Two Superb Milhaud Scores from Abravanel

The recent post of Maurice Abravanel conducing the Utah Symphony in music of Roy Harris was a popular one, not least because it brought some worthy although unfamiliar music to light.

Today's item amounts to a repeat of that formula - although with very different music from a French rather than American composer.

Darius Milhaud (1892-1974) is the author of the two works on the program. The first - a remarkable work - is his Suite symphonique No. 2 drawn from the incidental music for Paul Claudel's play Protée. The second, only a bit less impressive, is Les Songes, the score from a 1933 ballet by George Balanchine.

That two such fascinating compositions could be almost unknown is a testament to changing tastes in music and to Milhaud's prolificacy as a writer.

Paul Claudel and Darius Milhaud

Critic Richard Freed wrote that Protée "is one of the most substantial and appealing of the composer’s early works for orchestra. It was produced in 1919, when he was twenty-seven - the same year as the more familiar (and slighter) Le Boeuf sur le Toit and some four years before La Création du Monde." The first performance was reportedly the scene of a Sacre-style riot of the aesthetes, with the audience divided into those who thought Milhaud a genius and those who thought he was a dangerous radical.

More than 100 years later, the work seems to teem with invention, starting with the composer's use of Latin rhythms in Protée. Milhaud had been transfixed by the music of Brazil when he was stationed there as an aide to Claudel, who was diplomat as well as poet. The music is enchanting, and beautifully played and recorded by the Utah forces. There are many fascinating aspects to the music. One that struck me was how Milhaud uses both the Latin rhythm and the orchestration to evoke water, in way unlike Debussy's La Mer, although there are influences by the Impressionists and Stravinsky in the music.

From Les Songes

Freed wrote that Les Songes "is of lighter texture, more intimately scored, and a bit less adventurous than the lustily extrovert Protée, but again highly attractive in its melodic abundance, rhythmic contrasts, and intriguing colors." 

Balanchine had prepared Les Songes for the new Parisian company he had formed with Boris Kochno, Les Ballets 1933. Les Songes had book, scenery and costumes by the artist André Derain. The Balanchine Foundation's description: "Exhausted after a triumphant performance, the ballerina [Tamara Toumanova in the premiere] falls asleep and is assailed by nightmares and visions. The fragrance of flowers brings an intimation of loveliness; she awakens reassured to find herself in her own room."

On the same program as Les Songes was the premiere of the Brecht-Weill The Seven Deadly Sins with Lotte Lenya and Tilly Losch. Quite a night.

Maurice Abravanel

Abravanel had unique authority in this music, having conducted the first performance. Freed went further, saying, "There is probably no conductor alive who brings more authority and affection to the music of Milhaud than Maurice Abravanel."

To my knowledge, this 1978 recording has not been reissued, nor has the score of Protée been re-recorded. It is currently available only in Pierre Monteux's San Francisco version from the 1940s. The Abravanel appears to be the only recording of Les Songes in its orchestral form.

A final word from Freed: "For most listeners, both works are likely to be 'discoveries' and both are very happy ones indeed, especially as presented on this beautifully recorded disc." Still true, 47 years later.

LINK

Darius Milhaud in 1924

Milhaud Plays and Conducts His Compositions

More today from the fertile imagination of composer Darius Milhaud, in the form of four works issued by Columbia at mid-century. All involve Milhaud as conductor or pianist.

The compositions are his Symphony No. 1, Suite  Française, Cantate de l'Enfant et de la Mère and La Muse Mènagére.

Symphony No. 1

Milhaud's music seldom conveys anguish, and such emotion can't be found in the first symphony, even though it was written at a difficult time for the composer.

While it is perhaps not as sunny as Columbia's LP cover would have you believe, it is nonetheless melodic and as genial much of Milhaud's output.

The symphony was written on commission from the Chicago Symphony for its 50th anniversary year, 1940-41. But as Milhaud started to work on the piece, war broke out in Europe. The composer was unable to work for a few months, but finally was able to finish the work just before fleeing Aix-en-Provence for the U.S. Only in the slow movement is there any hint of the struggle in Europe.

Milhaud himself conducted the first performance in October 1940, and went on to perform his work with several other orchestras, including the Columbia Broadcasting Symphony, which performs in this January 1947 recording.

In his survey of Milhaud's recordings, critic Robert Matthew-Walker wrote, "The recorded performance of the symphony is magnificent; indeed, this composer-conducted account has always convinced me that it is one of the very greatest symphonies of the twentieth century."

The 78 set included a short piece, "In Memoriam," in commemoration of the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor. It was not included on the 10-inch LP that I transferred, and I've been unable to find a copy of it.

Suite Française

Cover of the 78 set

The Suite Française also has a connection to the Second World War. Milhaud named the five parts of te suite for five French provinces - Normandy, Brittany, Ile-de-France, Alsace-Lorraine and Provence - "the very ones in which the American and Allied armies fought together with the French underground for the liberation of my country," he wrote.

Milhaud's aim was to make the music accessible to student ensembles. "I used some folk tunes of these provinces. I wanted the young Americans to hear the popular melodies from those parts of France where their fathers and brothers fought to defend the country from the German invaders." This joyous music has pre-echoes of the suites soon to be written by the British composer Malcolm Arnold.

The first version of the suite was written for band, and was introduced by the Goldman Band only six weeks after V-E Day. The orchestral version soon followed and was premiered by the New York Philharmonic and Maurice Abravanel in July. Milhaud conducted the same orchestra in this recording, dating from early January 1946.

The original issue of the suite was in a 78 set whose cover is depicted above. My transfer comes from a Columbia Entré LP reissue from the mid-1950s.

Cantate de l'Enfant et de la Mère; La Muse Mènagére

The next record moves away from orchestral works to chamber music with poetry and a piano suite with the composer performing.

Maurice Carême

The first work is La Cantate de L'Enfant et de la Mère, settings of poetry by the Belgian Maurice Carême. The cantata was written in 1938 for performance by the composer's wife, Madeleine Milhaud, the Pro Arte Quartet and pianist Paul Collaer.

Milhaud relates of the premiere, "I conducted the performance in the enormous concert hall of the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels.... It must have looked like a flea-circus, for our soft music and tender, intimate poetry recital came after some bravura pieces executed by the military band of the Guides, in full dress uniform."

Madeleine and Darius Milhaud

Carême, whose works also were set by Poulenc among other composers, was inspired by children's poetry, and wrote simple verses concerned with the family.

This 1950 performance marked the recording debut of the Juilliard String Quartet, which in its various incarnations has been in residence at that school for the past 75 years. This recording features the original personnel: violinists Robert Mann and Robert Koff, violist Raphael Hillyer and cellist Arthur Winograd. The piano part is taken by Leonid Hambro.

The Juilliards: violinists Robert Mann and Robert Koff, violist Raphael Hillyer, and cellist Arthur Winograd

Madeleine Milhaud was an actress and writer, who was responsible for the libretti of her husband's operas Médée, Bolivar and La Mère Coupable. Her lovely voice is just right for this material.

While I have been unable to locate either texts or translations of Carême's poetry, friend of the blog Peter has come up with the back cover of the Seraphim reissue of the disc, which does include translations of the verse. It is included in the download. It's a low-resolution scan, but can be read with some squinting. Thanks, Peter.

The second side of the record continues the domestic theme. The Household Muse (La Muse Mènagére) is a piano suite in which the composer depicts scenes from the Milhauds' everyday life. The gentle music shows the influence of Milhaud's mentor, Eric Satie.

I believe this recording was made in early 1946 bur not issued before this LP came out. That lapse may have been because of technical considerations: Milhaud's piano is dully recorded and there apparently was rustle on the master (an early review complains about it).

I've brightened the sound of Milhaud's piano a bit and lowered the background noise. The Cantata had the opposite problem - close and harsh sound. I've added a small amount of convolution reverberation to the mix and the results are pleasing, at least to me.

As mentioned, the Symphony and Suite Française come from my collection. I worked from a lossless transfer on Internet Archive for the other works, which were requested by longtime friend of the blog rev.b.

This post is a follow-up to a recent item with Milhaud's Saudades do Brasil and Piano Concerto No. 4 in brilliant performances by Zadel Skolofsky. 

Zadel Skolovsky, a Forgotten Virtuoso, Plays Milhaud

Today, two fascinating pieces by the French composer Darius Milhaud (1892-1974) - his popular and influential suite "Saudades do Brasil," in its original form for solo piano, and the Piano Concerto No. 4, in its first recording.

The pianist is Zadel Skolovsky, who commissioned the concerto and premiered it in 1949 with Charles Munch and the Boston Symphony. Milhaud himself conducts this recording, made with the French National Radio Orchestra in 1950.

Zadel Skolovsky

Skolovsky made very few recordings, but deserves to be remembered. In his autobiography, Milhaud termed him "an astonishing virtuoso," and so he shows himself to be in the performance of the concerto. The composer also was enthusiastic about Skolovsky's playing in the solo suite, telling the New York Times in 1952 that "This is the first time I've heard them played exactly as I want them to be done. I had to wait 40 years" [actually 30 - the suite dates from 1920-21].

Some background on the pianist. Born in Vancouver in 1916, he moved to LA at a young age. He studied at the Curtis Institute with Isabella Vengerova, later working as her assistant, and also took lessons from Leopold Godowsky. Skolovsky won the Naumburg Competition in 1939, which launched an active concert career; the download includes New York Times reviews dating from 1939 to 1968. He became a professor at Indiana University in 1975, and was professor emeritus from 1987. He died in Bethesda, Maryland in 2009.

Judging from the information on the Classical Discography site, the two Columbia LPs are the extent of Skolovsky's commercial recordings, with the exception of a 1955 Philips recording of Gershwin's Three Preludes, which I've been unable to locate. Those interested in the artist may want to check into a live performance of the Prokofiev Second Concerto with Munch and the NYPO that is available on the Laureate Conductor blog.

Darius Milhaud

Milhaud was an immensely prolific composer. The opposite of the tortured artist, music just poured out of him. He was a discipline of Erik Satie, and like that composer, he was influential in his time. "Saudades do Brasil," with its use of tango rhythms to portray the different districts of Rio de Janeiro (where Milhaud had a diplomatic post in 1917-18), has pre-echoes of both Copland and Gershwin in its songfulness and use of popular idioms.

In a 1948 article in the Saturday Review, Copland confessed that, "I became a Milhaud fan back in the early Twenties, when the composer was considered the enfant terrible of French music." Although Copland was writing about Milhaud's First Symphony in that article, his comments relate to the Piano Concerto as well: "Milhaud has a particular aptitude for suggesting the complexities of modern life, even at times embroiling himself in musical complexities." The concerto is at once dissonant and melodic, unruly and serene. Skolovsky's remarkable performance provides the thread that ties all these strands together.

Milhaud in action

For this post, I've combined the cleanest sections from my LP and a transfer found on Internet Archive. The sound is excellent in the "Saudades do Brasil," and the piano tone is good in the concerto, which favors Skolovsky's instrument over the orchestral backing. (Just as well; the band is raucous or wooly, depending on the section.) The Saudades recording comes from 1951.

The download includes reviews of the record from the New York Times, American Record Guide, the New Records, the Saturday Review and High Fidelity. Previous posts of Milhaud's music can be found here.

20th Century Music for Clarinet and Piano

Stanley Drucker is one of the best known clarinet players of the recent past but he has made relatively few solo recordings. Here is one from 1971 with five excellent works from eminent 20th century composers. The Odyssey LP pairs Drucker with pianist Leonid Hambro, himself a distinguished figure.

Stanley Drucker

Drucker, born in 1929, was the principal clarinetist of the New York Philharmonic for an amazing 49 years, from 1960 until 2009. He was with the orchestra for more than 62 years - his entire working career.

Leonid Hambro

Hambro (1920-2006) made a number of recordings early in his career for such labels as Allegro, but later became known for his comedic bent. He spent a decade as the sidekick of Victor Borge, and appeared on P.D.Q Bach and Gerard Hoffnung programs. He also collaborated with synthesizer player Gershon Kingsley for a record of Switched-On Gershwin. He was a talented accompanist as well.

For this LP, Drucker and Hambro programmed Leonard Bernstein's early and enjoyable Sonata, Sonatinas from Darius Milhaud and Arthur Honegger, Debussy's brief Petite Piece for clarinet and piano, and a typically discursive but lovely sonata by Sir Arnold Bax.

I suspect that this was an independent production that Drucker and Hambro brought to Columbia, which put it out on its budget Odyssey label, mainly devoted to reissues. The sound is vivid but it does compress the dynamic range of the performance.

I transferred the LP is response to a request on a classical sharing site, but I thought some readers here might enjoy it as well.

Circa 1970s ad

Kaufman and Milhaud Perform Milhaud

The recordings of violinist Louis Kaufman continue to draw the interest of this blog's readers, so here is another from the files.

Darius Milhaud

As with previous Kaufman records, this presents the music of a contemporary composer, in this instance Darius Milhaud.

The French Milhaud had moved to California and Mills College and became familiar there with Kaufman, who was a very busy Hollywood studio musician. In 1949, the Los Angeles record label Capitol brought them together for this collection of Milhaud compositions.

Louis Kaufman

The longest item here is Milhaud's Violin Concerto No. 2, in its first recording, but the finest work is his Concertino de Printemps, in a dazzling rendition that makes the most of Kaufman's extraordinary intensity. The concerto is well done as well, with an affecting slow movement. Kaufman misses the specific dance character of the final Danses de Jacarémirim, but his virtuosity is worth hearing on its own account.

The sound in this enjoyable program is excellent. In my collecting experience, most Capitol classics of this vintage are reprints of Telefunken originals, including many Mengelberg LPs, but I believe this offering originated with the West Coast label.

Mitropoulos in Minnesota: Milhaud, Ravel and Rachmaninoff

More of Dimitri Mitropoulos' recordings with the Minneapolis Symphony today, all originally on 78, with these transfers coming from early LP incarnations.

First is their excellent rendition of Milhaud's Le Boeuf Sur La Toit, coupled with Ravel's Le Tombeau de Couperin on a 10-inch LP.

Mitropoulos in 1946

The Milhaud is particularly successful, with the ensemble capturing the absurdist goings-on with contagious enthusiasm, if rough tone. The Milhaud is from March 1945, with the Tombeau from December 1941.

We move to 12-inch LP for a January 1947 Rachmaninoff Second Symphony. Mitropoulos' biographer, William Trotter, says the conductor loved this work with a passion. If so, the emotion shows through in this convincing effort. By this time, Mitropoulos and the Minnesotans had moved to Victor, and this symphony is better recorded than most of Columbia's work in Minneapolis. As with all commercial issues of this symphony until the 1960s, this rendition is cut.