Buster Emerges from the Back Room

Yes, I've come out of the Back Room (not without getting my head stuck in the doorway) with early results on my poll about recordings that I had transferred but not posted.

In short, almost every one was favored by one of you. There was a particular bias toward the vocalists - Sue Raney was the most popular, followed by Sarah Vaughan, Jane Powell, Anita Ellis and the GRR-EAT Thurl Ravenscroft.

Among the classics, the Böhm Brahms disc was favored along with the Bloch-Victor Herbert tandem.

Almost all the items I mentioned were chosen by at least one of you. I even received a nudge about something I promised a while back, and a few other requests. I will get around to all of these, bur can't provide a time frame.

I can say that the two classical items will appear relatively soon, along with Sue Raney and Jane Powell.

The reasons for this are pragmatic: the two classics cited, Powell and Raney are closer to completion. Vaughan and Ellis are multi-part series that will take a lot of time. My endless vocal compilations are killers because they require so much narrative.

But all will eventually make their way to the site. Just so you realize that your selection(s) may take some time! Even a quite a bit of time. I didn't reckon on the overwhelming response. And it's hard to run a blog with your head jammed in the doorway.

Thanks to all for your comments and enthusiasm! Very much appreciated.

Buster's Back Room

Over the 17 years this blog has been around, I've posted many hundreds of transfers and compilations. But I've also developed a habit of taking projects up to a certain point and then putting them aside or starting over. And then forgetting about them.

Case in point: years ago I began working on three compilations of all Sarah Vaughan's early recordings, everything she did until she joined Columbia. There are 56 such tracks. The problem is that the sound quality can be rough, so I've never been happy with them, despite three passes at the files. So there they sit.

Other times, I figured the interest in the certain recordings would be limited to me (i.e., the ocarina and vocal group The Foursome), or thought that the music is over-exposed (who needs more Mahler?) or I didn't feel like writing about the subject (composer Kay Swift).

On the chance that some of you might be interested in these projects, I've developed a list, which I present below. Leave me a comment if one appeals to you. I can't promise immediate service (I can be finicky about things), nor that I will write my usual elaborate commentary on the music, but I'll post 'em sooner or later. Assuming I don't forget.

• Anita Ellis - a comprehensive view of this fine vocalist's work in the 1940s - commercial recordings, transcriptions, film dubs, etc. In all, 42 tracks.

• Balakirev - Overture on Themes of Three Russian Songs, Music to King Lear - conducted by Ginzburg and Anosov on Melodiya

• Beecham conducts Delius - the complete 1946 Delius Festival recordings

• Bloch - Trois poèmes juifs conducted by Hendl and Herbert - Cello Concerto with Bernard Greenhouse, conducted by Schoenherr

• Bob Manning - his pre-Capitol recordings, dating from 1947-50

• Bobby Hackett on Commodore - his 1938 and 1944 recordings with Eddie Condon, Bud Freeman and the usual culprits

• Karl Böhm conducts Brahms Symphony No. 1. A 1959 recording with the Berlin Philharmonic.

• Buddy Clark - Lucky Strike and Associated Transcriptions from 1938-41

• Charles LaVere's Chicago Loopers - the 1944-50 Jump recordings with Billy May, Joe Venuti and the gang

• Charlie Cochran - Presenting Charlie Cochran. An excellent 1963 LP by the cabaret singer.

• Czech music - Slavický - Moravian Dance Fantasies, Janáček - Lachian Dances, Bakala and Ančerl conduct

• Eleanor Steber - Songs at Eventide with Howard Barlow

• Gloria Wood - various 1940s and 50s singles from this fine vocalist

• Jane Powell at M-G-M - 23 tracks spanning her career with the legendary studio.

• Kay Swift - her complete oeuvre on record

• Mahler - Symphony No. 1 in the original version (conducted by Wyn Morris) and the revision (conducted by Jascha Horenstein)

• Martinon conducts Debussy - Noctures and Prélude a l'après-midi d'un faune, with the ORTF from 1973

• Marty Paich - two LPs: Jazz Studio 2 from Hollywood and The Marty Paich Octet

• Private Hell No. 36 - Leith Stevens' score to the 1954 film noir

• Robert Shaw - Mozart Requiem

• Sarah Vaughan - Her complete early recordings, pre-Columbia = 56 tracks

• Sue Raney - An expanded version of the previously posted collection of her Capitol singles, now complete at 23 songs. Also, two sets of transcriptions from The Navy Swings and Treasury Dept. Guest Star programs.

• Ted Straeter's New York - the 1955 Atlantic LP by the cabaret singer-pianist

• The Foursome - the singing ocarina players in their semi-complete recordings with Bing, Dick Powell and others. 22 tracks.

• They All Sang (and Played) Willard Robison - 55 selections as presented by bands, vocalists, country artists and others

• Thurl Ravenscroft - 25 songs from the 1950s by the famous studio bass, voice of Tony the Tiger, etc.

• Tommy Wolf - the two LPs released by the singer-pianist who wrote many fine songs, largely with lyricist Fran Landesman

There are quite a few more, but this will give you some idea.

Music from Hogwood's Transformative 'Messiah'

Recently we've explored a few historically informed recordings of Beethoven and Berlioz as directed by Roger Norrington in the late 1980s.

About a decade before, another English conductor, Christopher Hogwood (1941-2014) began recording baroque music with original-instrument ensembles, to similar acclaim.

Handel with his Messiah manuscript, detail from a 1756 portrait by Thomas Hudson

Today we have (to my ears) one of his best recordings, Handel's Messiah, here in excepted form. (Sorry, I did not acquire the complete recording due to my relative poverty 45 years ago.)

Here is what Barry Millington had to say about Hogwood's impact, in his Guardian obituary: "At its height in the 1980s, the early music revival was regarded by many as virtually synonymous with the Academy of Ancient Music and Christopher Hogwood, who has died at the age of 73. 

"Established in 1973 with instruments of the baroque period, under Hogwood's direction the AAM examined aspects of historical performance practice with scholarly rigour, paving the way for the achievements of other contemporaries such as Roger Norrington, John Eliot Gardiner and Trevor Pinnock."

This particular recording has always struck me as being emblematic of the conductor's achievements, and (to some) its weaknesses. At the time I was hugely impressed by this and other baroque choral works for their liberating transparency, which helped the music come alive.

Christopher Hogwood

The critic Stanley Sadie presents a traditionalist's view in his Gramophone review: "Those who still hear Messiah in terms of the Crystal Palace or 'Hudderspool' traditions will find it lightweight, perhaps perfunctory, and certainly not the kind of grand, large-scale, corporate uplifting experience that is offered by old-style performances. But this, or something very close to it, is the work that Handel had in his mind's ear. My own guess is that some of his own tempos would have been marginally slower, and that his solo singers might have been a little more forthcoming; there may be a tendency here to carry some of the arguments slightly too far."

Kenneth Cooper, likewise, in his High Fidelity review, while praising Hogwood's attempt to reconstruct correct performance practices, was critical of what he felt had been lost: "Never missing until now ... was the belief in the text, or at least the attempt to convey the depth of its implications. Sargent's 'Hallelujah Chorus,' however leaden, was always a celebration of celebrations; Bernstein's 'Wonderful,' while a little brash, was a taste - a sense - a chill; and the late Margaret Ritchie (in Scherchen's set) knew that her Redeemer lived. Messiah was not just another baroque vocal (or instrumental) work - no one until recently was concerned whether it was baroque or not - it was a moving spiritual drama."

Paul Elliott, Judith Nelson
Carolyn Watkinson, David Thomas

To me, the sheer beauty of the singing and playing herein more than makes up for this. The soloists are among the finest of the day: principally soprano Judith Nelson, contralto Carolyn Watkinson, tenor Paul Elliott, and bass David Thomas.

What is the current view of this performance? To one critic, Gramophone's David Vickers, it does well. This was his 2022 verdict: "The soundscape, musical text and aesthetic world of Messiah were transformed when Christopher Hogwood directed his own independent artistic vision of the oratorio with the Academy of Ancient Music, based closely on the 1754 Foundling Hospital performances. The first recording to use period instruments, the shock of over-familiar music sounding new again while striving to recapture the composer’s expectations and practices was achieved by the textures, timbres and musicianship of the AAM’s large band, the agility and precision of the Choir of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford, radically fresh-voiced (and largely vibrato-free) soloists and tempos that took Handel’s rubrics more seriously than comfortable tradition had dictated."

He summed up his survey of the various recordings as follows: "No single interpretation offers the best of all possible worlds. Hogwood’s endeavour to make the over-familiar seem brand-new still stands out."

This transfer is from the original vinyl pressing, which has superb sound. The download includes both the LP booklet and the subsequent CD booklet, which is much more extensive.

LINK

The Early Sylvia Syms, Vol. 3

Following her spells at Atlantic and the small Version label, vocalist Sylvia Syms moved up to a major - Decca, where she would spend four years producing LPs and singles, along with a few guest appearances. Today we will present her first Decca LP (from 1955), arranged by the estimable Ralph Burns, her two guest vocals on Steve Allen albums (from 1954), and - on my other blog - her complete singles from 1956. These posts encompass all her 1954-56 recordings - 21 songs in all.

The biggest collection of tunes is on the LP, so let's start there.

Sylvia Syms Sings

The labels could not help themselves when naming Sylvia's LPs - Atlantic came out with Songs by Sylvia Syms and Decca with Sylvia Syms Sings. Alliteration must have been big back then.

But the important point is not the name on the package, it's the music, and that's excellent. Arranger Ralph Burns had made his name with the Woody Herman band, and was in demand for records until switching over to Broadway in the 1960s and then Hollywood. Burns has been featured on this blog previously backing Teddi King, Lee Wiley, Portia Nelson, the Anita Kerr Singers and Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane. For this LP, Burns and Syms came together for three recording dates in August 1955.

Ralph Burns

Kurt Weill and Ira Gershwin wrote the brilliant song "My Ship" for the 1941 musical Lady in the Dark. Burns' pastoral arrangement is lovely, even enchanting, but there's nothing here - or in Syms' singing - to signify the neuroses that marked Liza Elliott, the "lady in the dark." Sylvia and Ralph also are of two minds about the pacing.

She seem happier with Burns' harp and flutes in "Then I'll Be Tired of You," another airy arrangement of a fine Arthur Schwartz-Yip Harburg song dating from 1934.

"I Am the Girl" is just perfect, from the devastating verse through the rueful heartbreak that permeates the song. This LP apparently was the first recording of the James Shelton song.

Shelton's other relatively well-known song is "Lilac Wine" - which "makes me see what I want to see; be who I want to be." It's another futile love song, which Sylvia did exceptionally well. I believe this number was first recorded by Eartha Kitt.

"I Don't Want to Cry Any More" is another tale of lost love, handled brilliantly here. It's a great song, composed by the multi-talented film director Victor Schertzinger in 1940.

In later years: Kaye Ballard, Mabel Mercer, Sylvia Syms, Tony Bennett

Vernon Duke and John Latouche were the authors of the sly "Honey in the Honeycomb," which they produced for 1940's Cabin in the Sky, where it was sung on Broadway by Katherine Dunham.

Victor Young and Ned Washington wrote "A Woman's Intuition," possibly for Lee Wiley. (It in the Columbia collection I posted a while back.) These are all superior artists, but the song doesn't amount to much.

Cole Porter wrote the characteristic "Experiment" in 1933 for Nymph Errant. "Be curious, though interfering friends may frown / Get furious, at each attempt to hold you down."

"Let Me Love You" is one of Bart Howard's best-known songs (although overshadowed by the success of "Fly Me to the Moon"). Syms does it well. The song also in on the extensive collection of Howard's songs taken from Portia Nelson's albums, which can be found here.

Harry Woods' "We Just Couldn't Say Goodbye" was a hit in the 1930s - there's a memorable Boswell Sisters recording, for one. Sylvia doesn't quite have the elan of the sisters, but that may be because the tempo is slower than it should be.

"I'm So Happy I Could Cry" was the handiwork of comic Milton Berle (it says here) and pianist Nat Jaffe, with lyrics by Buddy Feyne, who also wrote lyrics for "Tuxedo Junction" and "Jersey Bounce." It's not a bad song, but Syms doesn't sound convinced.

The final song is that great Arlen-Harburg effort, "Down with Love." Sylvia sings the verse, which I don't think I've heard before. She's is in tune with the number, but the beat in her voice is noticeable here.

It may be worth noting that when this LP was released, Decca also came out with Ella Fitzgerald's Sweet and Hot, Jeri Southern's In the Southern Style and Carmen McRae's By Special Request. Tough competition for Syms on her own label!

Two Songs with Steve Allen and Friends

The comic-pianist-songwriter Steve Allen issued two LPs with traditional jazz bands in 1954, recorded live at New York's Manhattan Center. Sylvia fits in well with the two groups - she could be brash and brassy as required. 

She performs one tune with the Lawson-Haggart Jazz Band, the other with a Billy Butterfield band.

With the former aggregation, she sings "Love Me or Leave Me," the Walter Donaldson-Gus Kahn song from 1928, written for Ruth Etting. It's good, but the real attraction is the second song - Sylvia's own composition, "The Only Man Blues," which she handles with great panache.

These songs came out on two LPs - Steve Allen's All Star Jazz Concert, Vol. 1 and 2 - which otherwise contain instrumental numbers that are not included here. The bands sound under rehearsed, but Syms seemed to like appearing with this type of backing - also true, for example, of Lee Wiley.

LINK to Sylvia Syms Sings and two songs with Steve Allen et al (corrected link)

The Complete 1956 Singles

As mentioned, in 1954, Sylvia recorded two songs with Steve Allen and in 1955 the LP Sylvia Syms Sings. For 1956, Decca had her record seven songs for release on singles, which I have collected on my other blog. Fortunately for Syms, her first single was a big chart hit - her take on "I Could Have Danced All Night."

Here's a link to that post:

LINK to the complete 1956 singles

Furtwängler Returns with Schumann and Beethoven

The great conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler has more fans among Big 10 readers than I would have suspected. So to follow up on my recent post of him leading Beethoven, here he is with more from that composer, along with two works by Robert Schumann.

The recordings are with the Berlin Philharmonic (unless otherwise stated) and date from 1947-53.

Before we get to the music, why does Furtwängler hold our attention even today? Here is critic Andrew Porter following the conductor's death:

"[H]e played Beethoven's symphonies, and Brahms's and all music for that matter, as if he were playing them for the first time, the only time. A lifetime’s study and the full concentration of the man was going into this one, particular performance.

"More than any other conductor he loved Klangschönheit [sonority], and delighted in sheer beauty of tone; and he ensured with loving rehearsal an intimate balance of orchestral detail. Perhaps there was a lack of driving rhythmic impulse in long movements: but it arose less from preoccupation with passing beauties than as a result of large-scale mountings of tension."

Porter's testimonial, which appeared in The Gramophone, is included in the download.

Schumann - Manfred Overture

If this cover looks familiar, it's because I included one of the works therein on my first survey of Furtwängler's art - Beethoven's Leonore Overture No. 2. I had a request for the other item - Schumann's Manfred Overture, so here it is. A different recording of Leonore No. 2 is also in this set. 

The Manfred overture is heard much more often than the other pieces of incidental music that the composer wrote that were inspired by Lord Byron's 1817 poem. It's a splendid piece - don't be put off by the ragged opening here; the performance proves worthy of the work. The recording is from 1951.

Schumann - Symphony No. 4

Schumann's final symphony, written in 1841, was revised for publication a decade later, five years before his death. The work exists in two versions - the original and the later version. Brahms himself had the original published, much to Clara Schumann's displeasure. I believe this recording uses the later version.

I love Schumann's symphonies; this is a grand performance of No. 4. The 1953 sound is particularly good.

Beethoven - Egmont Overture; Leonore Overture No. 2

Similar to Manfred, Beethoven's Egmont Overture is the first item in a set of incidental music, in this case written for a 1787 play by Goethe. The composer premiered the work in 1810. It extols the 16th-century nobleman Lamoral, Count of Egmont from the Low Countries, who was condemned to death for resisting oppression.

The stirring composition is one of Beethoven's greatest and most popular. Furtwängler's performance with the Berlin Philharmonic dates from 1947.

The curious case of Beethoven's four overtures for his opera Fidelio (earlier titled Leonore) was explained in my first post devoted to this conductor. This is a different recording from the one discussed there. That was a 1954 recording; this one comes from 1949. It's not clear why the conductor remade the piece so quickly, although the reason might simply be that they were done for two different companies (Electrola vs. Deutsche Grammophon).

It remains to be said that Furtwängler's live performances are generally considered to be superior to his studio efforts. I don't find that to be the case, but it is a common opinion.

Furtwängler had an unusual conducting style (which probably had something to do with the imprecise opening of Manfred noted above). You can see it in a 1950 film of him leading Strauss' Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche - not my favorite music, but indicative of the eminent conductor in front of an orchestra.

Hope you enjoy this latest taste of the conductor's artistry - not to mention that of Schumann and Beethoven.

LINK

Five Early Blues and Jazz Reissues

Back in 2008-09, I posted five albums of early blues and jazz recordings dating from 1917-40. Three 10-inch LPs and an EP came from RCA Victor's short-lived "X" label, with another 10-inch LP taken from the then-new Riverside label.

All the records were produced by Orrin Keepnews and Bill Grauer, Jr. - freelancing for "X" and producing the other record for their start-up Riverside, which would become an important force in modern jazz for a time.

Orrin Keepnews

The "X" transfers were made from Victor's masters, with many of them being previously unissued takes. Most of these are early electrical recordings. In these new remasterings, some of them have a startling level of realism. 

For the Riverside reissue of Jimmy Blythe's piano recordings, the producers worked from commercial 78 issues from the long-gone Paramount label because the master recordings no longer existed. The sound is not as good as the Victors, but good enough.

In addition to my new remasterings in ambient stereo, these sets now have complete scans, performer images and recording information. Details and links to the individual albums are below.

Ida May Mack and Bessie Tucker

Two blues singers from Dallas made a long journey from Texas to Memphis for a Victor recording session on August 29-30, 1928. The producers carefully label Ida May Mack as an urban blues singer, and Bessie Tucker as a country blues artist. Nearly 100 years after the session, they seem more alike than different to me.

Ida May Mack and Bessie Tucker

Both are powerful and confident singers, who could well have become more popular than the obscurity that befell them. 

You will notice when you listen to the records that pianist K.D. Johnson sounds off in the distance, but when the vocals begin, the presence and realism is almost eerie. Electrical recording had begun just a few years before this session.

Little is known of Ida May Mack. This was her only recording session - the LP includes four of her six recorded songs. We do know that Bessie Tucker was born in about 1906 and lived until 1933. She made 24 recordings in this session and a later one in Dallas.

LINK to Ida May Mack and Bessie Tucker

Jim Jackson, Furry Lewis, Frank Stokes, Ishman Bracey

Almost all of the songs on the Kings of the Blues LP were recorded in Memphis in the few days before and after the Mack and Tucker sessions. The participants were all polished performers, who had longer careers than Mack and Tucker.

Jim Jackson (1876-1933) had already recorded a hit record by the time he caught on with Victor. His music has been influential - as I noted way back when, both songs featured here were remade by folk-rock bands in the 1960s - "Wild about My Lovin'" by the Lovin Spoonful and "This Morning She Was Gone" by the Youngbloods (as "Grizzly Bear").

Jim Jackson, Furry Lewis
Frank Stokes, Ishman Bracey

The career of Furry Lewis (1893/1899-1981) was revived by the folk music scene of the 60s, with the singer coming out of retirement to resume his career.

Frank Stokes (1877/1888-1955) was a minstrel show performer (and sometimes blacksmith) who generally appeared with guitarist Dan Sane, as he does here, sometimes as the Beale Street Sheiks. He recorded 38 sides for Victor and Paramount.

Ishman (or Ishmon) Bracey (1899/1901-1970) was a Delta blues singer who first recorded earlier in 1928 for Victor, returning in October. He eventually recorded 16 songs. He performed until 1951, when he became a Baptist minister.

Like the LP above, this record is quite good - the performances and sound are splendid.

LINK to "Kings of the Blues"

Jimmy Yancey

The boogie-woogie pianist Jimmy Yancey (c1895-1951) was a influential artist who made relatively few records. This LP includes eight of his 11 Victor recordings, made in Chicago in 1939 and 1940. His recorded output also includes a few more numbers, plus one Atlantic LP made with his wife Estelle, as "Jimmy and Mama Yancey."

Jimmy Yancey

Yancey had a distinctive and unusual style, generally ending his numbers in E-flat, even if he started in another key.

The producers wrote, "But perhaps the greatest of them all [i.e., boogie-woogie pianists] was the smallish, unassuming Jimmy Yancey-Рара Jimmy, who was hardly ever a full-time musician, but who commanded all the power and the beauty of rough-hewn blues piano in a way that few have even approached."

LINK to Jimmy Yancey

Jimmy Blythe

Jimmy Blythe

Jimmy Blythe (1901-31) had a short life, but even so he made a great number of piano rolls and then records in the 1920s. He was Chicago-based, like Yancey, yet their styles were contrasting. Here's Keepnews on the pianist, comparing him to Yancey and others: "Whether he [Blythe] is being lively or sensitive, and without ever being the least bit watered-down or effete, it is always an educated, a knowledgeable style."

These sides were made by Paramount, which maintained an extensive blues catalog in the 1920s. Most of them are acoustic recordings, beginning with 1924's "Chicago Stomp" and "Armour Avenue Struggle," two of his most famous records.

On two songs, Blythe accompanies vaudeville blues singer Sodarisa Miller, who recorded quite a few numbers for Paramount. And on two others, he is the leading light of the instrumental group the Dixie Four.

As mentioned above, the Paramount recordings were not as clean as the Victors that compose the rest of this post.

LINK to Jimmy Blythe

The Original Dixieland Jass Band

The Original Dixieland Jass Band (or Jazz Band, as it soon became) certainly had the most popular success of any of the artists featured here. Its first record - "Livery Stable Blues" - was supposedly the first jazz record. The band's sound was very popular, and before long there were "jazz bands" everywhere.

Tony Sbarbaro, Edwin "Daddy" Edwards, Nick LaRocca, Larry Shields, Henry Ragas

What of the music? As I myself wrote back in 2008, "The ODJB was a sensation in its time, and you will find it sensational too if you go for hectic ensembles, barnyard effects and clattering percussion. It's easy to scoff at this stuff 90 [now 108!] years later, but it was the precursor of much great music."

This is the only EP - i.e., a seven-inch record with four songs - in this batch. I've posted it twice before, but thought I might do so again to round out the collection.

LINK to the Original Dixieland Jass Band

Two Views of Berlioz: Norrington and Stokowski

Hector Berlioz

My friend Jean Thorel ("centuri"), himself an accomplished conductor, advocated Roger Norrington's recording of Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique as a follow-up to the recent post of Sir Roger's Beethoven Ninth Symphony. Great idea - here it is, with a contrasting companion.

Norrington's are historically informed performances. As the conductor himself wrote about the Symphonie fantastique, "The joys (and tribulations) of playing Berlioz 'historically' affect every aspect then: the score, the instruments, the style, even the layout of the stage." As such his recording was very unlike the ones that that had preceded it, which sometimes seem to take their cue from the work's lurid program, which involves an artist taking opium because of his unrequited love.

This sensational premise - and the scenes that involve a march to the scaffold and a witches' Sabbath - seem to invite or even require Romantic excess in performance. For this reason, I decided to couple Norrington's chaste version with one by the high priest of the Technicolor performance, Leopold Stokowski, leading a modern orchestra. It's quite a contrast.

But before we get to the performances, let's examine the notion that Berlioz himself was a wild-eyed Romantic - even considering the Symphonie fantastique program. First, consider that this symphony postdates Beethoven's Ninth by only six years - 1824 to 1830. Second, Berlioz himself was a famously skilled and fastidious composer and orchestrator. As Wilfrid Mellers has written, the symphony is "ostensibly autobiographical, yet fundamentally classical ... Far from being romantic rhapsodizing held together only by an outmoded literary commentary, the Symphonie fantastique is one of the most tautly disciplined works in early nineteenth-century music."

An 1846 caricature of Berlioz - no wonder he was considered a wild-eyed Romantic

So following the composer's instructions and using an orchestra he would have recognized should lead to revelatory results. And some reviewers found this to be the case following the release of Norrington's recording in 1989.

Stereo Review's Richard Freed wrote, "There's no need to debate whether Berlioz was actually the first great Romanticist or the last great Classicist. The point is that no one understood the orchestra and its instruments better than he did, and it was that profound understanding that enabled him to exploit orchestral color with such unprecedented imaginativeness. That, in brief, would seem to be the basis for Norrington's undertaking - an approach to Berlioz, as to Beethoven, on the composer's own terms - and it turns out to be productive beyond imagining, even more revelatory than his Beethoven performances...

"Before I got to the end I knew that this was the Fantastique that will be the 'basic' recording from now on, and the others will be the alternates."

But that was 35 years ago, and the sound of the modern symphony orchestra is still ascendant. The Norrington approach - while influential - remains the exception rather than the rule. Examine the many "best-of" articles on the Symphonie fantastique and you will find performances by any number of modern orchestras, with at most one "historically informed" reading, usually the one led by Sir John Eliot Gardiner.

Here are today's two recordings.

London Classical Players/Roger Norrington

Norrington and his orchestra recorded the Berlioz work in March 1988 at Abbey Road. As with the Beethoven disc recently heard here, the recorded sound was drab, which undercuts the delights of the composer's scoring as performed by instruments of his time. This is supposition, but perhaps the engineers recorded the orchestra similar to the way they would handle modern orchestras, which generally are much larger and louder than Norrington's forces. I have adjusted the balance accordingly.

Even so, the performance was much appreciated. Here's John Warrack in The Gramophone: "Prepared, and recorded, with the greatest attention to detail, it is a performance of imaginative sweep and excitement, and a record by which future performance of the work will have to be measured."

This transfer comes from a sealed copy of the original vinyl release. The LP had no notes whatsoever, so I have included a PDF of the CD booklet, which includes essays by Norrington and Berlioz expert Hugh Macdonald.

Sir Roger Norrington

LINK to Norrington performance

New Philharmonia Orchestra/Leopold Stokowski

The Symphonie fantastique and its queasy program - which Berlioz later downplayed - would seem to have been made for Leopold Stokowski, one of the most extroverted of 20th century maestros. But somehow he did not record the work until 1968, when he was 83. Decca London provided a multi-miked Phase 4 Stereo production for the occasion.

The results are predictable. Where the harps in the "Un bal" movement sound discreet if delightful for Norrington, for Stoki the single harp is as loud than the rest of the orchestra. Conversely, the orchestral sound at times is quite recessed in a reverberant space (Kingsway Hall), but then a solo flute will suddenly jump to the foreground.

As for the conductor, he is on his best behavior for much of the symphony - unlike a live performance from about the same time that was later released. Harris Goldsmith wrote in High Fidelity: "For the first three movements, Stokowski is really quite restrained. The string tone is, of course, gorgeous and while the playing is always imaginative and full of refined sheen, the tempos and phrasings are not terribly removed from the mainstream of traditional interpretation... In the 'Marche au supplice,' though, Stokowski does adopt a too precipitate approach - one would almost think that the hero in question was attempting to flee justice rather than offering himself as a willing victim to the scaffold... When we arrive at the 'Witches' Sabbath,' however, the conductor really starts substituting LSD for Berlioz' opium." To sum up, Stoki sounds uninvolved until he gets to the juicy parts.

Despite his observations, Goldsmith was positive: "Not my favorite Fantastique perhaps (I prefer the Davis version on Philips), but an attractive and stimulating one, nonetheless."

I'll leave it to you to decide which one is better - Stokowski or Norrington.

Leopold Stokowski

LINK to Stokowski performance

Hoagy Carmichael - The ARA Recordings

The great singer-songwriter-actor-pianist Hoagy Carmichael (1899-1981) made a large number of recordings during his long career. Today we'll take up the 22 sides he recorded for the small ARA label in 1944-46 - fascinating both in and of themselves and because of the recording company, which turned out to be a Communist front.

Almost all the songs were written by Carmichael. Several were associated with the films he was making at the time - notably the Bogie-Bacall opus To Have and Have Not.

During this period, Hoagy used other singers on some of his records, when appropriate. Although his own vocalizing was inimitable, it also had notable limitations. He does the singing except where noted.

Comments on the songs follow. There's more about the ARA label and its Russian funding at the end of the article.

"No More Toujours l'Amour" is a entertaining war song about a soldier on leave looking for love (and not finding it). The lyrics are by Paul Francis Webster, a frequent collaborator: "The night is damp; he's overdue in camp / and it's 22 miles from town!"

"Vine Street Parade" is a Dixieland march that's a gloss on the "South Rampart Street Parade," transplanted to Hollywood. The number - the only instrumental in the set - was arranged by Hoagy.

To Have and Have Not: Lauren Bacall, Walter Brennan, Bogie and Hoagy

On to the songs from To Have and Have Not, leading with "How Little We Know," a rhumba with a sophisticated vocal by Anita Boyer. (The key is a bit high for her, though.) Hoagy, Lauren Bacall and others sang it in the film. This is not the same composition as "(How Little It Matters) How Little We Know" by Phil Springer and Carolyn Leigh, which Sinatra recorded in 1956.

The second song from the film is another one that was well known at the time. Carmichael first recorded the quirky and now badly dated "Hong Kong Blues" in 1938, reprising it for the screen. ARA's version became a hit. The words to both songs are by Johnny Mercer, another famed collaborator.

"Celestial O'Brien" in Johnny Angel

Hoagy sang one of his most beautiful songs, "Memphis in June," in the 1945 film Johnny Angel, not as well remembered as To Have and Have Not, although it was a success at the box office. The leads were George Raft and Claire Trevor. Carmichael's character is named Celestial O'Brien. Not sure why Memphis is name checked in the song - the film is set in New Orleans. Regardless, it's a superb number and Hoagy is persuasive in the ARA recording. Paul Francis Webster supplied the words for this one and the next.

"Billy-a-Dick" is another war song, with the singer expectantly waiting the return of his son, who seems to be named Johnny and who plays the drums. ("Billy-a-dick" is the sound he makes on said instrument.)

Next we have one of Carmichael's ventures into other people's songs. It's a revival of "Am I Blue," which Ethel Waters introduced in the 1929 film On with the Show. Harry Akst and Grant Clarke were the authors.

Carmichael and Webster combined again for 1945's "Doctor, Lawyer, Indian Chief," written for the frantic Betty Hutton to sing in a film called The Stork Club. Hoagy's version is almost as hyperactive.

Billboard ad, October 27, 1945

Carmichael and Webster then got together with Furniss Peterson to prepare their entry in the holiday song sweepstakes, which unfortunately was not a winner. "My Christmas Song for You" is nevertheless a good piece that should be heard more often. The lead vocal on the ARA record is by Martha Mears, one of the most active vocal doubles in the film studios. She was perhaps chosen because she dubbed Marjorie Reynolds singing "White Christmas" in Holiday Inn.

ARA oddly backed up "My Christmas Song for You" with a kiddie number, "The Whale Song," which Carmichael wrote with a person named Dearman. It's good of its kind.

"Stardust" is perhaps Hoagy's most famous song. He wrote and first recorded it in 1927. Mitchell Parish, then working for publisher Irving Mills, soon added lyrics. The number went on to become hugely and repeatedly popular. It was a hit for several bands in the early 40s, which may have stimulated Carmichael's own recording for ARA. I love Hoagy, but his version is not the best way to hear this song, due to his vocal limitations. He doesn't sing the famous verse, instead assigning it to a violin.

I've been asked whether the song is properly named "Stardust" or "Star Dust." The answer is not clear. When first recorded, Gennett issued it as "Stardust." But when it was published with Parish's lyrics, the sheet music had it as "Star Dust." In my experience, it's most often rendered as "Stardust," as it is here.

"Stardust" was the lead number in a 78 album that ARA produced in 1946. It was backed by a touching end-of-war song called "A World of No Goodbyes," which Hoagy wrote with a "Gilbert," presumably lyricist L. Wolfe Gilbert. The vocal is by tenor Ray Hendricks, an able singer who did not have much personality. Hendricks sang with many bands and was on the radio, including on Carmichael's show.

"Sleepy Time Gal" is not a Carmichael composition; presumably it was chosen because it suited his vocalizing. It took four songwriters (Richard A. Whiting, Ange Lorenzo, Joseph Alden and Raymond B. Egan) to come up with the number in 1925.

The following selection was written by Hoagy, although he does not sing it, nor is it characteristic. "Somewhere on Via Roma" is another war song, with the vocalist hoping he will meet his inamorata on the road to Rome "when the world is free again." Singing is former Hal Kemp vocalist Bob Allen, who is suitably romantic. The lyricist was John Forté.

"Baltimore Oriole" - one of Carmichael's greatest songs - was written for To Have and Have Not, but only used in the background of the film. Hoagy himself didn't get around to recording it until 1946.

The final selection in the ARA 78 album is the old favorite "Sweet Lorraine" by Cliff Burwell and Mitchell Parish. It comes from 1928 and had become something of a standard by the time Carmichael made his ARA 78 in 1946.

Billboard ad, June 8, 1946

Another oldie is "I Don't Know Why (I Just Do)," which Roy Turk and Fred Ahlert wrote in 1931. Its revival for the 1946 Donna Reed-Tom Drake comedy Faithful in My Fashion stimulated quite a few recordings, including this one by Carmichael.

ARA backed the above tune with another revival, Vernon Duke's "I Can't Get Started" from the Ziegfeld Follies of 1936. Hal Kemp and especially Bunny Berigan had hits with it back then.

Canyon Passage: Hoagy with his uke, guitars and concertina

In 1946, Carmichael wrote four songs for the Western film Canyon Passage, but only recorded one. Fortunately it was a great song - "Ole Buttermilk Sky," which he wrote solo and performed in the film. Some of the lyrics: "Ole buttermilk sky / Dont'cha fail me when I'm needin' you most / Hang a moon above her hitchin' post / Hitch me to the one I love."

"Ginger and Spice" is an peppy number with Hoagy trying to choose between Ginger ("a cutie") and Spice ("a beauty"). Yes, it's contrived.

Neither of the final two songs was written by Carmichael, nor are they remarkable in any way. "Walk It Off" comes from Inez James and Sid Miller and was also recorded by the Pied Pipers and the Delta Rhythm Boys.

"It Ain't Gonna Be Like That" was penned by two popular singers - Mel Tormé and Frankie Laine. The first recording was by Johnny Moore's Three Blazers with Charles Brown on vocals. Laine recorded it in 1947. It's a prefab exercise in misogyny.

The ARA Label

As I mentioned above, the ARA label was a front for the Soviets. As Allan Sutton wrote in a fascinating article on the affair, "Bosses and 'salesmen' [were] Russian intelligence agents… The stars, of course, had no way of knowing that they were being used as attractive window-dressing for an outfit organized to be a clearinghouse for spies throughout the United States, Canada, Central and South America."

"With extensive contacts in the entertainment industry, [label head Boris] Morros assembled an impressive artist roster that came to include Hoagy Carmichael, Frances Langford, Smiley Burnette, Phil Harris, Art Tatum, and Bob Crosby’s Bobcats."

The label only lasted from 1944 to 1946. Carmichael was the first to leave - he returned to Decca in August of the latter year. The label went into receivership in September 1946. Morros turned on his Russian handlers the following year, confessing to the FBI and becoming a double agent.

LINK