More Historic Recordings of Gershwin

There may be no musician more popular on this blog than George Gershwin. It seems as though people - or maybe it's just me - can't get enough of his music.

Today we have three more historic recordings of the great Gershwin's music - two of the immortal Rhapsody in Blue, and one of the glorious Concerto in F.

Specifically, we have the first recording of the Rhapsody in orchestral guise - which is also the first nearly-complete recording - and the first recording of the work outside the United States.

As for the concerto, it appears in the initial recording that used Gershwin's orchestral arrangement.

The artists are pianist Jesús María Sanromá with the Boston Pops and Arthur Fiedler, and pianist Mischa Spoliansky with Julian Fuhs and a Berlin band.

Rhapsody in Blue - Sanromá and Fiedler

Jesús María Sanromá

The Sanromá-Fiedler Rhapsody dates from 1935. The 40-year-old Fiedler had been conductor of the Pops for five years at that time, and the 32-year-old Sanromá had filled the piano chair in the Boston Symphony for several years.

Their performance of the Rhapsody was touted as the first complete recording of the work. While it was indeed much longer - at nearly 14 minutes it was almost twice as long as the earlier recordings - it did reflect a few brief cuts, as my friend Bryan ("Shellackophile") points out in his Internet Archive post.

1937 album cover (courtesy Shellackophile)

This particular transfer comes from a 1950s reissue on a RCA Camden LP. The sound is quite good for its time.

It's not clear - to me anyway - who produced the orchestral arrangements, and the original notes for the 78 set do not say. I've seen speculation that Fiedler himself was the author. Ferde Grofé did not write his own orchestral arrangement until seven years later. (He also was the author of the original "jazz band" orchestration and a set of charts for theater orchestra.)

The performance itself achieved some renown in its day. In a 1956 review of the Camden record, the critic of High Fidelity wrote, "For some time it was considered the definitive performance, and even now it offers pretty stiff competition to a number of recordings, of later vintage, currently available."

Sanromá and Fiedler were compatible musically, sharing a bias towards hustling the music along, which suits this piece nicely and is well in tune with the piano recordings that Gershwin left us. Speaking of Sanromá's performance, High Fidelity opined, "It has tremendous drive, a fine rhythmic pulse, and is impeccably played."

Rhapsody in Blue - Spoliansky and Fuhs

An Australian pressing

Our next historical recording is from 1927, and uses the abbreviated jazz band version of the Rhapsody then standard. Emanating from Berlin, it apparently is the first recording of the piece to be made outside the US.

The pianist, Mischa Spoliansky, achieved a certain renown as a film composer later in life, and has been featured here several times. (This post of his music for the film Saint Joan summarizes those appearances.)

Mischa Spoliansky

Spoliansky had built a reputation in Berlin as a pianist and songwriter before emigrating to England upon the rise of the Nazis in 1933.

Julian Fuhs

Julian Fuhs was a German-born pianist and bandleader who was successful there before emigrating to the US.

The performance is very lively and almost idiomatic, and the sound is fairly good, although Spoliansky's piano is less to the fore than it might be.

I've had this transfer for some time; it's not my own although I did clean it up. It could well have come from Internet Archive.

Concerto in F - Sanromá and Fiedler

Arthur Fiedler

For the Concerto in F there is no question about who wrote the orchestrations. Gershwin himself did them, originally for the conductor Walter Damrosch, who commissioned the piece by the young wizard for his New York Symphony Orchestra. The work premiered in December 1925.

Its first recording was in 1928, using a re-scored version that Grofe produced for Whiteman, featuring Roy Bargy at the piano. The orchestral version did not merit a release until Sanromá and Fiedler took it up in 1940.

Through the years, this worthy effort has been somewhat eclipsed by the 1942 version by Oscar Levant and Andre Kostelanetz. Levant worked hard at making himself the heir to Gershwin and his piano work, to the point of appearing in a fantasy sequence in the film An American in Paris (which featured Gershwin's music) as not only the pianist, but the conductor, other musicians and the audience, applauding his own playing in the Concerto.

Three Camden covers

Reviewing the Camden reissue, the High Fidelity reviewer complained about the sound of the Sanroma-Fiedler Concerto. It was indeed distinctly inferior to the earlier Rhapsody. I've knocked some of the wooliness out of the sonics and create a bit of presence, and it now sounds much better.

Bonus - "Strike Up the Band"

The 78 album of Rhapsody in Blue included a performance of Gershwin's "Strike Up the Band" as a fill-up. This was not included on the Camden LP, but I've added it from a HMV pressing cleaned up from Internet Archive.

The performance is lively; indeed, it struck me as too lively. The percussion effects in the first chorus sounded frantic. I took the recording down half a step, and it now sounds much more natural.

I have no idea why HMV or Victor might have changed the pitch, if indeed they did so.

PS - More Gershwin

I mentioned that Gershwin has often appeared here. If you click on the George Gershwin label at the end of this post, you will be taken to all the 17 posts available.

These include two-piano and choral versions of the Rhapsody, several LPs by Oscar Levant, instrumentals from Kostelanetz and Gould, vocals by Lee Wiley, and more.

LINK to the Fiedler-Sanromá recordings

LINK to the Spoliansky-Fuhs recording

It's Summertime - or So the Ray Charles Singers Assure Us

My recent Snowflakes and Sweethearts post from the LeRoy Holmes Singers led to a request for the music of the Ray Charles Singers, who were popular in the 1950s and 60s.

Now, this is not the "Hit the Road, Jack" Ray Charles (born Ray Charles Robinson), but another fellow, born Charles Raymond Offenberg (1918-2015). The latter adopted the "Ray Charles" stage name back in the 1944 when he was doing radio work.

Ray's biggest break was his association with Perry Como, which lasted for 35 years. Charles began recording for M-G-M in 1954, with the LP Autumn Nocturne. He continued through the seasons, along with a variety of other album concepts - Christmas, Paris, etc.

I have three of the four seasonal LPs, which I'll be presenting here, starting with Summertime. I would begin with Winter Wonderland, but that's the record I am missing. (Fortunately, friend Ernie has posted it a number of times, and the most recent post is still available.) 

"Uh, Ray - this is the shoot for the Summertime album"

These records have a fine reputation among fanciers of 50s music like me, and for good reason. They are very polished, imaginative and varied. You know you are in the presence of real professionals.

The singers were a studio group that Ray chose from among the coterie of vocalists for hire. Today's LP, dating from 1957, features Andrey Marsh, Lillian Clark, Lois Winter, Miriam Workman, Alan Sokoloff, Jerry Duane, Stephen Steck Jr., Michacl Stewart and Eugene Steck.

Ray also lists the instrumental combo, also studio stalwarts: Al Klink, flute, Janet Putnam, harp, Nick Perito, accordion, Tony Mottola, guitar, Frank Garitso, Jr. or Bobby Rosengarden, drums, Robert Kitsis or Dick Hyman, piano, and George Shaw or Frank Carroll, bass. The relatively sparse accompaniments work nicely, setting off the vocals.

The first two songs on the LP will not make anyone eager with anticipation - "Summertime" and "Mountain Greenery," two of the most familiar items that Gershwin and Rodgers and Hart ever produced. But the versions here are so well done that they disarm any criticism.

"Mountain Greenery" features by-play among the singers. I suspect this was an arrangement worked out for use on Como's television show, where the singing would have accompanied by some simple staging. "Summertime," too, could have been part of a seasonal medley - as could others in this set.

James Melton serenades Patricia Ellis; Hugh Herbert, Walter Catlett, ZaSu Pitts and Allen Jenkins emote in the margins

The next song, in contrast, was a surprise to me - "Summer Night" by Harry Warren and Al Dubin. The label says it's from a film of the same name, but it actually emanates from 1936's Sing Me a Love Song, where it was introduced by James Melton. I don't recall hearing this song before, and it is quite a find. That's Ray soloing in the recorded performance.

"Breezin' Along with the Breeze" is another old favorite - as old as 1926, in fact. The writers were Haven Gillespie, Seymour Simons and Richard Whiting.

"Lazy Afternoon" is an extraordinary song, the most celebrated selection from The Golden Apple, the marvelous 1954 musical from John Latouche and Jerome Moross, a multitalented composer. An excellent performance from the Charles troupe.

"In the Good Old Summertime," a good old song by Ren Shields and George Evans, is from as far back as 1902. This is another item that would have lent itself to a television production.

Miss Beadell and Miss Tollerton write the tune; Phil Green gets the cover photo

The next song has an unusual history. "Cruising Down the River" was the only hit by Eily Beadell and Nell Tollerton, who won a BBC songwriting contest in 1945 or 46. It was a huge hit then in England, and later for Russ Morgan and Blue Barron in the US. The song is deliberately old-fashioned - it is said that the two authors had concocted it years earlier. It fit the postwar longing for simpler times.

Bernice Petkere and Joe Young's always-welcome "Lullaby of the Leaves" was a favorite of the bands in 1932 and was revived in the 1950s.

"Swingin' in a Hammock" was very popular in 1930, when it was written by Pete Wendling, Charles O'Flynn and Tot Seymour, and then not heard too often until this record. Sue Raney did wonders with it a few years after this LP. (I have a remastered collection of her singles coming that includes the song.)

George Duning's theme from the 1956 film Picnic is most famous in George Cates's hit arrangement (found here), where he combined it with the Hudson-DeLange oldie "Moonglow." But the "Theme from Picnic" can well stand on its own, as it does here.

Mary Boland and Melville Cooper in Jubilee

"Me and Marie" is another unexpected delight, a relatively obscure Cole Porter song from his score for 1935's Jubilee.

"(Up a) Lazy River" was a big favorite of mine in the version by trombonist Si Zentner. But that was in 1961, four years after this record came out. The Hoagy Carmichael-Sidney Arodin song dates from as far back as 1931. It had a revival in the 1950s, which Ray was happy to participate in.

A most enjoyable record in good sound.

LINK

A Less Familiar - But Delightful - Schubert Work

EMI's German label, Electrola, took up the cause of Franz Schubert's neglected stage works in the 1970s. One such effort was Der vierjáhrige Posten (The Four-Year Sentry), a delightful if insubstantial one-acter that is the subject of today's post.

Electrola engaged some of the best-known singers of the day - the American Helen Donath, the Germans Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and Peter Schreier, under the direction of the experienced Heinz Wallberg conducting the Bavarian Radio Chorus and the Munich Radio Orchestra.

Heinz Wallberg at the recording session

Let me call upon the opera critic George Jellinek for his view of the proceedings: "In Der vierjährige Posten, the spoken passages are in verse, the libretto by the highly productive though modestly gifted Theodor Körner. The slight plot concerns the ingenious ways in which a French deserter avoids punishment. 

"This is early Schubert (1815, contemporaneous with his Third Symphony). lightly scored, charming, certainly skillful, but revealing none of the boldness the young Schubert exhibited in his early songs." George may be underselling the merits of this work - he aptly cites the Symphony No. 3, and if you know that score, you know it is a beguiling piece, well worth anyone's time.

Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau

The excellent singers are to the fore in the superbly vivid recording, with the orchestra and chorus arrayed behind them. To me, this is one of the high points of analogue recording, atmospheric and open.

Here's George's summary: "Both works [he also reviewed another Schubert opera] receive expert performances here, lovingly conducted by Heinz Wallberg. The prominent singers acquit themselves in a manner worthy of their reputations."

Helen Donath, Peter Schreier

Let me mention that Electrola did not see its way clear to provide a libretto or translation, so I have included the relevant parts of the booklet from Peter Maag's recording, which translates the German into English and Italian. The slight plot is explained in the LP's gatefold, along with more about Schubert at the time (he was 18!) and poor Körner, who, annotator Karl Schumann assures us, "produced an uncontrollable amount of mediocre works" before his early death.

LINK

Franz Schubert

Songs from 'The Dick Haymes Show'

Dick Haymes

The great baritone Dick Haymes had his own show on NBC and then CBS radio from 1944 to 1948, with Gordon Jenkins as music director and Helen Forrest as musical accomplice until the final year.

I have a variety of ancient bootleg LPs of the series, and I've done my best to resuscitate the sound of these relics, starting with today's selection of 18 songs.

The tonal balance was relatively easy to address, keeping in mind that these are AM radio airchecks, and so don't have any signal above 5kHz. The biggest challenge was pitch. None of the sources were on pitch; in some cases addressing this involved some informed guesswork. I am sure I have most if not all of them right, but let me know if you disagree. Finally, one or two selections have some peak distortion. 

The good news is that the performances are polished, pleasing and in generally more than listenable sound. Haymes recorded just four of the songs commercially, to my knowledge. Helen Forrest appears on only a few numbers, but Jenkins is a welcome presence throughout.

Gordon Jenkins

Some notes about the selections follow.

The program starts off with an infectious song that is not heard these days - "A Romantic Guy, I" by Del Sharbutt, Richard Uhl and Frank Stanton, from 1941. It maintained some popularity over the years, and became the theme of the Bob Cummings Show on television from 1955-59. 

The Four Hits and a Miss singing group joins Haymes here and on several other numbers. Note that this song has one unfixable skip, the only such flaw in the set.

"I Surrender, Dear" is an oldie, written by Harry Barris and Gordon Clifford in 1931. Gus Arnheim and His Orchestra recorded it with a Bing Crosby vocal, helping to make Bing a star. Dick's natural singing shows how much tastes had changed from the time of Crosby's melodramatic reading.

Harold Arlen and Yip Harburg wrote "Evalina" for their 1944 musical Bloomer Girl. David Brooks and Celeste Holm introduced the song on Broadway. Such a enjoyable number!

"Once in a While" was a relatively big hit for Tommy Dorsey in 1937. The writers were Michael Edwards and Bud Green. The song is still performed on occasion.

Cole Porter wrote "It's De-lovely" in 1936 for Ethel Merman and Bob Hope to sing in Red, Hot and Blue. It was a success then and was sung for many years thereafter. I can't hear it without thinking of an old De Soto ad. Helen Forrest joins in on this song. She and Dick were very well matched.

Well-matched: Helen Forrest and Dick Haymes

Adapting classical melodies was big in the 1940s. One of the notable examples was the overbearing "Till the End of Time," taken from Chopin's Polonaise, Op 53. Ted Mossman and Buddy Kaye were the musical culprits. In combination with the other songs so far, it demonstrates Dick's ability to handle a range of material. He recorded this number for Decca in 1945.

Another song that received a commercial recording was "It's Magic," the Cahn-Styne composition sung by Doris Day in the 1948 film Romance on the High Seas.

Next, two songs from the 1927 DeSylva, Brown and Henderson musical Good News - "Lucky in Love" and "The Best Things in Life Are Free." Good News became a film in 1947, which must have inspired the Haymes renditions. Dick and Gordon Jenkins make the latter song into a slow ballad.

"You'd Be So Nice to Come Home To" is one of Cole Porter's finest works. It comes from a 1943 musical film called Something to Shout About, where Don Ameche and Janet Blair did the vocals. Dick was to record the song for Decca in 1949.

Rodgers and Hart's "This Can't Be Love" comes from their superb 1938 score for The Boys from Syracuse. Eddie Albert and Marcy Westcott were the performers on Broadway. Haymes' reading may be brief, but it is one of the most enjoyable in the set.

Dick, Helen and Gordie plug the sponsor's plugs

Hoagy Carmichael sang his "Ole Buttermilk Sky" in the 1947 film Canyon Passage. Jack Brooks was the lyricist. Haymes is convincingly upbeat in this number.

"The Breeze and I" benefits from a colorful Jenkins arrangement, entirely apt for a song based on Ernesto Lecuona's "Andalucia," with English lyrics by Al Stillman. Jimmy Dorsey and vocalist Bob Eberly had a success with it in 1940. (There is a long post devoted to Lecuona's music here, including Haymes singing a few more numbers.)

"Penthouse Serenade" is one of those songs with two titles. Originally it was called "When We're Alone (Penthouse Serenade)," and under that name it was a hit for Ruth Etting in 1932. By the time Bob Hope and Shirley Ross recorded it in 1939, the title and subtitle had switched to "Penthouse Serenade (When We're Alone)." Regardless, it's a fine song, here done well by Haymes.

The earnest "There Is No Greater Love" was first recorded by its composer, Isham Jones, in 1936 with a vocal by the underrated Woody Herman. The lyrics are by Marty Symes. This kind of material was made for Dick.

In his earlier years, Dick was a band singer for Tommy Dorsey and Harry James

"To Each His Own" was the first big hit for songwriters Jay Livingston and Ray Evans, who were to specialize in film theme songs. The piece was huge in 1946 for Eddy Howard, the Ink Spots and Tony Martin, among others. Haymes handles it beautifully.

"I Got a Gal I Love (in North and South Dakota)" is a Cahn-Styne confection written for and recorded by Frank Sinatra in 1947. Novelty songs were not Dick's strength, but he gets through it well enough.

The singer reached back to 1927 and the Kern-Hammerstein classic Show Boat for "Why Do I Love You." This material is essentially operetta but even so is suited to the talents of Dick and Helen Forrest, so I've included it although the recording is not ideally clean.

That's all for this installment. I'll prepare another if there is interest.

LINK

Americana from Alec Wilder, Bruce Catton and Carl Sandburg

Here is an interesting recording I transferred by request, with two works by that distinguished musician Alec Wilder.

Alec Wilder

First is an earnest piece written upon the centennial of the US Civil War, Names from the War, which sets verse by the popular historian Bruce Catton. Dave Garroway is the narrator.

Bruce Catton

That work is coupled with an instrumental Carl Sandburg Suite, which is taken from tunes chosen from Sandburg's American Songbag; it is not settings of his poetry.

Carl Sandburg

Some background -  Wilder was primarily a songwriter, but he also wrote quite a bit of instrumental music. Catton was best known for A Stillness at Appomattox, one of his several books on the Civil War. 

Walter Ehret

Dave Garroway was a television personality who was for several years the host of NBC's Today Show and the weekly program, Wide, Wide World. He appeared here recently introducing a jazz record featuring Lee Wiley. Conductor Walter Ehret, a Juilliard graduate, was the director of music for the Scarsdale schools and a widely published author of educational materials.

The record unfortunately received little fanfare, and the one review I have found did not like it. At all.

My own view is that Catton's narrative for Names from the War is evocative, and Garroway does a fine job reading it. I don't think the music gets in the way, although it is certainly from the standard patriotic mold. I enjoyed the Carl Sandburg Suite. The performances are good.

The record had a few sound problems that I've addressed, as follows.

First, the music was recorded in the very W-I-I-I-D-E stereo that was common in the early days. (The record was released in 1961.) I've narrowed it so that the left and right channels don't appear to be coming from different counties.

Dave Garroway, minus his hat

Next, Garroway sounded like he was speaking through his hat. I re-equalized his voice.

Finally, there was some groove damage or a pressing fault on the left channel early in the Carl Sandburg Suite. I've addressed this, although some minor noise may remain.

The record has a gatefold cover; the back features The Carl Sandburg Suite

And just so you don't think you're missing something, this is one of the shortest 12-inch LPs I own - 26 and a half minutes.

LINK

'Snowflakes and Sweethearts' from LeRoy Holmes

Now that Christmas and New Year's are but a pleasant memory, this might be a good time to post an LP that pays homage to the season - Snowflakes and Sweethearts from the LeRoy Holmes Singers.

I wouldn't say this is an unusual outing for Holmes - he made other vocal recordings - but he is better known for the instrumental and film music discs he produced for the M-G-M and United Artists labels in the 1950s-70s. He also provided the backing for many singers through the years.

LeRoy Holmes

Snowflakes and Sweethearts is very much of its time - 1966, when pop choral music tended toward the frothy. This is an entirely pleasant listen, but is something of the aural equivalent of marzipan.

The album had its genesis in a single that Holmes recorded coupling two songs from the elaborate but ill-fated musical Anya, which only lasted for 16 performances on Broadway in late 1965. Anya was based on the play Anastasia, the story of a supposedly murdered daughter of Emperor Nicholas II, who (Anya that is), pops up in an insane asylum where she is discovered by a taxi driver who is a former Czarist general. Complications ensue.

Anya was one in a line of musicals by Robert Wright and George Forest based on melodies by classical composers. These shows were produced for the Los Angeles Civic Light Opera and the most promising moved on to Broadway. This resulted in a couple of hits - Song of Norway (with Grieg melodies) and in particular Kismet (from Borodin's music). For Anya, Wright and Forest chose Sergei Rachmaninoff. 

United Artists had a vested interest in the musical, having the rights for the original cast recording. So it assigned Holmes the task of producing pop versions of two songs from the score - "Snowflakes and Sweethearts (The Snowbird Song)" and "Homeward." 

Per the Anya cast album, the former is taken from several Rachmaninoff works - the Polka de W. R.; the Valse from the Suite for Two Pianos, Op. 17, No. 2; and ‘‘Thou, My Beloved Harvest Field," Op. 4, No. 5. (The Polka de W.R. - W.R. being Rachmaninoff's father Wassily - was an arrangement of Franz Behr's "Lachtäubchen (Scherzpolka)," a favorite of the elder Rachmaninoff.)

From Anya - Constance Towers (right foreground) and ensemble

As a song, "Snowflakes and Sweethearts" is entirely delightful, here given an infectious reading by the LeRoy Holmes Singers, who were a choral ensemble led and probably arranged by Will Bronson. The song was introduced on Broadway by Constance Towers, who played Anya. 

Irra Petrina and ensemble in Anya

"Homeward" is certainly a contrast - this is a longing-for-home piece presented by Irra Petrina as the cafe proprietor Katrina. The strong voiced Petrina was a feature of several Wright-Forest productions. She also had the misfortune of appearing in a number of ill-fated musicals, leading author Ken Mandelbaum to dub her the "queen of the floperettas." "Homeward" is based on Rachmaninoff's Prelude Op. 23, No. 5.

I've included the original cast recordings of "Snowflakes and Sweethearts" and "Homeward" in the download.

The two songs discussed above are far and away the best recorded on the Holmes LP. The other 10 songs must have been rushed through production. Although the performances are fine, the sound was such that the female voices were crowded way off to the left and the males way off to the right. I've rebalanced matters so that they are in a more natural perspective, although they remain in a different, more reverberant space than the instruments. The backing is limited to guitar and vibes, with an occasional appearance by a trombone choir.

Beyond the Anya songs, the program is entirely enjoyable - if you enjoy such fluff, which I do - mixing familiar songs like "Moonlight in Vermont" and "I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm" with lesser known items. The latter include:

• "Be Mine Tonight," from a 1930s melody by Maria Teresa Lara. With the addition of Sunny Skylar's English lyrics, it was on the charts in 1951 via recordings by the Ames Brothers and others.

• "The Worst Darn Winter in Years," a pleasant piece by Holmes and Al Stillman.

• "In Our Hideaway," one of the songs from Irving Berlin's Mr. President - not one of his best remembered shows, although it ran for nine months in 1962-63.

• "Made for Each Other," a 1947 melody by René Touzet with English lyrics by Ervin Drake and Jimmy Shirl.

• "The Sweetheart Tree" by Henry Mancini and Johnny Mercer, written for the 1965 film The Great Race. This folkish song was fairly popular at the time, but has faded, despite its memorable melody.

LINK