Les Brown - Coral Singles 1951-54

Bandleader Les Brown recorded a large number of singles for the Coral label from 1951-54. I thought we might have a look at some of the more neglected items. Most of these never appeared on a Coral LP, or were only reissued much later. The collection includes 17 songs, and heavily features the exceptional vocalist Lucy Ann Polk.

Indeed, Polk appears on the first several cuts, starting with "Very Good Advice," the Sammy Fain-Bob Hilliard song written for Disney's Alice in Wonderland film. In my post devoted to that film's songs, I included the flip side of Brown's record, with Lucy Ann's terrific "'Twas Brillig." (That post included the Peggy King-Ralph Flanagan version of "Very Good Advice.") This record has a brief trombone solo that is probably by Polk's husband Dick Noel.

The second selection also comes from a film, Bing's Just for You - the wonderful "In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening." Polk is great, but please hear Crosby and Jane Wyman on the original cast LP. Hoagy Carmichael and Johnny Mercer were the authors. On the Brown record, we hear an opening solo from pianist Jeff Clarkson.

In "If You Turn Me Down," Lucy Ann threatens to go off to Missouri and live with a floppy-eared mule (or something). Peter De Rose and Carl Sigman wrote this novelty. The singer was actually from Idaho, and broke into the business as part of the sibling act the Town Criers, who worked with Kay Kyser and other bands. You can hear them with Tommy Dorsey here.

Lucy Ann Polk

There have been several songs with the title "Let It Be" - the Beatles among others - but this is a gospel-tinged item that Lucy Ann shares with the Mellomen. That's the group's bass, Thurl Ravenscroft, at the opening.

"Who's Excited" was originally a Johnny Hodges instrumental, which appeared on the alto saxophonist's 1951 LP Johnny Hodges Collates. Johnny Mercer added lyrics, and the result is this Lucy Ann Polk vocal. The Four Hits provide backing.

Lucy Ann leaves the stage for a moment so we can hear two songs with one of the busiest singing groups of the day, Jud Conlon's Rhythmaires, which I believe featured two of the best female vocalists of the time - Loulie Jean Norman and Gloria Wood. 

Their first song is the lamentable "Kiss of Fire," a hit for Georgia Gibbs that year (1952). Lester Allen and Robert Hill took credit for the number, which actually was the 1903 Argentine tango "El Choclo" with overheated lyrics. Allen and Hill did not bother to credit Ángel Villoldo, who wrote the tune.

Jud Conlon's Rhythmaires: Mack McLean,
Loulie Jean Norman, Conlon,
Gloria Wood, Charlie Parlato

The flip side was another cover, this time of Kay Starr's "I Waited a Little Too Long," which was written by dancer-singer-actor Donald O'Connor and Sid Miller. The Rhythmaires are exemplary here, the band swings, Dick Noel (probably) and guitarist Tony Rizzi are heard.

We take a break from the vocals with "You Forgot Your Gloves," an instrumental with a Frank Comstock chart. Jeff Clarkson and Rizzi do a Shearing-style solo, following by a tenor sax break that is probably Dave Pell. The song was introduced by Jerry Norris and Constance Carpenter in the 1931 revue The Third Little Show. Ed Eliscu and Ned Rehak were the songwriters.

Lucy Ann Polk returns with Cole Porter's "My Heart Belongs to Daddy," which was introduced by Mary Martin in 1938. Lucy Ann is a fine successor to Martin. Van Alexander, Frank Comstock and Wes Hensel all had a hand in the arrangement.

Dave Pell

Another instrumental, this one a mambo called "Montoona Clipper" by trumpeter Hensel, was a staple of the book at the time, and can be heard here in another version. The band's collective skill and precision are notable on this number, as elsewhere. Dave Pell gets a label credit for his tenor solo.

Next, two charts by the estimable Skip Martin, starting with an instrumental version of "How About You?" which is missing the ecstatic Judy Garland vocal heard in Babes on Broadway but little else. Burton Lane and Ralph Freed were the authors.

Lucy Ann Polk is at the microphone for "Back in Your Own Back Yard," which dates from 1928 and is associated with co-writer Al Jolson, although Ruth Etting recorded it first. This is Polk's final appearance in the set; she soon would leave the band to go solo. The splendid Jo Ann Greer replaced her.

The song "Ruby" was a hit in 1953 for Richard Hayman and Les Baxter, and Brown's polished performance also made a brief appearance on the charts. The piece was adapted from Heinz Roemheld's theme for the film Ruby Gentry, with lyrics by Mitchell Parish added.

"Invitation" is another film theme, and a particularly beautiful one, written by Bronislaw Kaper. The brilliant alto saxophonist Ronnie Lang has a solo, as do guitarist Bobby Gibbons and Jeff Clarkson. Frank Comstock's arrangement has overtones of the sound that has come to be called "crime jazz." 

Bandleader Maxwell Davis' "Hotpoint" is next. This rocking riff tune is done marvelously well by the talented ensemble.

Butch Stone

Mambos were big at the time, and mambo popularizer Sonny Burke came up with the novelty "They Were Doing the Mambo" with lyricist Don Raye. This was just the right material for saxophonist-vocalist Butch Stone, who plays the fumble-footed wallflower to perfection - "They were doing the mambo / While I just stood around," he complains. I am usually immune to Stone's charms, but this is a fun number. "What kind of dance is this that doesn't have a caller?" he asks plaintively. Even the band vocal is effective.

The final item in our set is another mambo - the "St. Louis Blues Mambo." (Hey, Glenn Miller turned Handy's classic into a march, so why not a mambo?) Wes Hensel was the arranger.

Les Brown had a superb band with tight ensemble, capable soloists and vocalists, and a varied and stimulating book, shown throughout this set. 

The 78 originals here come from Internet Archive needle drops, suitably remastered in ambient stereo and sounding glorious.

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More Fauré from Kathleen Long

My previous post of pianist Kathleen Long and the music of Gabriel Fauré  was surprisingly well received, so today I am offering her other recordings of that composer.

This is in the form of a 10-inch London release from 1950, comprising the:

• Theme and Variations in C sharp minor, Op. 73
• Barcarolle No. 1 in A minor, Op. 26
• Nocturne No. 4 in E flat major, Op. 36 

Although Decca-London issued the disc in 1950, only the Barcarolle was newly recorded. The Nocturne is from 1948 and the Theme and Variations from 1943. There is little if any difference in recording quality, however. The sound is good quality mono, here processed in ambient stereo.

I wanted to call the sound "honest," but that would be the pathetic fallacy, wouldn't it? That said, "honest" is one term that critics would sometimes apply to Long's pianism. Here is the critic of the American Record Guide on the music and these performances:

The three works on this disc are among his [Fauré's] best. Mature, reflective. gentle music, yet highly sophisticated in treatment, they grow on one with repeated hearings. It would be ungrateful to over-analyze Miss Long's playing of them, as she is so obviously devoted an interpreter. Suffice it to say that she is an honest pianist, has the notes well in hand, and plays with the utmost sincerity. 

Such faint praise was not universal, however. The New Records opined:

The distinguished English pianist, Kathleen Long, with the aid of [Decca-London's so-called] ffrr recording, makes available on this LP disc some of the finest performances of Fauré piano music that we have heard. This disc amply demonstrates that Miss Long is a thoughtful and highly intelligent artist - she is selfless in projecting the intentions of the composer of the music she plays.

I personally find her playing to be ideal in this composer. The transition from the theme to the first variation in Op. 73 is most affecting, for instance.

Gabriel Fauré and Domenico Scarlatti

Scarlatti - Two Sonatas

Kathleen Long

As a bonus, I've added Long's 1945 recordings of two keyboard sonatas by Domenico Scarlatti (1685-1757) - in A major, L45, and B flat major, L46. The composer was immensely prolific, having produced 555 such compositions in his 71 years. Long recorded about 20 of them, including L46 twice. This small sampling shows she was a sympathetic performer, although perhaps not in a style that might be favored today.

The Scarlatti performances were remastered from Internet Archive originals. The Fauré LP is from my collection.

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The Voice of Sally Sweetland

Although she never became a big star, Sally Sweetland (1911-2015) had an extraordinary voice that led to a long career as a studio singer and later as a teacher.

Born Sally Mueller, she acquired the name "Sweetland" upon marrying her husband Lee Sweetland, himself a well-known studio singer and actor.

In this post, we'll examine the breadth of Sally's achievements, which spanned film dubbing, band work, solo recordings, backup vocals and children's records. There are 29 selections in all.

Film Work

Throughout the 1940s, Sweetland was busy in the studios, dubbing for Joan Fontaine, Brenda Marshall, Martha Vickers and particularly Joan Leslie in several films. In our first selection, she introduces the famous Harold Arlen-Johnny Mercer song "My Shining Hour" in the 1943 Fred Astaire film The Sky's the Limit, dubbing for Leslie.

Joan Leslie and Fred Astaire in The Sky's the Limit

It's a song that's associated with Astaire, but Sally sang it first in the film - Leslie played a vocalist. Soon thereafter, Fred's brash character tells Leslie she sang it too straight, and proceeds to demonstrate how it ought to go, as the characters seemingly improvise new lyrics (which actually don't make too much sense).

Also from this film is the duet "A Lot in Common with You," which involves Fred intruding on Joan Leslie's act. (You will hear her telling him to "Get out!")

With Tommy Tucker

Tommy Tucker was not as famous as, say, Tommy Dorsey, but he did lead a good band for 25 years. Sally made several records with him in 1950 and 1951, starting with "Looks Like a Cold, Cold Winter," where she did a pleasing duet with Don Brown. The disk did OK in the market, but I believe Bing and Mindy Carson did better.

Don Brown and Tommy Tucker

Next was "Hullabaloo," which, true to its title, was a noisy polka, a genre popular back then. "Sonny the Bunny" was a kiddie novelty possibly themed to Easter 1951. Don Brown is the lead on this one with Sally mainly providing harmony. They made a good pair.

The final recording with Tommy Tucker was "Whisp'ring Shadows," where Sweetland duets with Peter Hanley, who became Tucker's male singer following Don Brown's death in a traffic accident. Hanley too was a talented vocalist. This is a charming waltz.

Religious Fare, Grandma Moses and Ted Maxim

Tucker recorded for M-G-M, which also engaged Sally for a series of religious songs. I've included "Our Lady of Fatima," where she contends with an organ and male quartet.

At about the same time, Columbia Records brought her in for one of her specialties - high-register vocalese. The song was "Lullaby," one of the numbers in the suite that Hugh Martin and Alec Wilder put together for a film on the painter Grandma Moses. This is truly gorgeous singing. The entire suite is available here.

Also in 1951, Sweetland was at Decca for two waltzes by polka bandleader Ted Maksymowicz (here credited as Ted Maxim). First was "Beautiful Brown Eyes," which had been written in the 1930s by the country artists Arthur Smith and Alton Delmore. Maxim's record would seem to have been a cover of Rosemary Clooney's revival of the song on Columbia.

Pat Terry and Ted Maksymowicz

The second Maxim record, "There's More Pretty Girls Than One," also was associated with Smith and the Delmore brothers, who recorded it in the 1930s. It was, however, a traditional tune. On both records, Sally works seamlessly with the excellent studio baritone Pat Terry.

Work for RCA Victor

We move on from Decca to RCA Victor, where Sweetland's first assignment was to record the vocal on Bob Dewey's record of Franz Lehár's "Vilia" from The Merry Widow score. It's not clear why RCA and Dewey (actually Guy Lombardo arranger Dewey Bergman) decided to record an operetta selection in sweet band style in 1951, but Sally does fine.

One of her most noted records was Perry Como's 1952 version of "Summertime." There could be no better singer than Como to present a number describing how "the living is easy." Sweetland's vocalese is heard throughout the record, which perfectly sets off Como's low-register vocal. A superb record.

Perry Como and Eddie Fisher

Victor repeated this formula the next year for Eddie Fisher's massive success "I'm Walking Behind You." Here, in addition to the vocalese, Sally  does some high-register duetting with Fisher, which is very striking. It's a memorable record - one I owned myself when I was four. (I started collecting records early.)

Solos with Enoch Light

Sweetland recorded several cover records for bandleader/impresario Enoch Light in 1952. This type of work required the ability to sing many genres convincingly, a Sweetland specialty. We've already heard her in operetta, polka, and kiddie material. Her first record for Light was a cover of Hank Williams' "Jambalaya," which suits her well. Here, I suspect the real intention was to cover Jo Stafford's pop version for Columbia. This is a thread that runs through her other Enoch Light records.

Enoch Light

Jessie Mae Robinson's "Keep It a Secret" was a hit for Stafford in 1952-53. Sally and Stafford also recorded Pee Wee King's "You Belong to Me." Sally sounds particularly like Jo in this recording.

The melodramatic "Kiss of Fire" is based on a 1906 song "El choclo" by Victor Argentine. Louis Armstrong revived it in 1952, but the hit was by Georgia Gibbs. Sweetland does what she can with this overheated item.

The Ice Capades Brigadoon; "Getting to Know You"

In 1953, the Ice Capades traveling show presented an ice skating version of the Broadway hit Brigadoon. Columbia records decided to issue a potted version of the show in honor of the program, with Lee Sullivan and Sally as the fine soloists in the seven-minute presentation. Sullivan had been in the original cast of Brigadoon in 1947.

Brigadoon picture sleeve; Lee Sullivan

Sally is heard in abbreviated versions of "Almost Like Being in Love," "Heather on the Hill" and "From This Day On." I've presented this record before, but this is a new version.

Sweetland made a substantial number of children's records. I've included one of the group she recorded for Golden Records - "Getting to Know You" from The King and I. It's a brief rendition, but nonetheless effective. As with many of the Golden records, the support is by the Sandpipers vocal group and an orchestra led by Mitch Miller.

With Sauter-Finegan

Eddie Sauter and Bill Finegan engaged Sally for several records by their Sauter-Finegan Band. First was their sumptuous 1952 version of "April in Paris," where Sweetland does nicely both in vocalese and snatches of the lyrics. This was the first superior big band version of the song from the 1950s, along with Count Basie's much different arrangement from a few years later.

Bill Finegan and Eddie Sauter

Speaking of different, "The Moon Is Blue" is a quirky pop song with lyrics by Sylvia Fine and music by Herschel Burke Gilbert, written for the 1953 film of the same name and performed by the S-F band. Sauter and Finegan (or RCA Victor) did not give Sally a label credit for "April in Paris," but rectified that omission on this release.

Sweetland is heavily featured in the band's version of the Rodgers-Hart "Where or When," both with the lyrics and a climactic venture into high vocalese. This comes from the album Concert Jazz. The principals comment on the cover, "Our first love, Sally Sweetland. We hope you appreciate her as we do."

Two SF covers - one by Jim Flora (left), the other in his style

The band's 1954 LP Inside Sauter-Finegan features Sally in a muted and very lovely version of "Autumn Leaves."

Sauter-Finegan's "Where's Ace" is a spoof of the crime jazz genre of the time. The band keeps asking Sally "Where's Ace?" and she replies "Who??" They search him for in various locales. Sally ends up asking the band, "Where's Ace" and they reply "Who?"

With Hugo Winterhalter

The popular maestro Hugo Winterhalter engaged Sweetland for a few records as well. In 1953 she joined with studio vocalist Bud Dee to present an enjoyable reading of Jessie Mae Robinson's "The Lovers' Waltz."

Hugo Winterhalter

In 1955, she recorded one of her best discs - "Autumn Rhapsody," a conventional but attractive ballad by Carolyn Leigh and Alex Alstone.

An Unusual Children's Record

Sally Sweetland and Marni Nixon

We complete this exploration of Sally's legacy with a slightly later record - from 1964, the story of "Hansel & Gretel" with music from Humperdinck's opera. (A orchestral suite from the work can be found here.) Sweetland combines with another eminent studio singer, Marni Nixon, for two superb and all too brief selections: "Brother, Won't You Dance with Me" and "When at Night I Go to Sleep." I believe that Sally is the voice of Hansel. Tutti Camarata leads the band.

* * *

This collection was inspired by David Federman, as have many things I posted over the years. I believe that David was enchanted by Sweetland's stratospheric vocalese - me too - but there are many other items to appreciate here. I was surprised to find that I liked in particular her children's records of "Getting to Know You" and the Humperdinck adaptations. She also works beautifully with the relatively little-known Don Brown and Pat Terry (among others). A wonderful legacy by this talented and much loved singer and vocal teacher.

This selections are cleaned up from Internet Archive and my collection. 

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Seiji Ozawa's First Recording

That young conductor on the left above bears little resemblance to the wizened 88-year-old Seiji Ozawa who died this week. He was 29 at the time and making his first recording.

The resulting readings of Tchaikovsky and Mendelssohn concertos were typically crisp, with fine balances and sharp articulation, a portent of things to come from this prodigy.

The young Seiji Ozawa

He was matched in this 1965 recording by the 25-year-old violin virtuoso Erick Friedman. A protégé of Jascha Heifetz, Friedman (1939-2004) was a relative veteran of the recording studios, having made several earlier discs.

Ozawa had already achieved some renown at the time. He was the music director of the Ravinia Festival, the summer home of the Chicago Symphony, and had just been named as the music director of the Toronto Symphony. He would take over the Boston Symphony in 1973, remaining there for 29 years.

Here's Harris Goldsmith of High Fidelity on this performance: "Erick Friedman plays very well indeed, but what establishes this disc on a rarefied plane is Ozawa’s absolutely brilliant work. It is particularly instructive to find how such a rudimentary (one would have thought) orchestral backdrop as that of the Tchaikovsky takes on logical significance when the rhythm is held firmly, when important instrumental voices are brought out structurally, and when tutti passages are played with accuracy and judicious balance."

Erick Friedman

Goldsmith on the soloist: "Friedman rises mightily to the challenge, phrasing with fine intelligence and control." Let me add that the performance by the London Symphony is beyond reproach.

The recording was made in Walthamstow Assembly Hall by Decca-London engineers for RCA Victor. The sound is excellent. The disc is a tribute to all involved.

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RCA Victor's 'The Ballet'

In the early LP years, RCA Victor was blessed by a remarkable roster of conducting talent: Arturo Toscanini, Leopold Stokowski, Charles Munch, and Pierre Monteux - and the inimitable Arthur Fiedler of Pops fame as well.

So the label could call upon all of them when it came time to assemble a prestige product such as the one before us today - 1954's The Ballet, a three-record set with those conducing eminences presenting popular ballet suites, in recordings dating from 1949-53.

Not that Victor made use of the conductors in its marketing. They aren't noted on the cover (nor are the works or composers) and they only warrant a paragraph each at the end of the elaborate 16-page booklet (included in the download).

No, this package would seem to have been aimed at the listener who wanted to learn more about the ballet. It includes a overview of the art form and notes on the works themselves by Robert Lawrence, and evocative photos by George Platt Lynes, a famed commercial photographer.

But what of the works and the performances? Let's run them down.

Meyerbeer - Les Patineurs (excerpts)

Anya Linden and Desmond Doyle in Les Patineurs
(Covent Garden 1956)

Fiedler and the Boston Pops present four excerpts from the ballet score that Constant Lambert assembled from melodies found in Meyerbeer's operas Le Prophète and L'Etoile du Nord, principally the former. As I noted when I presented the John Hollingsworth/Sadler's Wells performance a year or two ago, "Although seldom heard today, Meyerbeer's works were very popular in the 19th century, and this immensely tuneful and pleasing score shows why."

This performance, I am told, has not been reissued. It originally came out as a companion piece to Fiedler's Gaîté Parisienne recording, which was later reissued in stereo with a different disc mate. The 1953 Les Patineurs was mono-only so was left on the shelf.

Piston - The Incredible Flutist (suite)

The most popular work by the American composer Walter Piston is also his only ballet score, The Incredible Flutist. The work was written for and premiered by the Boston Pops and Fiedler, and then a suite recorded by them in 1939. That recording was posted on this blog a few years ago. This set includes the Fiedler remake of 1953, with James Pappoutsakis as the flute soloist.

Arthur Fiedler and Walter Piston

As I wrote in connection with the first recording, The Incredible Flutist "is an entirely delightful piece of music that must have made for an effective ballet. Piston wrote the scenario with choreographer Hans Wiener, who also took the role of the flutist. The setting is a marketplace; a circus comes to town with its main attraction - the magical flutist."

This recording is apparently another mono orphan. It was originally coupled with the Ibert Divertissement and the Rossini-Respighi La Boutique Fantasque, which were later reissued in stereo.

Stravinsky - The Firebird (1919 Suite)

Maria Tallchief and Francisco Moncion in The Firebird

Stravinsky's The Firebird is another score that is heard far more often in the concert hall than as a ballet. Here we have Leopold Stokowski's 1950 recording of a suite with a New York pickup orchestra. The American Record Guide thought highly of the performance, even though the review began with a back-handed compliment: "Stokowski seems less wayward in his latest performance of this work, and he does not make the cut he made in his other versions . . I cannot say when I have heard this music played more beautifully; every detail, every nuance is brought out."

Leopold Stokowski

The ballet was written for Diaghilev in 1910 and originally choreographed by Michel Fokine. I believe the photo at top of this section is from a George Balanchine production. Stokowski conducts the 1919 suite, the most popular of the three devised by the composer.

Ravel - Daphnis et Chloé (Suite No. 2)

Michel Fokine and Vera Fokina in Daphnis et Chloé

Maurice Ravel wrote Daphnis et Chloé both as a concert work and as a ballet score, calling it a "symphonie choreographique." It dates from 1912 and again was originally choreographed by Michel Fokine. The Ballet set contains the Suite No. 2, the most frequently heard incarnation of the music.

Leading the 1949 performance was Arturo Toscanini, with his NBC Symphony. He was the most famous living conductor when these records were made; even so, he is not the first name that comes to mind when thinking about Ravel's music.

Writing in the Saturday Review, Roland Gelatt explained why: "I must confess to being impressed but unmoved by his 'Daphnis.' Taken measure by measure the recording is replete with wonders. There are magnificent examples of blending woodwind and strings, and the climax in the 'Daybreak' movement is a marvel of orchestral transparency. But gambits like these do not solve the secrets of Ravel's sybaritic score. Note-perfect though it may be, I cannot believe that this rigid and unyielding reading does full justice to the composer’s intentions."

Arturo Toscanini

Weber-Berlioz - Invitation to the Dance

Vaslav Nijinsky and Tamara Karsavina in Le Spectre de la rose

Carl Maria von Weber wrote Invitation to the Dance as a piano piece. Hector Berlioz orchestrated it as a ballet for a production of Weber's Der Freischütz in Paris, where interpolated ballets were de rigueur in opera productions. The orchestration was popular, and in 1911 Michel Fokine used it for his ballet La Spectre de la rose. (The photo of Nijinsky and Karsavina above is from the original production.)

The performance here is again by Toscanini and the NBC Symphony from 1951. It is phenomenally well played, very impressive, and certainly not designed for dancing.

Delibes - Sylvia (excerpts)

Margot Fonteyn (Sylvia) kneels before Julia Farron (Diana)
(Covent Garden 1952)

The French composer Léo Delibes wrote two ballets, both important and influential and both still staged. Sylvia, from 1876, is actually the second of the two.

Tchaikovsky was hugely impressed by the score: "The first ballet in which the music constitutes not just the main, but the sole interest. What charm, what grace, what melodic, rhythmic and harmonic richness."

Victor had just the conductor for such a score: Pierre Monteux, who had been closely associated with Diaghilev, and who had conducted the premiere of Daphnis et Chloe. (One wonders why RCA did not use Monteux's 1946 recording of the first suite in place of the uncongenial Toscanini Suite No. 2.)

Regardless, it's a pleasure to have Monteux's 1953 recordings of both Delibes suites, made with "Members of the Boston Symphony." The Sylvia excerpts were taped in the Manhattan Center in New York.

Pierre Monteux

Delibes - Coppélia (excerpts)

Margot Fonteyn in Coppélia

Coppélia was Delibes's first ballet score and remains the most familiar. It has appeared on this blog twice before; first, in excerpts conducted by Constant Lambert in conjunction with a 1946 Covent Garden production. (I believe the photo of Margot Fonteyn above is from that season.) Then, too, there was a later disc from another Covent Garden conductor, Hugo Rignold, with the Paris Conservatoire Orchestra. That LP also had excepts from Sylvia.

In the Boston performance, the opening horn passage is fairly slack, but the strings are lovely, and the famous Mazurka is dynamic. The recording from Symphony Hall is good, although the horns are distant. Alfred Krips is the violin soloist both here and in the Sylvia excerpts. Manuel Valerio is the clarinet soloist.

Both Delibes scores are delightful - as are all the selections in this album, for that matter.

Ravel - La Valse

Diana Adams of the New York City Ballet in La Valse

Monteux often conducted the Boston Symphony, but that orchestra's music director from 1949-62 was the Alsatian Charles Munch, who led the final two items on this program.

Ravel wrote La Valse as a "poème chorégraphique pour orchestre" for Diaghilev, who refused to stage it. It later was choreographed by Bronislava Nijinska, and in 1950 by George Balanchine for the New York City Ballet. (Balanchine used Ravel's Valses nobles et sentimentales as a preface to the La Valse music.)

Ravel's music is mysterious, lush and macabre in turn, all of which are made for Munch's gifts as a conductor. (Also for Balanchine, who made the piece into a dance of death.) Munch often aimed for excitement, and the critics were at times critical of that tendency. "The kind of performance with which Munch closes a frenzied evening of music making, faithfully duplicated in every particular," observed the Saturday Review. The Gramophone's Andrew Porter complained, "La Valse turns into a noisy roar at the climax." But others were appreciative. The recording is from 1950.

Charles Munch

Roussel - Bacchus et Ariane (Suite No. 2)

Bacchus et Ariane set by Giorgio de Chirico

The ballet Bacchus et Ariane is a late work by Albert Roussel (1869-1937), staged in 1930 with choreography by Serge Lifar and sets by the painter Giorgio de Chirico. Roussel derived two orchestral suites from the ballet - Suite No. 1 was premiered by Charles Munch in 1933; Suite No. 2 by Pierre Monteux in 1934. Regardless of this lineage, Munch programmed the second suite for this 1952 recording from Symphony Hall.

The ballet concerns the abduction of Ariane by Dionysus (aka Bacchus). Early on Roussel was considered an Impressionist, but by this late stage of his career was called a neoclassicist. That term, however, doesn't really capture his multi-faceted music, of which this is an excellent example. Munch's performance is definitive, in my view.

* * *

It's worth noting that although the set is called The Ballet, none of the recordings are of full ballets, except for La Valse and Invitation to the Dance. Nor does the set include anything by the arguably most famous ballet composer, Tchaikovsky.

The sound is generally excellent. As Victor sometimes did back in those days, it provided information about the number of microphones and their placement, ranging from the multi-miked Stokowski to a single microphone for the Toscanini-Ravel, Delibes and Roussel sessions.

I transferred this set from my collection, belatedly responding to a request. I did make use of the booklet scans on Internet Archive, suitably cleaned up and presented along with the covers as a PDF.

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