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!