee Club 

The 110-voice Mount Holyoke College Glee Club makes an effective contrast to the quartet, both in size and in its more adventurous selections. The chorus makes pleasing sounds under the direction of long-time Mount Holyoke professor Ruth Douglass, although a snappier tempo might have been adopted in such joyful tunes as "In Dulci Jubilo." Large amateur choirs are difficult to maneuver, though.

The Mount Holyoke Glee Club in 1951

Mount Holyoke is historically a women's college; it is one of the schools in the Northeast US that are traditionally known as the "Seven Sisters." During the 1940s, the Glee Club traveled down from Massachusetts to Manhattan for a yearly Christmas concert. While the New York Times always announced the concert, I only found one review, from 1946, which was positive. The choir's selections on that date included music by Kodaly and Virgil Thomson's "Scenes from the Holy Infancy According to St. Matthew." None of that here, but the selections are nonetheless diverse and well presented.

Mount Holyoke 78 set

US Columbia issued these 10 songs on six-sided 78 album in 1949, at the same time as this LP. The download includes a review of this LP from Billboard, a brief 1947 review of the Celebrity Quartette 78s in The Gramophone, and the New York Times review mentioned above.

Bonus: Brief Music for Two Pandemics

David F.'s latest compilation, "Brief Music for Two Pandemics," commemorates the two viral catastrophes that struck 100 years apart. It contains 10 songs that take their cue from the Stephen Foster song of 1854, "Hard Times Come Again No More," heard in two versions in this typically thoughtful playlist.

A link is in the comments section, along with the usual link for the LP of the day.

May everyone have a wonderful (and safe) holiday season!

More from Philadelphia, with Ormandy and Stokowski Conducting, Plus Reups

Many people said they enjoyed therecent upload of mono recordings from Philadelphia led by Eugene Ormandy. So here is a new selection, with the notable bonus of two pieces led by Ormandy's predecessor in Philadelphia, Leopold Stokowski.

The source for these materials is the unprepossessing LP you see above, issued by RCA Victor's budget subsidiary Camden in the mid-1950s and ascribed to the spurious "Warwick Symphony Orchestra" for reasons known only to the RCA marketing wizards of the time. The "Warwick" is the Philadelphia Orchestra, I assure you.

One side of the program is devoted to the warhorse that inspired hundreds of B-movie soundtracks, Liszt's "Les Preludes." The other contains contemporary American music associated with the orchestra's home city, all in first recordings - works by Samuel Barber, Gian Carlo Menotti and Harl McDonald.

I also am reuploading two additional works by Harl McDonald and one by Max Brand, also from Philadelphia, that appeared here a decade ago. These have been remastered, and in one case newly transferred.

Liszt - Les Preludes

This 1937 recording was Ormandy's first shot at "Les Preludes"; he was to return to it in 1946 for the Columbia label. It is a straightforward reading, beautifully played by the orchestra. As with all these pieces, the recording quality is quite good. The 1950s transfer and pressing are much better than the cheap-looking cover would lead you to expect.

Barber - Essay for Orchestra, Op. 12

Samuel Barber and Eugene Ormandy

Samuel Barber was one of the twin wunderkinder who had been in residence at Philadelphia's Curtis Institute in the 1920s and who achieved fame shortly thereafter. The other was Gian Carlo Menotti, who we will encounter in a moment.

Barber's initial brush with fame was for his 1931 work, the brilliant "School for Scandal Overture," introduced by the Philadelphia Orchestra and Alexander Smallens. By 1938 he had been taken up by Arturo Toscanini, who premiered both the Adagio for Strings and the Essay for Orchestra, Op. 12 on the same NBC Orchestra program. On this disc we hear the Essay, usually called the "First Essay" these days, in Ormandy's 1940 recording, the first of any Barber composition. 

The conductor was to return to the composer's music just a few times in the recording studio, setting down the Adagio and the "Toccata Festiva" in the stereo era.

Menotti - Amelia Goes to the Ball Overture

Eugene Ormandy, Gian Carlo Menotti, Efrem Zimbalist

Menotti composed his first opera, Amelia Goes to the Ball, to his own libretto, written as Amelia al Ballo in his native Italian tongue. The work acquired its English name and translation before its 1937 premiere at Curtis, which was conducted by Fritz Reiner. 

The Ormandy recording of the overture dates from 1939, its first recording and apparently the first of any of Menotti's orchestral works. As with Barber, Ormandy was not often to return to Menotti's compositions on record; the only other example I have found is an excerpt from the ballet Sebastian.

Works by Harl McDonald

Harl McDonald and Eugene Ormandy

The composer Harl McDonald had close ties to both Philadelphia and its orchestra. A professor at the University of Pennsylvania, he also served on the orchestra's board and later as its manager. McDonald was a well-regarded composer whose work was recorded not just by Ormandy and Stokowski, but by Serge Koussevitzky of the rival Boston clan.

The three works here are apportioned out two to Stokowski and one to Ormandy. Stokowski chose "The Legend of the Arkansas Traveler" and the "Rhumba" movement from McDonald's Symphony No. 4. 

Leopold Stokowski in 1940

"Arkansas Traveler" was and is a familiar quasi-folk lick that dates back as least as far as 1847. McDonald's portentous opening could hardly be farther away from the familiar down-home squawk of Eck Robertson's famous 1922 fiddle recording. But soon enough the composer settles into a witty digression on the tune at hand, aided by concertmaster Alexander Hilsberg's masterful playing. Stokowski's approach is perfectly judged in this 1940 recording.

McDonald's "Rhumba" was presumably inspired by the dance that had become increasingly popular throughout the 1930s. The composer was a talented orchestrator, and his skills are shown to great effect in this superb 1935 rendering by Stokowski and the orchestra.

Ormandy is hardly less successful in his 1938 recording of a "Cakewalk" that forms the Scherzo movement of McDonald's Symphony No. 4. His orchestra could not be better in this piece, which again takes its cue from a popular dance form.

Reuploads

Today's reuploads also come from Philadelphia, involving Harl McDonald conducting his own work and Ormandy leading a piece by the little-known Max Brand. These come from two Columbia 10-inch LPs, both of which include the same recording of McDonald's Children's Symphony. The headers below take you to the original posts.

Music of McDonald and Brand

This 1950 10-inch LP couples McDonald's Children's Symphony with "The Legend of the One-Hoss Shay" by the little-remembered German-American composer Max Brand. The Philadelphia Orchestra is led by McDonald in his piece and by Ormandy in Brand's composition.

I wasn't crazy about the McDonald symphony either of the times I posted it. It's pleasant enough and very well presented, but when you put it up against such remarkable children's works as Britten's "Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra," you are matching skill against genius.

Brand's piece has something to do with a poem by Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. That aside, it's an enjoyable work.

McDonald's "Builders of America" (and Children's Symphony, Again)

Columbia decided to record McDonald's cantata "Builders of America" in 1953, using the 1950 recording of the Children's Symphony as a disc mate.

The "Builders of America" is a sort of lesser "Lincoln Portrait," profiling both that President and George Washington. Edward Shenton, a well-known illustrator, provided the text, which is plain awful in parts. But the music is good, and narrator Claude Rains is fine. McDonald conducted the Columbia Chamber Orchestra, which was almost certainly composed of Philadelphia Orchestra members.

More Rare Singles from Hal Derwin

Once again I have the pleasure of presenting vocalist and bandleader Hal Derwin in a selection of his Capitol recordings from the late 40s. These rare sides are courtesy of vocal maven Bryan Cooper, who has gifted us with so many unusual items.

My previous Derwin collection included what I thought was all of Derwin's records, save for six. It turns out that there were (at least) eight missing - the eight contained in this collection direct from Bryan's stash. Most of the eight date from 1947, with the final two set down in 1949, after the recording strike was settled.

The first song in the set is Irving Berlin's "Kate (Have I Come Too Early, Too Late)," which may have been written for or in honor of Kate Smith - Berlin's publishing company put her photo on the sheet music. Several male vocalists recorded it - Bing Crosby, Alan Dale and Eddy Howard among them. Derwin's rendition is very accomplished. 

The flip side is "Home Is Where the Heart Is," a standard sentiment that has inspired several songwriters over the years. This edition is by Charles Tobias and Dave Kapp, and is not the same song that later appeared on Elvis Presley's Kid Galahad soundtrack.

The next single leads off with "No One But You," a lovely minor-key ballad that, oddly enough, originated with the soundtrack for Bambi, where it was heard as "Looking for Romance." Derwin is great, but I have to say I don't care for the woozy muted trumpet obbligato. The backing is "One Dozen Roses," a formulaic but pleasant song that was a hit for Harry James in 1942.

"At the Flying 'W'" is a enjoyably bouncy tune from Allie Wrubel. Derwin's competition here was Crosby and the Andrews Sisters, back when Bing was in his Western phase. The other side of the 78 was "Sissy," written in 1938 by bandleader Louis Panico with Irving Kahal and Jack Fascinato. It is very much in the style popular then - a two-beat businessman's bounce.

Frank De Vol

All the songs above have backing by Derwin's own band, along with the Hi-Liters vocal group on all but the last song. They are just fine, but singer was better served by the lush sounds provided by arranger-bandleader Frank De Vol, who backed him on the final two songs in this set, which come from a 1949 release.

Derwin reached back in time for his repertoire on this last disc. "Just Like a Butterfly (That's Caught in the Rain)" was introduced in an unforgettable version by Annette Hanshaw in 1927. And "Goodnight, Sweetheart," dating from 1931, was one of the greatest inspirations of composer-bandleader Ray Noble and his remarkable vocalist Al Bowlly. Derwin handles each song beautifully.

The sound is excellent on these records. Thanks again to Bryan for bringing us these rare recordings by a most talented singer!

Ormandy Conducts Romantic Favorites

For one of the greatest conductors of the 20th century, it's amazing how many of Eugene Ormandy's mono recordings have not been re-released, at least as far as I have been able to determine. Today's post includes several of those elusive items, all dating from near mid-20th century.

The program encompasses two 10-inch LPs and an EP, all on Columbia Records.

 

Sibelius and Rachmaninoff

 

The first LP couples Sibelius' "Finlandia" and "The Swan of Tuonela" with Lucien Cailliet's effective orchestrations of three Rachmaninoff piano preludes, including the composer's greatest hit, the Prelude in C-sharp minor (Bum - bum - BUMM. Da - da - da. Bum - bum - BUMM).

 

John Minsker

The Rachmaninoff works are in turns grandiloquent (the C-sharp minor), tranquil (the G major) and dramatic (the G minor). Cailliet had been a Philadelphia clarinetist who wrote arrangements both for Leopold Stokowski and Ormandy. 

 

Sibelius' "Finlandia" was a favorite of Ormandy, who recorded it six times, twice with chorus. The "Swan of Tuonela" is beautifully done here, with an eloquent and elegant English horn solo by the eminent John Minsker.

 

Suppé and Weber

The second 10-inch LP couples Franz von Suppé's famous and much abused overture to the operetta Poet and Peasant with the overture to Carl Maria von Weber's opera Der Freischütz.

 

The Poet and Peasant is just fine, but I will take issue with the performance of the Freischütz overture, a favorite of mine, which barely hints at the dramatic or supernatural elements of the opera.

 

The Weber overture is the earliest recording among all these items, dating from January 1946 and first issued on 78. The Suppé work comes from a April 1950 session. It too was issued first on 78, then about a year later with the Weber as one of the first issues in Columbia's 10-inch AL series. These early AL discs contained barely more music than the 7-inch EPs that soon would gain favor. The first AL releases all were contained in generic covers with the fussy design shown above. The download includes an article on the series.

 

Strauss and Tchaikovsky

 

On the EP, we have the Waltz Suite from Richard Strauss' opera Der Rosenkavalier, coupled with another famous waltz, drawn from Tchaikovsky's Serenade for Strings. These works are all in Ormandy's wheelhouse. He and the superb Philadelphians do well by them. The EP has a bonus of a wonderful Jim Flora cover depicting the "Presentation of the Rose" from Rosenkavalier. The knight does appear to be sniffing the flower, rather than presenting it to the bored Sophie. (You will need to click on the image to see what I am talking about.)

Ormandy recorded music from Der Rosenkavalier seven times; he chose this waltz suite three times, once with the Minneapolis Symphony in 1935, then with the Philadelphia ensemble in 1941 and 1952. This is the latter version.

 

The Rosenkavalier waltzes also came out on an all-Strauss 12-inch LP a few years later, coupled with Don Juan, Till Eulenspiegel and the Love Scene from Feuersnot. Missing no formats or coupling alternatives, Columbia at one time packaged the Rosenkavalier and Eulenspiegel recordings on a 10-inch disc. It featured Jim Flora artwork that was apparently designed as a companion to the EP cover shown above. I don't have the Strauss LP, but I did scrounge up the cover, which you can see at right. It shows Till Eulenspiegel engaged in his "merry pranks," which seem to be taking place at Watts Towers.

 

The Tchaikovsky waltz is extracted from one of Ormandy's complete recordings of the Serenade, which come from 1946, 1952 and 1960. Discographer Michael Gray claims that the 1952 version remains unissued, so this is apparently the 1946 edition.

The complete Serenade for Strings was coupled on an early Columbia LP with John Barbirolli's New York recording of the Theme and Variations from Tchaikovsky's Suite No. 3. 

 

Bonus Item on Buster's Swinging Singles

 

Full disclosure - the Strauss-Tchaikovsky EP is a new transfer of a disc I featured on my other blog many years ago. But there also is something new on that blog to go along with this post - the 1946 Ormandy/Philadelphia recording of Glinka's Ruslan and Ludmila Overture. I've contrasted it with a competing version from the Boston Pops and Arthur Fiedler, dating from 1939 - which I prefer, but make your own decision!

Music for the Presidential Election

My friend Ernie has knocked together a superb compilation of election-related songs, which he is offering on his blog, Ernie (Not Bert). Ernie is well known for his Christmas posts, but he also chimes in with other goodies on rare and very welcome occasions.

Believe me, this has any number of gems amidst its 37 selections. I am looking forward to contributions by such notables as Duke Ellington, Kenny Delmar, Louis Jordan, Sophie Tucker, the Sons of the Pioneers, Yogi Yorgesson, and of course Buzz Connie's "Vote for Mr. Boogie." Ernie even includes several post office songs.

If you are in the US, or even if you aren't, you can use Ernie's playlist to accompany watching the election returns, then to console yourself if things don't break your way.

Thanks, Ernie!