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.
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| 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.
Link (Apple lossless):
ReplyDeletehttps://mega.nz/file/3VlCgLaA#2P4U_CmkC7W4wppgmMdgm7iAuHzIEivVWGR9w_usEUg
very interested in the Copland selections. thanks!
ReplyDeleteHi SD - You're welcome!
DeleteThe blog that hits the spots others do not. Many thanks. The VW I can find only one other version Bebbington/Ormordia which wrongly claims first ever recording. The manuscript is inscribed 'for' Cyril Smith and Phyllis Sellick but predates Smith's incapacity so not written for three hands.
ReplyDeletezoot - Thanks! Surprising that Cyril and Phyllis didn't record it.
DeleteNot exactly bums on seats is it ? And in 78 era it would have needed six sides. The 'legendary' S&S seem to have a pretty meagre discog.There is,of course, the Arnold written for them which is real showbiz.
DeleteZoot - VW had a talent for composing works that are not exactly easy to program (e.g., The Pilgrim's Progress). I do have a few S&S LPs across the room from me, including the Arnold concerto. Perhaps I should transfer them.
DeleteMerci beaucoup pour ces jolies découvertes (encore une fois !). Bien à toi.
ReplyDeleteToujours un plaisir, Thierry !
DeleteAt the risk of being denounced by the malcontents and misfits who objected to my previous contributions to your invaluable blog, I'd like to thank you, Buster, publically, for restoring a highly useful old Orion LP, done by my acquaintance Dr. Pleshakov, who was truly a great pianistic artist. I had the pleasure of collaborating with him in the mid-seventies on the SF peninsula FM station KPEN-FM, in a series of interviews and premieres of some of his Orion records, including the Dukas Piano Sonata; and in return Vladimir made arrangements for me to meet and interview his great mentor, Nicolas Slonimsky: he and I did a marathon series of hours of radio interviews that were broadcast locally and eventually condensed into a long narrative discussion that was featured by the network of Pacifica radio stations.
ReplyDeleteThe small under-resourced "vanity" label Orion Records of Giveon Cornfield unfortunately had to record on the cheap, in living rooms and such, not always with the best analogue machinery of the time; so the acoustics captured were seldom optimal (and no digital ambient generators were then extant in order to improve the sometimes claustrophobic pickup.) But even Leonard Pennario did at least one Orion issue in a chamber performance with other SF peninsula musicians; and several eventually famous pianists released some concerto recordings that are long gone, but nevertheless very valuable.
8H Haggis
Hi 8H - Always good to hear from you! Vanity label or not, this is a good record and the sound is not at all bad. I wonder what else I may have from this source (if anything). Hope you are doing well!
DeleteI'd like especially to call to your attention Vladimir Pleshakov's records of the sonatas and solo pieces by Woelfl, Rust, and Asioli (originally on Orion LPs in what I might call 'barely stereo'.) At least the Rust appears on a later Orion CD. These charming Beethoven-contemporary works were featured by me in a series of 5,000 hours of classical music programs that were syndicated over 17 American Fm stations from Hawaii and Alaska to NYC; they drew particular praise from listeners. When Giveon Cornfield recorded these performances by VP (in his living room) they were unique; and in most cases may be so, even today. This was a reappearance of much music from the Biedermeier to full blooded Romantic periods, which Jorge Bolet and Raymond Lewenthal helped to initiate in the late 'sixties: their so-called 'Romantic Revival'. This repertoire is amazingly comprehensive on today's CDs but in 'my day' and youth, it was almost completely unknown and ignored; and when I began programming classical radio stations in that period, I made it a goal and project to try to inject as much of it into the airwaves as possible. What a long way we've come from that bleak time!
Delete8HH
8HH - I remember those days, having acquired one of the Lewenthal LPs in my relative youth, then moving on to other such Romantic pieces on smaller labels. Today's profusion is such that I don't try to keep up with it.
DeleteMany thanks for these rarities and this so well-done duet program !
ReplyDeleteHi Jean - as always, it is my pleasure!
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