Elaine Shaffer in Mozart Flute Concertos

This is another in a series of recordings by Efrem Kurtz that I have been uploading periodically over the past 18 months. Here he accompanies his distinguished wife, Elaine Shaffer, in the Mozart flute concertos. The LP also includes the Andante, K. 315 that some think was a less-demanding replacement for the first concerto's slow movement. The cadenzas in the concertos are by Franz Reizenstein.

Elaine Shaffer

The conductor and flutist worked together both with the Kansas City and Houston symphonies. They married in 1955.

Shaffer left Houston in 1953 and went on to become a well-known soloist, although she is little remembered today. Composer Ernest Bloch dedicated two works to her, and she premiered compositions by Aaron Copland and Virgil Thomson, among others.

Shaffer did not make many solo recordings, and few of them are available today. I don't believe this record has been in the catalogue since a reprint on the Seraphim label in the 1970s. It is nonetheless impressive. The flutist has a beautiful liquid tone and both her playing and that of the orchestra are stylish, at least for the period.

At the recording session: Elaine Shaffer and Efrem Kurtz
flanked by Peter Andry and Victor Olof of EMI

EMI made this recording in late 1957 in Abbey Road Studio No. 1. The orchestral sound is atmospheric, but the stereo effect is vague, as these early stereo efforts sometimes are.

The download includes the usual high-res scans of the covers, plus reviews from Gramophone, High Fidelity, HiFi Review and Billboard.