More Mozart from Shumsky, Plus the Haffner Symphony with Wallenstein

Following up on my recent post of violinist Oscar Shumsky in Mozart sonatas, here is his circa 1956 reading of the Violin Concerto No. 5 in A major, K. 219. It is coupled with a fleet performance of the Symphony No. 35 in D major, K. 385, from Alfred Wallenstein and the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

The LA forces play strikingly well under the baton of Wallenstein, who was completing his 13 years as LAPO maestro when this record was issued in 1956. Shumsky is backed by the New York-based Little Orchestra, which does not display the same discipline as the West Coast musicians. Thomas Scherman is the conductor in the concerto.

Oscar Shumsky

As always, Shumsky is perfectly in control - perhaps even a little too much so in the finale's quasi-Turkish music, which benefits from some abandon. The sound is good throughout.

These recordings come to us from Music-Appreciation Records, which had been started a few years previously as a mail-order subscription effort by the Book-of-the-Month Club. As with the similar efforts before and later, the pitch was getting cultured. In one widely-placed ad, publisher and TV personality Bennett Cerf exclaimed, "In a few minutes Music-Appreciation Records taught me more about Beethoven's Fifth Symphony than I learned in a month in a course in college!"

Many of the Music-Appreciation records contained both a performance of the work and an audio analysis; sometimes they came on separate discs. My own collection has both orphaned performances and analyses with no performance. This particular record did not have an recorded analysis; at least I don't have it. There are notes on the back cover by Deems Taylor, but of course this is not any different from most classical recordings then and now.

Wallenstein himself appears in some of the Music-Appreciation ads, providing a not-entirely-disinterested rave (see below).

Wallenstein Conducts Gershwin and Rodgers, Plus Reups

Robert Russell Bennett's suites from Oklahoma! and Porgy and Bess are still popular, and in the case of the Gershwin opera, his version is probably heard more often than the opera itself or Gershwin's own suite Catfish Row.

Bennett was closely associated with both composers, as the chosen orchestrator of many of their Broadway productions. He did the original orchestration of Oklahoma! and created the suite from Porgy following Gershwin's death, at the request of Fritz Reiner.

Robert Russell Bennett and Alfred Wallenstein

Bennett also collaborated with conductor Alfred Wallenstein, who led the 1935 premiere of a suite from Bennett's opera Maria Malibran. When Wallenstein became conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic in 1943, he quickly recorded the Bennett suites from Oklahoma! and Porgy. The recording of the Rodgers suite dates from August 1944. The Gershwin may have been even earlier, possibly soon after the 1942 revival of the opera.

Decca had rights to both scores, issuing both the original cast album of Oklahoma! in 1943 and selections from Porgy and Bess in 1940 and 1942 with Todd Duncan and Anne Brown of the original 1935 cast. The Decca moguls may have seen the Bennett suites as ways to get the music into even more hands - the suites were shorter and less expensive than the full shows. In the 1946 ad down below, Decca touts the Wallenstein album right along with the Oklahoma! cast album.

This 10-inch LP transfer dates from 1949. The performances are sympathetic and Decca's sound is adequate.

Reups

Conrad Salinger - A Lovely Afternoon (remastered, repitched). The eminent Hollywood orchestrator Conrad Salinger made just one LP.  This latest remaster is the best yet, fixing pitch issues on the original. Thanks to StealthMan for the transfer!

Sonny Burke - Mambo Jambo (remastered). Bandleader Sonny Burke's version of "Mambo Jambo" helped to popularize the mambo in the U.S. This 10-inch LP has his original recordings.

Miss Sadie Thompson (OST remastered). There's a bit of George Duning among the source material and Lester Lee-Ned Washington songs on this forgotten 10-inch soundtrack from a Rita Hayworth flick.

Danny Kaye - Decca DLP 5033 (remastered). The first LP from the comedian-singer-actor, and a very good one.

Larry Adler in Vaughan Williams and Benjamin. The great harmonica player in scores written for him by Ralph Vaughan Williams and Arthur Benjamin.

Copland - Red Pony, Thomson - Acadian Songs and Dances (Scherman). Early recordings of film music by Aaron Copland and Virgil Thomson.

Copland - Our Town, Thomson - The Plow That Broke the Plains (Scherman). More movie music from Copland and Thomson, again led by Thomas Scherman, on the M-G-M label.

1946 ad