Two Views of Piston's Second Symphony

Walter Piston

Friend and longtime supporter David Federman asked me if I had the American Recording Society's release of the Symphony No. 2 by Walter Piston. As it happens, I do, and that fine disk is the basis of today's post. To it, I've added a 1970 recording of the symphony by the Boston Symphony under Michael Tilson Thomas, which is coupled with a strong performance of William Schuman's Violin Concerto with Paul Zukofsky as soloist.

The ARS Recording

The American Recording Society was a grant-funded operation of the early 1950s that promoted the composers of this country.

ARS-1 was given over to the second symphony of Walter Piston, a most talented composer who was associated with Harvard for many years.

Conducting is the American expatriate Dean Dixon, who went on to helm quite a few ARS releases.

Dean Dixon

As was the standard practice with ARS, the orchestra was only identified as the "American Recording Society Orchestra." However, it was generally understood that the music was taped in Vienna. Discographies sometimes identify the ensemble as the Vienna Symphony, but I think it's likely that the forces were assembled on a freelance basis from the musicians of the city's various orchestras.

ARS could hardly have made a better choice to lead off its releases. Piston's symphony, written in 1943, is a powerful, gorgeous work with a particularly affecting slow movement. The Viennese forces do sound somewhat thin in the strings, but play with a high degree of commitment in this impressive performance from 1951.

In her liner notes to the recording, Sheila Keats described the work as follows: "The Symphony is notable for its clarity and lyric warmth; direct in expression, it reveals an uncomplicated texture and structure which grow easily and inevitably out of the clearly delineated melodic materials. As one has come to expect from a composer of Piston's contrapuntal gifts, it is a primarily linear work."

LINK to ARS recording

The DG Recording

The ARS was the first recording of the Piston symphony. It waited 19 years for its second, which was to be among the first discs led by wunderkind Michael Tilson Thomas, then the assistant conductor of the Boston Symphony.

DG must have been excited to have him - the sleeve note devotes nearly as much space to him than to either of the compositions on the LP.

Michael Tilson Thomas

Here is what the critic Alfred Frankenstein of High Fidelity had to say about the disc:

Two boy wonders of recent years team up here to provide a second time around for two American works of thirty years ago. The Piston comes off marvelously well, the Schuman rather less so.

People tend to dismiss Walter Piston as another academic composer, but his Second Symphony, written in 1942, proves that one can be a Harvard professor and a great creator of music as well. The symphony has everything, in generous measure, that its tradition requires: themes that appeal to the ear and command the respect of the mind, forms of the utmost clarity and logic, and a sense of drama in the building of proportions that confers dignity on rhetoric. This, in short, is a symphony to place alongside those of Ives and Vaughan Williams - the foremost works of their kind this century has produced.

William Schuman's Violin Concerto, composed in 1947 but revised in 1959, is in two large movements, each subdivided into several short sections. The slow sections are extremely effective, lyrical, and beautiful, but the fast sections often come embarrassingly close to the violin concertos of Prokofiev - and over and beyond that they contain a lot of mere fiddling. Zukofsky fiddles magnificently, to be sure, but one expects more musical justification for technical display than is offered here, especially from a composer of Schuman's stature.

William Schuman

Paul Zukofsky

I am rather more kindly disposed to the Schuman than was Frankenstein. Lester Trimble of Stereo Review summed up its appeal: "William Schuman's Concerto for Violin and Orchestra is a magnificent work, with some of the most compelling and deeply affecting music, particularly in its slow, philosophical sections, that I have heard in any contemporary piece, by a composer of whatever nationality... Young Paul Zukofsky's performance of the Schuman solo-violin part is first-rate, too. His tone, as always, is a bit wiry, but his technique is spectacularly agile, and in this performance he finds access to more than his usual warmth."

Comparing the two performances of the Piston symphony, the Dixon recording is more strongly characterized than the Boston reading - although the latter's slow movement is beautifully handled. The sound of the ARS disc is reasonably good. The Boston recording is of course much better.

LINK to DG recording

From the Back Room: Anita Ellis in the 40s, Vol. 3

Here is the long-delayed third part of my compilation of Anita Ellis' recordings from the 1940s. This final post covers her Standard Transcriptions from the period - 24 songs in all.

These were taken from an old bootleg with the usual technical issues - in this case several of the numbers were seriously sharp, which I've addressed, along with doing my best to otherwise improve the at times hinky sound.

Unlike most posts here, I have no information about who is leading the band, or when the sessions took place. (Transcriptions are poorly documented.) Many of the songs date from 1945-48, however. 

That said, the first few numbers are older. The Gershwins wrote "They Can't Take That Away from Me" for Fred Astaire to sing in the 1937 film Shall We Dance.

"More Than You Know" is from 1929. The Vincent Youmans tune has words by Billy Rose and Edward Eliscu. It comes from the 1929 musical Great Day. This material is just right for Anita's sincere, passionate singing.

Anita herself was responsible for introducing the next song. The famous "Put the Blame on Mame" comes from the 1946 film Gilda, where Ellis dubbed Rita Hayworth's singing voice. The songwriters were Allan Roberts and Doris Fisher.

Calypsos became popular in the late 1940s following the success of "Rum and Coca-Cola." (The complex story of that song is here.) That bouncy tune was a hit for the Andrews Sisters, and they followed it up in 1948 with "The Money Song" composed by Jack Williams and Harold William. It is surely the worst song in this set.

From the same year was the wonderful "My Darling, My Darling," which Frank Loesser wrote for Where's Charley? Doretta Morrow and Byron Palmer sang it on Broadway. Ellis is completely involved here.

Ralph Blane wrote "Girls Were Made to Take Care of Boys" circa 1948, with the first recording by Jo Stafford and Gordon MacRae. Billie Holiday also recorded it at the time.

"(I Love You) For Sentimental Reasons" comes from 1945. The writers were Deek Watson and Pat Best of the Ink Spots, but the first recording was by Deek's new group the Brown Dots.

"Oh! But I Do" is a 1946 classic by Arthur Schwartz and Leo Robin from the film The Time, The Place and The Girl. A great song in an equally great performance.

Next, Anita reached back to 1931 for "I Don't Know Why (I Just Do)" by Fred Ahlert and Roy Turk.

The 1947 film The Shocking Miss Pilgrim introduced a posthumous song from George Gershwin, the much underrated "For You, for Me, for Evermore." Dick Haymes' soundtrack and commercial versions can be found in this post.

"The Whole World is Singing My Song," written by Mann Curtis and Vic Mizzy, was a 1946 hit for Doris Day with Les Brown's band.

Another hit from that year was "A Sunday Kind of Love," by Fran Warren with Claude Thornhill. The writers were Barbara Belle, Anita Leonard, Louis Prima and Stan Rhodes.

Jerome Kern penned "In Love in Vain" for the 1945 film Centennial Summer, with lyrics by Leo Robin. As with State Fair, Louanne Hogan dubbed Jeanne Crain's singing voice. William Eythe's singing voice was David Street.

"Atlanta, G.A." is forgotten today, but was a hit in 1946 for Sammy Kaye, with a Billy Williams vocal. The songwriters were Sunny Skylar and Artie Shaftel.

The next song was a success in England before coming to the US in 1946. "I'll Close My Eyes" was the work of Billy Reid and Buddy Kaye.

The second song from 1946's Gilda to be dubbed by Anita was "Amado Mio." As with "Put the Blame on Mame," the songwriters were Allan Roberts and Doris Fisher. These are not the soundtrack versions, rather transcriptions recorded for radio syndication.

The marvelous "Come Rain or Come Shine" is from the excellent score for the 1946 show St. Louis Woman by Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer. Anita's version is intense and inward.

Jimmy Monaco and Mack Gordon wrote "I Can't Begin to Tell You" for the 1945 film The Dolly Sisters, where the vocalists were Betty Grable and John Payne.

The next four songs were revivals of older numbers, starting with the English import "A Garden in the Rain," which bandleader Carroll Gibbons and lyricist James Dyrenforth wrote in 1928.

Gertrude Lawrence introduced "Someone to Watch Over Me" in one of the Gershwins' best shows, Oh, Kay! of 1926. Ellis does wonders with the extended verse.

Another English oldie - "If You Were the Only Girl (In the World)" - is from 1916 and the West End revue The Bing Boys Are Here. The authors were Nay Ayer and Clifford Grey.

Hoagy Carmichael's "Star Dust" dates from 1927; Mitchell Parish added lyrics in 1929. You can hear both the first instrumental version (by Hoagy) and the first vocal version (by Isham Jones) here.

"Somewhere in the Night" is one of the few relatively obscure songs here, but it's a good one. The music is by Josef Myrow and the words by Mack Gordon, writing for the 1946 film Three Little Girls in Blue. Vivian Blaine was the first to sing the piece.

The other obscurity is "You Can't See the Sun When You're Cryin'," the work of the estimable Allan Roberts and Doris Fisher. Vaughn Monroe among others recorded it in 1946.

Anita could not have been given much time to rehearse and record these numbers. Nonetheless throughout she displays her remarkable ability to summon strong emotions in a studio environment.

The previous volumes are still available - Vol. 1 and Vol. 2.

LINK

 

Fiedler Conducts Offenbach

If Arthur joined the can-can ... an AI fantasy

No, Arthur Fiedler did not join the Gaîté Parisienne chorus line, as far as I know. The above is what 60 seconds with Gemini will produce for you. When it came to Jacques Offenbach's most famous (and completely posthumous) creation, Fiedler did everything but the can-can. He recorded the ballet score three times in a little over 10 years during his belle époque with the Boston Pops.

Today we have his second recording, a stereo version made just a few months after RCA Victor began recording in the new format. That was in 1954, and the results sound just as fresh today as they did then.

A few years after this recording, Fiedler was back in the studio for a go at an collection called Offenbach in America, commemorating the composer's tour of this country just four years before his death in 1880. The resulting Pops LP also is part of today's program.

Jacques Offenbach

Gaîté Parisienne

As mentioned, Gaîté Parisienne would have been unknown to its composer. It's actually a ballet score from Offenbach's music commissioned by Leonid Massine for the Ballet Russes de Monte Carlo in the 1930s. The choreographer had asked the conductor Roger Désormière to assemble the score from Offenbach's music, but he was too busy. Désormière did manage to inveigle the reluctant Manuel Rosenthal to take on the job.

Rosenthal must have been glad he did because he later assembled two other works using Offenbach's music - Offenbachiana for orchestra, and La belle Hélène, a ballet based on the opera of that name.

Manuel Rosenthal

The LP's liner notes are given over to reminiscences by impresario Sol Hurok, so let me provide the sources of the ballet's 19 scenes - or rather let me let Wikipedia provide them:

1. Ouverture (from: La vie parisienne)

2. Allegro moderato (from: Mesdames de la Halle)

3. Polka (from: Le voyage dans la lune)

4. Ländler (from: Lieschen et Fritzchen)

5. Mazurka (from: Vert-Vert)

6. Valse (from: La vie parisienne)

7. Entrée du Brésilen (from: La vie parisienne)

8. Polka (from: La belle Hélène)

9. Valse (from: Orphée aux enfers)

10. Marche (from: Tromb-al-Cazar)

11. Valse (from: La belle Hélène)

12. Entrée du Brésilien (from: La vie parisienne)

13. Valse (from: Les contes d'Hoffmann)

14. Duel (from: Le voyage dans la lune)

15. Valse (from: La Périchole)

16. Prelude au Can-Can (from: Orphée aux enfers)

17. Can-Can Scene 1 (from: Orphée aux enfers, Robinson Crusoe)

18. Can-Can Scene 2 - Polka (from: Orphée aux enfers)

19. Can-Can Scene 3 (potpourri)

You also will find music from some of those works on the second LP below.

Leonid Massine in Gaîté Parisienne

Fielder's conducting style had proponents and detractors, but this work did suit his dynamic approach. J.F. Indcox had this to say in High Fidelity: "A sparkling new recording of the lively, frothy ballet suite Manuel Rosenthal arranged from Offenbach music. The performance, beautifully played, is bright, humorous and light-hearted, and confirms the impression gained from Fiedler's earlier recording of 1947 ... that the conductor has a real flair for this music."

There is a 1941 Ballet Russe film of the ballet on YouTube, with Efrem Kurtz conducting. He also led the premiere of the work.

The sound on this LP is strikingly good. It's amazing what the engineers did with the new stereo format.

LINK to Gaîté Parisienne

Offenbach in America

Offenbach comes across as quite the boulevardier in the cover illustration, and he had reason to be pleased. He came to America at the invitation of the International Exposition in Philadelphia and scheduled hugely successful appearances both there and in New York.

Now, did this LP present the music he conducted in America? Well, the liner notes say it is "the kind of program which Offenbach conducted at Gilmore's Gardens" in New York. I take that as a maybe.

Let me outline Fieldler's selections and then make a few comments about the unusual ones.

1. La belle Hélène: Overture
2. Les contes d'Hoffmann: Intermezzo 
3. Geneviève de Brabant: Galop
4. La Périchole: Selection
5. La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein: Overture 
6. Les Belles Américaines (waltz orchestrated by Robert Russell Bennett) 
7. Musette-Air de Ballet for Cello and Orchestra (Samuel Mayes, cellist) 
8. Orphée aux enfers: Overture

Offenbach composed Les Belles Américaines as a piano piece for his American tour. This version, which may have been commissioned by the Pops, uses an orchestration by the great Robert Russell Bennett.

Samuel Mayes

The full title of Musette is Musette Air de ballet du 17me siècle. It's not clear to me whether this is an arrangement for orchestra by another hand; however, it's of particular interest because the composer was a cellist. Here we have Samuel Mayes (1917-90), the principal of the Boston Symphony from 1948-64 as soloist. The work is beautifully done.

Here is High Fidelity's Indcox on some of the other works: "A dashing galop from Geneviève de Brahant capers along, until suddenly, one hears phrases that surely served as the basis for The Marine's Hymn ("From the halls of Montezuma"), and it is a joy to hear the grand tunes from The Grand Duchess of Gerolstein set forth with such brilliance. My own favorite is the charming selection from Offenbach's wonderful score for La Périchole, a score that has Mozartean overtones and is full of truly delightful melodies."

Indcox was again impressed by the performances: "Fiedler and the Boston 'Pops' play these enchanting pieces with tremendous verve and finesse, and I would not hesitate to call this one of the best recordings this group has ever made. A lightish Victor sound is most appropriate to the occasion, and the record is highly recommended on all counts."

Not sure what he means by "lightish," but the 1956 recording is very fine.

LINK to Offenbach in America

The Songs of 'State Fair'

The poster above is from the 1945 film State Fair, a charming film with six good songs by Rodgers and Hammerstein in the Americana mode that for them started with the blockbuster stage musical Oklahoma!

My intent was to collect some of the commercial recordings of songs from the 1945 film. Then I remembered that Richard Rodgers had written both words and music for several new songs for a 1962 remake. This in turn led me to the 1996 stage musical, which had its own additions from the Rodgers & Hammerstein back catalogue. And that production had been a reworking of a 1969 staging, which featured different R&H additions.

Eventually I ended up with 26 selections, which can be categorized as follows:

• The songs from the 1945 film: eight selections, including one song cut from the film and one alternate take. The title song also is included, albeit in a 1962 recording.

• The new songs for the 1962 film: four songs by Rodgers.

• The R&H catalog songs added to the 1969 stage musical, in their original versions.

• The seven catalog songs inserted into the 1996 Broadway musical, in their original versions, plus one song that was a reworking of another song cut from an R&H musical.

All this will become clear, or at least clearer, as we proceed. First some background.

The Story of State Fair

Ground zero for all these musicals - and a 1976 non-musical television adaptation - was Phil Stong's 1932 novel with the same name, which related the story of an Iowa farm family named Frake - father Abel, mother Melissa and teen offspring Margy and Wayne - and their trip to the State Fair. Romance for the youngsters and blue ribbons for Ma and Pa ensued.

Hollywood immediately picked up on the story. The following year, a non-musical film starring Will Rogers, Louise Dresser, Norman Foster and Janet Gaynor showed up in the nation's film emporia. You'll notice Lew Ayes snuggling with Janet Gaynor above. He's one of the love interests. Not sure who the other figure is. It can't be Louise Dresser, so it must be Sally Eilers, whose slinky attire apparently was designed to allure Wayne.

Songs from the 1945 Film

State Fair was the only musical that R&H composed directly for the screen. Although it is set at the fair, the story is really about two restless young people who are dreaming of a world beyond the farm. Ma and Pa provide comic relief - Abel with his giant hog; Melissa with her mincemeat pies.

"It Might as Well Be Spring"

The "dreaming" theme is quickly established by the most famous song from the score - "It Might as Well Be Spring," which Margy (Jeanne Crain, dubbed by Louanne Hogan) sings from an open window:

I keep wishing I were somewhere else / Walking down a brand new street

Hearing words that I have never heard / From a man I've yet to meet

This longing for something new was common in the times, and was a theme in American literature at least as far back as Eugene O'Neill's 1918 play Beyond the Horizon. In films it had shown up in The Wizard of Oz ("Over the Rainbow'). Later it would become integral to Aaron Copland's opera The Tender Land.

There were surprisingly few commercial recordings of the State Fair songs at the time. The most notable set was an album with five songs by Dick Haymes, who took the role of Wayne Frake. This collection includes three of those - "It Might as Well Be Spring," "All I Owe Ioway" and "It's a Grand Night for Singing." In the film, he features only in the latter, in ensemble.

Vivian Blaine and Dick Haymes

Oddly, Dick did not record his main song in the film - "Isn't It Kinda Fun?", a duet with Vivian Blaine, who played his prospective love interest, band singer Emily Edwards. So I've added an aircheck from his radio show, where his partner is Helen Forrest, along with a solo version that's an outtake from the film, I believe.

Haymes is wonderful, of course - his voice is evenly produced in a resonant baritone, with remarkably accurate pitch.

I've also included a few commercial recordings of interest. Margaret Whiting did a fine version of "It Might as Well Be Spring" with Paul Weston. This was one of Maggie's first recordings - Weston was top billed - and in truth his arrangement is beautiful.

Some jazz artists adopted the ballad as well. Stan Getz recorded it at least twice. He's here in a 1951 recording with the young Horace Silver on piano.

"That's for Me" also attracted a few record companies. This collection includes a version by Jo Stafford from 1945 that is too cool-toned for this enthusiastic number. Artie Shaw also recorded it with a vocal by the warm-voiced Hal Derwin (called "Hal Stevens" on the label).

One song was cut from the film - "We Will Be Together," presented by Vivian Blaine and the band's male singer, played by Wayne Marshall. He was Haymes' rival for Vivian's attention. This song is included as well.

Songs from the 1962 Film

By the time the 1962 remake of State Fair went into production, Oscar Hammerstein had died, so Rodgers decided to write the lyrics for several new songs himself, as he was to do for the Broadway show No Strings, which opened that same year,

While the results are not bad, they are not at the level of the 1945 songs, so none of them became popular. To represent the show I've included the soundtrack versions, which are as follows:

• "Never Say No to a Man": questionable motherly advice from Ma (Alice Faye, who came out of retirement) to Margy (Pamela Tiffin).

Alice Faye and Pamela Tiffin

• "Willing and Eager": a duet for Wayne (Pat Boone) and love interest Emily (Ann-Margret), who is a dancer rather than singer in this version. Pat is very good; Ann-Margret was more dancer than singer, but she's effective here.

Pat Boone and Ann-Margret

• "This Isn't Heaven": Bobby Darin sings this to Pamela Tiffin. A good song, which Bobby does well, but neither he nor Pamela could act.

Bobby Darin and Pamela Tiffin

• "The Little Things in Texas": Tom Ewell (Abel) and Alice Faye do this one. I should have mentioned that this version of the saga moves the locale from Iowa to Texas.

Rodgers actually wrote five songs for the 1962 film. But I pigheadedly left out Abel Frake's love song to his hog Blue Boy.

Tom Ewell and Blue Boy

Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops did record a 1962 album with songs from both State Fair and No Strings that included instrumental versions of "This Isn't Heaven" and "Willing and Eager." To represent the LP, I've included their instrumental version of the opening song "Our State Fair" as a sort of overture to the entire proceedings. Rodgers wrote this as a march, and arranger Richard Hayman leans into it, making it quasi-Sousa.

The 1962 film was not a success. Here are a few excerpts from Bosley Crowther's New York Times review:

Twentieth Century-Fox' remake of minor bucolic tribulations ... is a basically obvious and, for the most part, dull fare. This "Fair" is at best, only fair. For all its good intentions, it seems to be a parody of moviemaking of the past...

One has the feeling that the songs are being sung on cue and not because the drama inherent in the scene demanded a song.

The 1969 Stage Musical

Harriet and Ozzie Nelson

State Fair was unusual in that it was a musical film that became a stage musical. The first attempt to do so was in 1969 in St. Louis. Pa and Ma were Ozzie and Harriet Nelson, longtime TV stars who had been musicians in a prior life. The production had pedigree: Oscar Hammerstein's son James was the director and Rodgers himself supervised the show.

This production added three songs from one of R&H's "smaller" shows, 1953's Me and Juliet, which was a backstage story that included a show within a show (also called Me and Juliet). It was hard to stage and confusing, so it has seldom been revived. It did boast several excellent songs, as always with R&H.

Isabel Bigley and Joan McCracken

To represent the 1969 State Fair, I've included the versions of these songs from the Me and Juliet cast album. I don't know how they were used in the 1969 production.

• "It's Me" - sung by female lead Isabel Bigley and Joan McCracken

• "Keep It Gay" - done by the male heavy, Mark Dawson

• "Marriage Type Love" - sung by Arthur Maxwell, the "me" of Me and Juliet, the show-within-a-show

The 1969 score also included a new song, "Away from Home." I know nothing else about it. (Addendum - reader John S. and Alan Gomberg send the following information: In the St. Louis Post-Dispatch review of the Muny production, it was stated that the lyric for 'Away from Home' was by Lucille Kallen. She adapted the screenplay for the stage and was credited for that in the program. She was not credited with the lyric. It is not known whether the song, with music by Rodgers, was wholly new or was perhaps a trunk song for which Kallen provided new lyrics to existing Rodgers music.

The 1996 Stage Musical

State Fair made it to Broadway in 1996, in a new production also co-directed by James Hammerstein. Abel and Melissa were John Davidson and Kathryn Crosby. Margy and Wayne were Andrea McArdle and Ben Wright. Donna McKechnie was Emily and Scott Wise was Pat, the new Margy love interest.

John Davidson, Ben Wright, Kathyn Crosby, Andrea McArdle

The show included eight new songs, all of which were taken from other R&H shows, or were cut or adapted from them. I've included the original versions when available and the 1996 recordings when not.

These are as follows:

• "Driving at Night" - adapted by James Hammerstein and orchestrator Bruce Pomahac from an outtake from the 1947 R&H musical Allegro, "Two Short Years." This ensemble number is taken from the 1996 cast album.

• "You Never Had It So Good" - cut from Me and Juliet and done here by Donna McKechnie and Scott Wise.

• "When I Go Out Walking with My Baby" - cut from Oklahoma! and sung here by John Davidson and Kathryn Crosby.

John Battles and Gloria Wills

• "So Far" - from 1947's story-of-a life Allegro, with Gloria Wills from its original cast.

• "The Man I Used to Be" - from Pipe Dream, a 1955 sequel to Cannery Row written by John Steinbeck with music by R&H, here sung by William Johnson of its original cast as lead character Doc.

• "That's the Way It Happens" - from Me and Juliet, sung by Isabel Bigley.

• "Boys and Girls Like You and Me" - this song had the misfortune of being cut from three productions - Oklahoma! and two more not otherwise by R&H, the films Meet Me in St. Louis and Take Me Out to the Ball Game. Judy Garland made a commercial recording of the song, but here we have Frank Sinatra's outtake from the baseball musical. It's a beautiful piece, although the verse is a fine example of Hammerstein poesy.

William Johnson and Judy Tyler

• "The Next Time It Happens" - from Pipe Dream, here sung by Judy Tyler of its original cast.

The 1996 production carried over two songs from the 1962 film, "More than Just a Friend" and "Willing and Eager."

In the New York Times, Vincent Canby summarized both the appeal of the score and the failure of the Broadway production (it lasted four months):

State Fair still clings today, in large part because of the lilting score that includes such songs as "It Might as Well Be Spring," "That's for Me" and "Our State Fair." Be warned, however: If you allow any one of the melodies to penetrate your consciousness, you put yourself at risk. It will buzz around in the mind forever, or until a deep doze sets you free...

Here's a faithful, utterly mechanical stage replica of a work that, while it was never exactly top-drawer, was typical of the kind of miracles Rodgers and Hammerstein could pull off when in good form...

There's nothing wrong with the good old family values that State Fair is still promoting, except they're now being promoted with less theatrical guile than brazen push.

The first production was sincere; a valentine to a rural America that was changing. Adapting that to later times proved challenging. But the music endures.

LINK

Arrau Plays Schumann, Vol. 3

The series of Claudio Arrau's recordings of Schumann's piano works reaches its third installment with a fascinating performance of the Symphonic Études coupled with the early Abegg Variations, both from 1970.

Robert Schumann

The Symphonic Études are for the most part variations on a theme by the amateur composer Baron von Fricken. In 1834, Schumann composed the theme and 16 variations, eventually publishing only 11 of the latter. A 12th Étude was added as a finale, but it was based on a melody by Marschner.

I'll spare you the many confusing convolutions of the piece, except to note that the five Études that the composer did not publish were eventually issued by Brahms after Schumann's death, over the objections of Clara Schumann.

These rejected Études are sometimes inserted into performances of the work at various points, as Arrau does here.

Claudio Arrau

The Études were designed to be highly virtuosic, which is certainly the province of Arrau, and he does not disappoint. That is, he does not disappoint me - some critics were less impressed. Some were seeking more animation. Here is the redoubtable Joan Chissell in The Gramophone: 

Arrau plays these five ruminative variations [i.e., the five published by Brahms] perhaps more beautifully than anything else in the work... His own style these days seems to grow increasingly introverted: this music gives him scope to brood and dream. The rest of the performance is affectionately phrased and expansive, but there is not always enough sheer physical exhilaration in the more demonstrative numbers (often taken at rather cautious tempo), not excluding the finale.

David Hall of Stereo Review was closer to my own reaction (to the work, not to Arrau as an artist):

Claudio Arrau has never been a favorite of mine among the veteran superstar pianists: I find much of his interpretation on the cold and somewhat mannered side. So it is a wry sort of pleasure to be able to eat my words, and to commend his new recording of the Schumann Symphonic Études as among the very best ever. Only a certain lack of surge in the exuberant finale keeps me from calling it the single best.

The much shorter Abegg Variations were Schumann Op. 1, a student work from 1829-30. "Abegg" refers to the first five notes of the theme: A, B♭, E, G, and G. It also refers to Paulina von Abegg, an acquaintance and the dedicatee.

The critics were more satisfied with this early work. David Hall: "Arrau tops off this singularly satisfying artistic achievement [i.e., the Études] with an Abegg Variations rendering of the utmost tenderness and charm. Good sound all the way, rich in timbre, clean in texture."

The recording is rich, although quite close.

LINK