More Vocals by the Great Stuart Foster

My posts of vocals by Stuart Foster were so successful (artistically, anyway), that I wanted to bring him back for an encore. Today we have 19 songs from singles issued under his name or those of bandleaders Hugo Winterhalter, Gordon Jenkins, Russ Case and several others.

Foster was busy in the studio because he could sing almost anything convincingly, displaying great sensitivity or impressive power as the song demanded. Listening to him is always a pleasure.

Today's singles date from 1949-53.

"Wishing Star" is a pretty ballad that did fairly well for bandleader Russ Case and Foster in 1949. Case's arrangement is dated but lovely, and no one did this kind of wonderment better than Foster. The Modernaires were the market competition for this one.

Next, circa late 1950, we have four songs issued under Stuart's own name for the small PAB label. This were likely done at the invitation of bandleader Dick Freitas, who co-wrote all the tunes, two with the well-known Albert McCarthy, and two with Freitas' wife Mary. (Down Beat sneered at her contributions, observing that they "are a clear indication of why every third American is supposed to fancy himself a song writer." Actually, she is not as bad as all that, although no Ira Gershwin.) The songs are the ballads "If It Isn't Forever" and "Casually" and the contrasting Latin numbers "Carnival" and "Querida." 

In early 1951, bandleader Hugo Winterhalter had the happy idea of pairing Stuart with "Alice in Wonderland," the gorgeous title song of the Disney movie. Foster does wonders with this fine Sammy Fain-Bob Hilliard song. The flip is also good - "I'll Never Know Why," by lyricist Sammy Gallop and veteran songwriter Chester Conn.

A few months later, Foster was in the studio with Bill Snyder, who claimed to wield a "Magic Piano," although he sounds like all the other grandiloquent pianists who were popular back then. The songs are good, even so. Snyder wrote "My Dearest" with singer turned songwriter Sunny Skylar. "Unless" was an English number with music by Torchard Evans and lyrics from Robert Hargreaves and Stanley Damerell. Gracie Fields and Al Bowlly recorded it over there in the 1930s; Eddie Fisher and Guy Mitchell over here in 1951.

Billboard, August 11, 1951

Hugo Winterhalter brought Foster on board again in 1951 for "Make Believe Land," a song by Abner Silver and Benny Davis, who had been writing together for 30 years at that point. Nat Cole did a competing version for Capitol.

Also for RCA Victor at about the same time was "When I'm Gone," written by arranger Dewey Bergman working with Sunny Skylar. The bandleader's name on the label was "Bob Dewey" but that was a pseudonym for Bergman when he recorded for RCA. The song's trenchant lyrics were "You'll be sad, you'll be lonely, when I'm gone, when I'm gone, when I'm gone," in waltz time. The tune is basically the same as the wartime hit "In My Arms."

Russ Case called Foster in for a go at "Play, Fiddle, Play," which, you may have guessed, was a quasi-gypsy tune. The writer was, appropriately, fiddler Emery Deutsch, working with Jack Lawrence and Arthur Altman. The singer is effective in the tune, but it's undoubtedly kitschy.

In early 1952, Stuart issued a few sides under his own name on the small Abbey label, with backing by the experienced Dick Jacobs. "Chimney Smoke" is one of those quasi-folk tunes of the time that managed to insert extra syllables into words to make them sound more, well, folksy. So "chimney" herein comes out "chim-a-nee." Foster is persuasive as always, but these affectations drive me up the listening room wall. Abbey did Stuart no favor by pressing this one a half-step sharp.

The flip side was a revival of "Take Me," a nice Rube Bloom-Mack David song that was a success for Jimmy Dorsey a decade earlier. Foster, predictably, is much better in the song than Dorsey's scrawny-voiced and out-of-tune Helen O'Connell. Jacobs' arrangement starts off loud but settles down.

In late 1952, Stuart was back with Hugo Winterhalter for two memorable movie songs that are seldom heard these days. These, along with "Alice in Wonderland" and "Julie" (below) are the best recordings in the set. "Your Mother and Mine" comes from the Disney version of Peter Pan, with Sammy Fain providing the music, working this time with Sammy Cahn.

From Frank Loesser's score for the Danny Kaye film Hans Christian Andersen came "Anywhere I Wander," a beautiful song that became the first big hit for Julius La Rosa. Foster's reading is well worth hearing.

Making pop songs from classical works is an old trick and not one I enjoy, but the the next version is certainly unique. Jack Lawrence and Fred Spielman had the idea of turning Debussy's Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune into a rapt pop song called "Afternoon Dream," and Gordon Jenkins thought that Foster would be just the right singer for the number. He was right; Foster did "rapt" about as well as anyone.

The other side of the record could not be more of a contrast - a noisy David Saxon-Norman Gimbel number called "Fury," which treatment befits its title. Foster shows his range here in his bravura singing.

The final song is another overlooked gem from a film of the time. "Julie" comes from 1953's Take the High Ground, a war movie whose principal female character is named Julie, played by Elaine Stewart. The glorious theme by Dmitri Tiomkin, working with Charles Wolcott, is superbly done by Foster backed by Le Roy Holmes. One of the finest things in this collection, it provides a fitting conclusion.

Most of these recordings were remastered from items found on Internet Archive. The sound is generally excellent.

Solomon's Final Recordings

A debilitating stroke ended the career of the great English pianist Solomon (1902-88) in late 1956, a few months after he had made several concerto recordings with the Philharmonia Orchestra and conductor Herbert Menges.

Today's post gathers those four works together - Beethoven's first and third, and the Grieg and Schumann concertos. These are all mainstays of the repertoire, just as Solomon's recordings have been standards by which others have been judged for nearly 70 years.

This is a follow-up to my recent post of Solomon in works by Bliss and Liszt, which was well received. Some personal sentiment enters into it as well, for I have owned all these recordings for several decades, and remain fond of them.

The artist who recorded these four concertos was different from the phenomenon who had dispatched the difficulties of the Bliss concerto seemingly effortlessly. These final sessions were afflicted with technical problems that left the pianist almost in despair. Solomon's biographer, Bryan Crimp, wrote that the Grieg concerto sessions "proved to be a desolate and wholly demoralizing experience, with Solomon's incapacity at its worrisome height, possibly exacerbated by the intensive work of the previous days." Even so, none of these travails are evident on the final product. The success of the recording, Crimp noted, "is a reflection of the skill and patience of all concerned: producers and editors, orchestra and conductor, but above all to the supreme effort of the soloist." The slow movement is a particular delight, with lovely horn playing, presumably by Dennis Brain.

Herbert Menges

The conductor Herbert Menges had been Solomon's friend since they were fellow piano students of Mathilde Verne. Menges had been associated with the Old Vic and was the conductor of the Brighton Philharmonic and its successors. EMI engaged him fairly frequently as a concerto accompanist, and these performances are successful in that regard.

Contemporary reviews of these recordings generally fall into two camps - those who were satisfied with the pianist's refinement and poetic playing, others who longed for more passion, which Solomon may no longer have been able to summon. Reviewing the Beethoven first concerto in the American Record Guide, C.J. Luten writes, "He has a pearly, singing tone, a genuine legato, and a fine mechanism. Moreover, his general culture and musical manners are as refined as anyone could wish for. His work invariably gives the pleasure of order and beauty of sound. Solomon's playing would be unforgettable if only he had temperament."

The wonder is that these performances have seldom been out of the catalogue since they were issued, a few years after they were made. Despite what Luten wrote above, I find the Beethoven concertos to be entirely successful, as is the Grieg. But to me, the Schumann finale would benefit from the some of the fire Solomon brought to the Bliss concerto, but may have no longer been able to ignite.

On the LP, Beethoven's first concerto is paired with his Sonata No. 27, which Solomon also handles well. (Note that the Sonata also appears on the transfer of the Beethoven third concerto that I used.) The sonata comes from an August 1956 session, also in stereo.

The recordings were all made in Abbey Road Studio No. 1 and are in true stereo, which is one of the delights of the set. Later reviewers would complain that there was little "stereo spread," having become accustomed to the use of multiple microphones in orchestral recordings. But these simply-miked performances have a convincing coherence that is unobtrusively right. My only cavil is that there is little bloom on the strings, possibly an artifact of the studio, which is not all that large. 

The HMV covers

I did not transfer my well-used records for this post, relying instead on good copies I found on Internet Archive and refurbished for the purpose. The Beethoven Concerto No. 1 is from a US Angel pressing, the Concerto No. 3 is from a EMI reissue from the 1960s, and the Grieg and Schumann are from a Classics for Pleasure 1976 reissue. The downloads include complete scans along with the original HMV covers. The latter were designed in a simple, elegant form by Atelier Cassandre, which did quite a few such covers for EMI at the time, probably through its French associate, La Voix de son maître. The download also has many reviews of the three LPs.

 

Frankie Laine's First Columbia LP, with Bonuses

Frankie Laine is not the kind of singer I usually respond to - he's brash and bigger than life - but I love him even so. He was a most skillful artist.

It's sometimes said that Laine represented a new way of singing in response to the Sinatra-style romantic vocalists of the war and postwar years. His approach was not new, though. Before electric amplification came along, popular singers had to project their voices to be heard. Frankie was a throw-back to the days of Al Jolson (who had a career renaissance in the postwar years), and such blues singers as Bessie Smith.

It's true that these days, Laine is most remembered for such lung-busting exercises as "Mule Train" ("Hee-YAAHH") for Mercury and "Jezebel" ("Jez-e-BELL-lll-LLL") for Columbia. But while Laine possessed a powerful voice, he was not always unsubtle and he was an accomplished technician. You only need to hear his smooth duets with the great Jo Stafford to realize that he was in many ways her peer. And his sense of rhythm was second to none.

Laine had been singing for some time before he began making records, first for the small companies Bel-Tone and Atlas, then for the new Mercury label. He and Mercury immediately enjoyed a huge success with 1946's "That's My Desire," which became Laine's theme song. Some of Laine's Mercury sides and his Bel-Tone disc can be found via this link.

This post and its companion present his first Columbia LP, a 10-incher, and add the special sides that the label issued to promote it. 

'One for My Baby'

Laine's producer at Mercury was the influential Mitch Miller. After Miller departed for Columbia, Frankie followed, in early 1951.

The two almost immediately hit pay dirt with "Jezebel" and such emphatic successors as "Jealousy." They saved the more subtle sides for a long-playing outing, which was soon underway.

Frankie's first LP for his new employer was titled for the number one saloon song of all time, "One for My Baby," written by Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer for the great Fred Astaire and his 1943 film The Sky's the Limit.

Astaire was another skillful singer, but one whose approach could not be more different from Laine's. Fred gave the impression that his voice wouldn't reach patrons in the second row of a theatre. Frankie sounded like he might knock those same people out of their seats. Somehow, both Laine and Astaire are equally persuasive in this famous lament for lost love.

The album begins with the welcome and not often heard "Tomorrow Mountain." Duke Ellington and John Latouche wrote the song for a 1946-47 adaptation of Beggar's Holiday, where it was introduced by Alfred Drake, playing Macheath. To me, most of the musical interest is in the extended opening verse. Latouche's lyrics (and even the song's title) resemble Harry McClintock's "Big Rock Candy Mountain," first recorded in 1928 and a major country hit in 1939.

Frankie and Mitch made a point of choosing diverse songs for the record (they even talk about it on their promo record) starting with the Hawaiian "Song of the Islands," followed by a 1934 opus from the talented Harry Revel and Mack Gordon, "She Reminds Me of You" - an excellent rendition of an infrequently heard song.

Laine was the first to record "To Be Worthy of You," a melody by Walter Gross, who was famous for writing "Tenderly." "Worthy" is not as good as "Tenderly," however.

"When It's Sleepy Time Down South" was the theme song of Louis Armstrong, one of Frankie's idols. Even though the piece was written by three black composers - Clarence Muse and the brothers Otis and Leon René - it reflects stereotypes about race and the South, and would soon become controversial, if it wasn't when Laine recorded it. It has a memorable melody, though, and Frankie is great in it.

"Love Is Such a Cheat" is another song based in stereotypes - "The gypsy came from Bucharest / The girl she came from Budapest / Now you can guess the rest." This was a new song in 1951, also recorded by the Andrews Sisters.

Finally, we have "Love Is a Necessary Evil," a good tune by the accomplished singer-songwriter Redd Evans ("Let Me Off Uptown," "No Moon at All" and unfortunately "The Frim Frim Sauce").

The transfers of these songs come from two sources - my copy of the LP and the 78 album on Internet Archive. I used the 78s where possible because the sound was more vivid - not unusual with records of this vintage.

Bonuses on Buster's Swinging Singles

To interest disc jockeys and listeners in Laine's latest efforts, Columbia issued a promotional record, one side of which involves Mitch and Frankie introducing three songs from the LP above; the other with Laine providing two singing salutes, four song intros and a photo offer, all of which could be programmed by DJs more flexibly.

On my singles blog, I've put together a dual program to go along with the LP. First are the Mitch-Frankie LP intros along with relevant songs themselves. Second is a program with Frankie's "singing salutes" and generic song intros, which I've interspersed with several of his singles - including "Jezebel," "Jealousy" and two duets with Jo Stafford. They make for a fun listen that you can find here.

Vaughan Williams, Mendelssohn-Moscheles, Copland - Works for Two Pianos

Here is another transfer prepared as the result of a request. It features four unusual compositions for two pianos, including the premiere recording of a very good piece from Ralph Vaughan Williams.

The transfer comes from a circa 1979 LP issued by the American label Orion. Performing are two pianists who often recorded for that label - Evelinde Trenkner and Vladimir Pleshakov - although they appeared only one other time as a duo.

Vladimir Pleshakov and Evelinde Trenkner 

The major work on the first side is Vaughan Williams' Introduction and Fugue for Two Pianos, dating from 1946, between the composer's fifth and sixth symphonies.

In his sleeve note, Pleshakov writes, "The musical language is complex, a reflection of the composer's personality. There is an ever-present conflict between the lyricism implicit in his essentially vocal themes and the drama of his symphonic architecture. This very conflict generates the possibility of great and sublime music."

The other major work on the LP is a joint effort by Felix Mendelssohn and Ignaz Moscheles, the Variations on a Theme from Preciosa by Weber. Preciosa is an 1821 play by Pius Alexander Wolff with incidental music by Carl Maria von Weber. These days, only the overture is heard, and that only occasionally.

The music is never less than interesting, although it was essentially an occasional piece for performance by the two friends. This could well have been its first recording.

Filling out the two sides of the record are transcriptions by Aaron Copland from two of his early works. The Dance of the Adolescent is an arrangement of the first movement of his Dance Symphony. The Danza de Jalisco is based on one of the Two Mexican Pieces (which would become the Three Latin American Sketches).

The performances and sound are very good. Evelinde Trenkner (1933-2021) was a German pianist and piano teacher who often appeared in the duo piano repertory. Vladimir Pleshakov (1934- ) was born in Shanghai to Russian parents but has been resident in the US since 1955, receiving a doctorate from Stanford University.

Betty Clooney

There was a fair amount of interest in vocalist Betty Clooney (1931-76) after my recent post of a few of her Christmas records.

So here is a compilation of her recordings, primarily making use of Internet Archive transfers suitably cleaned up for your listening enjoyment (or so I hope). It's a program of 25 songs, which as far as I can tell is the majority of her recorded output.

Betty was the younger sister of the far more famous Rosemary Clooney. The two had been in a sister duo, making records with Tony Pastor's band for Cosmo and Columbia from 1946-49 before Rosie went solo and the still teenage Betty went home.

The split was not a surprise - Rosemary had done quite a few solo records with Pastor, and she was the lead singer of the duo, with Betty providing harmony. That's not to say that Betty was not a talented singer - she was, and these records are the evidence.

Betty had a darker voice than Rosie, although the phrasing and sound are very similar. On these records, she tends to sing in a slightly lower key than Rosemary might have chosen. She has the familiar Clooney vocal characteristics - very good diction and intonation, and an ability to sing different styles convincingly. Betty also tends to be more emotionally direct than Rosie.

A Semi-Final Columbia Record

Betty's solo career began not long after Rosemary's. She was in the studios for King Records in 1950, but before we examine her King singles, let's start with one of her final duo recordings with Rosemary. The song "I Still Feel the Same About You" was going around in 1951, and Columbia recorded it with "Rosemary Clooney and Her Sister Betty." The uncredited bandleader was Percy Faith. Rosie also recorded a solo version of the song, but that was unreleased at the time.

In 1953, Betty and Rosie duetted on "Sisters," which can be found in my recent White Christmas post.

King Recordings

The Clooney sisters were from Maysville, Kentucky, not far from Cincinnati, Ohio. King Records of the latter city had become known for its country and R&B releases during the 1940s, and had begun venturing into pop music, when it engaged Betty in 1950.

Her first King release was with the band of Clyde Trask, a Cincinnati musician who had spent time with Russ Morgan. "Anyone Can Fall in Love" is a lively performance of a worthy song, and Trask's ensemble does well. The B-side did not feature Clooney. Note that "Betty" is spelled "Bettie" on all the King releases.

Betty's next record was with an ensemble led by pianist Eddie Smith, who also was the King Records house engineer. It coupled "Strangers" with "When You Love (You Should Love from the Heart)." Both songs are good without being in any way memorable. Betty's performances are perfectly fine - as is Smith's piano (leaving aside the quality of the instrument), but the arrangement and technical quality are lacking. Both songs are plagued by a wordless vocal obbligato that adds nothing to the proceedings. And the mastering or pressing of "Strangers" is faulty. There were persistent noise and peak distortion problems on two different 78s. I have addressed the noise but not entirely successfully.

Clyde Trask returns in Miller mode with an arrangement of "This Is Our Night." Another proficient performance by the band is enhanced by Clooney's sensitive vocal. Even after her big band experience, she was not an "on the beat" singer. Her flexible phrasing helps to make her singing more conversational.

Betty plays what looks to be an acetate

"Faithful" was popular in 1951, being recorded by Frank Sinatra and Margaret Whiting (whose version can be found here). Betty's vocal stands up to the comparison. The well known lyricist Jimmy Kennedy worked with the French composer Alex Alstone on this secular hymn. The band is unidentified.

Betty went back to a vocal duo for her next record, only this time her partner was herself, double-tracked. "Would I Love You (Love You, Love You)" was another song making the rounds in 1951. This Latin-tinged piece was composed by Harold Spina with lyrics from Bob Russell. It's an enjoyable number, and Betty shows her versatility in this performance, which sounds much like the Clooney Sisters, as you might expect.

"Good Lookin'" also was a new song in 1951. Not to be confused with Hank Williams' "Hey, Good Lookin'" from the same year, this number is by Jimmy Wilber and Teddy Rakel. The latter was a Cincinnati pianist and bandleader. This transfer comes from a radio station copy (see below) that is marked in grease pencil "don't play" and "risqué," which is decidedly not the case. It's actually a good song. Clooney handles this material naturally, with an keen sense of rhythm and an insouciant attitude.

The "risqué" Betty Clooney

The backing for "Good Lookin'" is "Trust in Me," which marked the unwelcome return of the echoey soprano obbligato. This earnest plea is quite a contrast with its flip side.

Betty's final King single was a cover version of both sides of a 1951 Tommy Edwards release - "All Over Again" and "It's All in the Game." Elliot Lawrence, during his brief stay at King, was the bandleader for this coupling. The former song, written by Edwards, was an R&B hit in 1951. The lyrics are the likes of "Say you love me forever / Promise you'll leave me never / We're so happy together," etc.

"It's All in the Game" was a huge pop hit for Edwards - but not until his 1958 remake. Clooney's phrasing is far more flexible than Edwards'. The song was based on a 1911 melody by Charles Dawes, a politician and amateur composer who was to become Calvin Coolidge's vice president in the 1920s. Carl Sigman added lyrics to Dawes' melody 40 years later.

A Stopover at Hi-tone

Hi-tone was a Bob Thiele label that specialized in cover records made with name artists. Clooney recorded a few singles for the label in 1951 and 1952. Three songs are included in this package.

First was a cover of Georgia Gibbs' "While You Danced, Danced, Danced." This is the old tale of catching your sweetheart in another woman's arms, boo-hoo.

Next is a coupling where the two songs couldn't be more of a contrast. Side one was a cover of "Detour," which had been a big Western swing hit for Spade Cooley with Tex Williams on vocals in 1946. (It's available via this post of Cooley's complete Columbia recordings.) The Hi-tone version was probably occasioned by Patti Page's 1951 pop release.

The Hi-tone flip side was "Wonder Why," which Jane Powell introduced in 1952's Rich, Young and Pretty. (The soundtrack LP is here.)

Betty's renditions are good, but the pressings were not. I did what I could to reduce the background racket. (Note: thanks to reader gimpiero, a clean version of "Wonder Why" is now available via a separate link in the comments.)

Scott Fisher and his orchestra provided the instrumentals on this release. Fisher had been a New York area bandleader as far back to the 1930s, and the arrangement on "While You Danced" shows it.

Coral Recordings

Clooney's next two stops were at Coral and "X", subsidiaries of Decca and RCA Victor, respectively. Working with major recording companies made all the difference in the quality of production she was afforded.

Betty's first Coral record was in late 1952. "You're All I See" is a pleasing ballad from Russell Faith, who co-wrote the impressive "Christmas and You," which I recently posted. On both records the bandleader was ex-Elliot Lawrence arranger Frank Hunter. The flip side was another sultry item, "I Idolize You." Clooney handles this romantic material superbly.

Moving into 1953, her second Coral offering was quite a contrast - a proto-rock 'n' roll item called "Sin in Satin." It's really quite good, and Betty does a wonderful job forcing her tone and getting hot on this one. The only competing disc I've found was by the teenage Bell Sisters.

The B-side was a galloping country tune, based on "Turkey in the Straw," called "A Great Big City Boy Like You." Betty does this wonderfully well with her excellent sense of rhythm. The author was Bernard Hirsh, who co-wrote "Christmas and You" with Russell Faith. Jack Pleis handles the orchestra on this and her next, final Coral coupling.

"How Many Sweethearts Have I" is a lilting waltz from Milton DeLugg and lyricist Sammy Gallop, handled sympathetically by Betty. It's a really good record, but the prize is its coupling, Bart Howard's "My Love Is a Wanderer," a beautiful quasi-folk song that has been heard here previously on a Shannon Bolin album. Clooney's performance would be hard to match; it's one of my two favorites in this collection. The second is in the next grouping.

On to "X" Records

Clooney made eight sides for RCA's short-lived subsidiary, "X" Records in 1955. Four are in this collection.

Cash Box, January 15, 1955

First was an attractive waltz called "Whisper," done with Richard Maltby's band. This is a quality production although the lyrics are clichéd. Betty sings in harmony with her own voice on a few of the choruses.

The next two were R&B covers done as duets with big band veteran Bill Darnell (sometimes spelled "Darnel"). "So All Alone" was a cover of a Bobby Lester and the Moonlighters single, written by Lester and Harvey Fuqua. "Ko-Ko-Mo" was a cover of Gene and Eunice's popular single. Darnell and Clooney competed in the market with upwards of a dozen covers. Perry Como's was the most successful. The songs' popularity does not negate the fact that they both are dreadful. The singers alternate top billing on the two sides, but Betty sings harmony on both.

Let's end on a high note with my favorite of the group - "Kiki," a tune by the French composer-bandleader Andre Popp with English lyrics by Charles Tobias. The song's initial success was as "Les Lavandières du Portugal," with lyrics by Roger Lucchesi. It was a continental hit for Jacqueline François in 1955. It then became an American hit as an instrumental for Joe "Fingers" Carr in 1956 under the title "Portuguese Washerwomen." (I wonder if they knew the "Irish Washerwoman.") 

It's too bad the Tobias version is not better known - and with it, Clooney's remarkable recording. It's a standard song-story scenario - a pretty Parisian is pursued by rich men but falls for a poor farmer boy. But the combination of Popp's infectious bolero, Tobias' witty lyrics ("From Deauville came a count named Louis / With a glint in his one good eye") and Betty's deft singing is irresistible. Gordon Jenkins' stylish backing is a bonus.

Bonus - Egbert the Easter Egg

I've appended one of Betty's few children's records as a bonus. It is the tale of "Egbert the Easter Egg," a little yellow disc I owned myself as a very young fellow.

It's a cute song, and Clooney has the same sure touch with kiddie material as her sister. Mitch Miller and the Sandpipers accompany on this Golden Record dating from 1952.

Missing from this collection are a few of the King and several of the "X" singles, one Hi-tone, a single on Studio, and perhaps others. Even so, what we have here is a substantial legacy for a talented singer who deserves to be remembered along with her far more famous sister. Betty died young, of a brain aneurysm at age 45 in 1976.

Betty Clooney in 1954

Solomon Plays Bliss and Liszt

My recent post of Arthur Bliss' Checkmate ballet score elicited a request for more music by that composer. So here is the first recording of his fascinating piano concerto, with the distinguished British pianist Solomon, who is making his blog debut.

The concerto was written for the 1939 New York World's Fair, and was premiered by the New York Philharmonic on a program that also included Vaughan Williams' Five Variants of Dives and Lazarus (which can be heard here) and Bax's Seventh Symphony. Solomon was the pianist for that program, which was led by Sir Adrian Boult, who also is the conductor here.

Arthur Bliss in 1937

This particular recording comes from a 1943 session with the Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. It is in good sound, and the orchestra, while hardly glossy sounding, provides a sturdy backing. [Note (July 2023): this has now been remastered in ambient stereo and sounds even better.]

The concerto's first movement is in the knock-'em-dead virtuoso style that was even then out of fashion. It is all very impressive in its own way, not the least because of Solomon's sovereign command of the proceedings. The Adagietto second movement could not be more of a contrast. It is introspective and quite ravishing. The third movement is motoric, as was common in concertos of the time. Its conclusion is impressive.

My transfer comes from a World Records LP release, with a cover (at right) that gives Solomon's skin an unearthly glow. The album coupled the Bliss concerto with Solomon's fine 1948 recording of Liszt's Hungarian Fantasia, perhaps because the latter's romantic style is a predecessor of the Bliss concerto.

The Liszt was made with the Philharmonia Orchestra in Abbey Road Studio 1, and has quite good sound, displaying Solomon's beautiful tone and remarkable technical control. Conducting was Walter Susskind, then a 35-year-old Czech expatriate who had become the music director of the Scottish Orchestra in 1946. He later led the orchestras of Melbourne, Toronto and St. Louis.

Solomon's career was cut short by a 1956 stroke that paralyzed his right arm. He was 54.

1952 Steinway ad