Walter and Serkin with the NY Philharmonic, 1948

I seldom if ever post live performances, but in this case I had an opportunity to remaster the sound of a notable 1948 concert for a friend, and he kindly consented to letting me post it here.

The concert features two of the greatest 20th century musicians, conductor Bruno Walter and pianist Rudolf Serkin, in music by Beethoven, Weber and the contemporary composer Douglas Moore.

The program derives from a broadcast of the Sunday, February 22, 1948 concert of the New York Philharmonic from Carnegie Hall, captured on transcription discs for re-transmission in Latin America, including some brief announcements in Spanish. The discs were not in great shape, but the sound as remastered is very good.

This concert was during a two-year period when Walter was the "music adviser" to the Philharmonic, having declined an opportunity to become its music director in succession to Artur Rodziński, who in 1947 had moved on to a short-lived residency in Chicago.

The broadcast begins with the overture to Weber's opera Euryanthe, which may be the second most played orchestral piece by that composer, following the overture to Der Freischütz (or perhaps the Weber-Berlioz Invitation to the Dance). The Walter-NYP performance is solidly in the German Romantic tradition. Walter never conducted a commercial recording of the Euryanthe overture; his only such venture into Weber's music was the Freischütz overture with the Paris Conservatoire Orchestra in 1938.

Douglas Moore

The second piece on the program is one of the best known orchestral works by contemporary composer Douglas Moore, his Symphony No. 2 in A major. It was then a new composition, having been premiered less than two years earlier. In the program notes, Moore explained that the piece was "an attempt to write in clear, modified, objective classical style, with emphasis on rhythmic and melodic momentum rather than sharply contrasted themes or dramatic climax."

It's a beautiful work, given a polished performance that outclasses the scrappy Vienna Symphony recording that appeared on this blog years ago. That was the first recording; it since has enjoyed two or three more commercial productions.

Moore dedicated the symphony to the memory of poet Stephen Vincent Benét, the librettist of his one-act opera The Devil and Daniel Webster, which is based on a Benét short story. I should transfer my LP of the opera.

The recorded program concludes with Serkin as the soloist in Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 5. The pianist, conductor and orchestra were of one mind about the concerto, having recorded it together in 1941. That was Serkin's first recording of the piece; he went on to editions with Ormandy and Bernstein. Walter had done it for records in 1934 with Walter Gieseking and the Vienna Philharmonic; he did not return to the work in the recording studio.

Rudolf Serkin in 1944

Serkin had the gift of being able to be both propulsive and contemplative, which this concerto demands. The first and third movements press ahead, while the Adagio is serene, with Serkin in spell-binding form. Despite the grand title "Emperor" (not bestowed by Beethoven), this concerto is not generally considered Beethoven's best, but Serkin and Walter (and the excellent orchestra) make the most of it.

This Sunday afternoon concert was presented on a live broadcast, which unfortunately did not encompass the concluding item on agenda, Smetana's Vltava. A shame, but the concerto certainly makes a satisfying close.

The download includes a New York Times review of the previous Thursday's concert, which included the Moore and Beethoven works.

Bruno Walter has appeared here in Beethoven's 1st, 3rd, 5th, 7th and 8th symphonies with the New York Philharmonic, Rudolf Serkin in the Brahms piano concertos. 

Bruno Walter by Eugen Spiro, 1943

Douglas Moore's Symphony in A

I had a request for more music from the American Recording Society, so I chose this performance of Douglas Moore's Symphony in A. It's the first recording of the work, and was one of the first releases in the ARS catalog.

Moore's symphony originally was issued by itself on a 10-inch LP. My transfer comes from a slightly later 12-inch LP reissue, where Moore's composition was coupled with Randall Thompson's Symphony No. 2. The Thompson work also originally appeared on a 10-inch disc, which I posted back in 2012. That transfer is still available, so I have not included it here.

Douglas Moore

Moore was a longtime Columbia University professor who was and is known primarily for his operas, notably The Devil and Daniel Webster (1938) and The Ballad of Baby Doe (1956). His Giants in the Earth won the Pulitzer Prize in 1951, when this present LP was recorded. The Symphony in A is dedicated to the memory of Stephen Vincent Benét, the librettist for The Devil and Daniel Webster (which is based on a Benét short story).

10-inch LP cover

The Thompson and Moore symphonies were the fourth and fifth issues from the American Recording Society, established in 1951 by the Alice Ditson Fund. Since its founding in 1940, the Fund has supported performances of music by American composers. The ARS catalog was largely devoted to conservative orchestral works, of which the Moore work is a prime example.

The earliest ARS recordings were conducted by the expatriate American Dean Dixon. Here, he leads a capable performance by the "American Recording Society Orchestra," which, according to discographer Michael Gray, is actually the Vienna Symphony. The sound, emanating from what sounds like a small hall, is relatively good.

The Moore symphony has been recorded four times, including a CRI release and a much more recent Albany Records issue.

The cover of the 12-inch LP at top was designed by Peter Piening, a notable commercial artist of the time. He worked on many other ARS LPs, including the Virgil Thomson-Otto Luening, Howard Swanson-David Diamond, John Powell-Daniel Gregory Mason and Leo Sowerby records that have appeared on this blog.

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