More from Philadelphia, with Ormandy and Stokowski Conducting, Plus Reups

Many people said they enjoyed therecent upload of mono recordings from Philadelphia led by Eugene Ormandy. So here is a new selection, with the notable bonus of two pieces led by Ormandy's predecessor in Philadelphia, Leopold Stokowski.

The source for these materials is the unprepossessing LP you see above, issued by RCA Victor's budget subsidiary Camden in the mid-1950s and ascribed to the spurious "Warwick Symphony Orchestra" for reasons known only to the RCA marketing wizards of the time. The "Warwick" is the Philadelphia Orchestra, I assure you.

One side of the program is devoted to the warhorse that inspired hundreds of B-movie soundtracks, Liszt's "Les Preludes." The other contains contemporary American music associated with the orchestra's home city, all in first recordings - works by Samuel Barber, Gian Carlo Menotti and Harl McDonald.

I also am reuploading two additional works by Harl McDonald and one by Max Brand, also from Philadelphia, that appeared here a decade ago. These have been remastered, and in one case newly transferred.

Liszt - Les Preludes

This 1937 recording was Ormandy's first shot at "Les Preludes"; he was to return to it in 1946 for the Columbia label. It is a straightforward reading, beautifully played by the orchestra. As with all these pieces, the recording quality is quite good. The 1950s transfer and pressing are much better than the cheap-looking cover would lead you to expect.

Barber - Essay for Orchestra, Op. 12

Samuel Barber and Eugene Ormandy

Samuel Barber was one of the twin wunderkinder who had been in residence at Philadelphia's Curtis Institute in the 1920s and who achieved fame shortly thereafter. The other was Gian Carlo Menotti, who we will encounter in a moment.

Barber's initial brush with fame was for his 1931 work, the brilliant "School for Scandal Overture," introduced by the Philadelphia Orchestra and Alexander Smallens. By 1938 he had been taken up by Arturo Toscanini, who premiered both the Adagio for Strings and the Essay for Orchestra, Op. 12 on the same NBC Orchestra program. On this disc we hear the Essay, usually called the "First Essay" these days, in Ormandy's 1940 recording, the first of any Barber composition. 

The conductor was to return to the composer's music just a few times in the recording studio, setting down the Adagio and the "Toccata Festiva" in the stereo era.

Menotti - Amelia Goes to the Ball Overture

Eugene Ormandy, Gian Carlo Menotti, Efrem Zimbalist

Menotti composed his first opera, Amelia Goes to the Ball, to his own libretto, written as Amelia al Ballo in his native Italian tongue. The work acquired its English name and translation before its 1937 premiere at Curtis, which was conducted by Fritz Reiner. 

The Ormandy recording of the overture dates from 1939, its first recording and apparently the first of any of Menotti's orchestral works. As with Barber, Ormandy was not often to return to Menotti's compositions on record; the only other example I have found is an excerpt from the ballet Sebastian.

Works by Harl McDonald

Harl McDonald and Eugene Ormandy

The composer Harl McDonald had close ties to both Philadelphia and its orchestra. A professor at the University of Pennsylvania, he also served on the orchestra's board and later as its manager. McDonald was a well-regarded composer whose work was recorded not just by Ormandy and Stokowski, but by Serge Koussevitzky of the rival Boston clan.

The three works here are apportioned out two to Stokowski and one to Ormandy. Stokowski chose "The Legend of the Arkansas Traveler" and the "Rhumba" movement from McDonald's Symphony No. 4. 

Leopold Stokowski in 1940

"Arkansas Traveler" was and is a familiar quasi-folk lick that dates back as least as far as 1847. McDonald's portentous opening could hardly be farther away from the familiar down-home squawk of Eck Robertson's famous 1922 fiddle recording. But soon enough the composer settles into a witty digression on the tune at hand, aided by concertmaster Alexander Hilsberg's masterful playing. Stokowski's approach is perfectly judged in this 1940 recording.

McDonald's "Rhumba" was presumably inspired by the dance that had become increasingly popular throughout the 1930s. The composer was a talented orchestrator, and his skills are shown to great effect in this superb 1935 rendering by Stokowski and the orchestra.

Ormandy is hardly less successful in his 1938 recording of a "Cakewalk" that forms the Scherzo movement of McDonald's Symphony No. 4. His orchestra could not be better in this piece, which again takes its cue from a popular dance form.

Reuploads

Today's reuploads also come from Philadelphia, involving Harl McDonald conducting his own work and Ormandy leading a piece by the little-known Max Brand. These come from two Columbia 10-inch LPs, both of which include the same recording of McDonald's Children's Symphony. The headers below take you to the original posts.

Music of McDonald and Brand

This 1950 10-inch LP couples McDonald's Children's Symphony with "The Legend of the One-Hoss Shay" by the little-remembered German-American composer Max Brand. The Philadelphia Orchestra is led by McDonald in his piece and by Ormandy in Brand's composition.

I wasn't crazy about the McDonald symphony either of the times I posted it. It's pleasant enough and very well presented, but when you put it up against such remarkable children's works as Britten's "Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra," you are matching skill against genius.

Brand's piece has something to do with a poem by Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. That aside, it's an enjoyable work.

McDonald's "Builders of America" (and Children's Symphony, Again)

Columbia decided to record McDonald's cantata "Builders of America" in 1953, using the 1950 recording of the Children's Symphony as a disc mate.

The "Builders of America" is a sort of lesser "Lincoln Portrait," profiling both that President and George Washington. Edward Shenton, a well-known illustrator, provided the text, which is plain awful in parts. But the music is good, and narrator Claude Rains is fine. McDonald conducted the Columbia Chamber Orchestra, which was almost certainly composed of Philadelphia Orchestra members.

Amahl and the Night Visitors

Reader Lockhart suggested that I post the legendary Christmas opera Amahl and the Night Visitors this season, and I am happy to comply. Actually, Lockhart was looking both for this first recording and the stereo remake. I thought I had a copy of the latter edition, but it didn't turn up during a recent foray into the files, so we'll have to be content with this recording of the original cast.

Amahl was an important work - it was the first opera written for television, the first presented by the NBC Opera Theatre, and was immediately popular, so much so that it was repeated annually for many years.

Gian Carlo Menotti

The words and music for the 45-minute work were the inspiration of the 40-year-old composer Gian Carlo Menotti, already famous for his early works The Old Maid and the Thief, commissioned by NBC for the radio, and The Medium and The Telephone, which had been presented on Broadway. His first full-length opera, The Consul, won the Pulitzer Prize in 1950.

In the booklet included with this record (scans are in the download), Menotti says that his inspiration for Amahl was seeing Bosch's painting The Adoration of the Magi, depicted on the cover above, in the Metropolitan Museum.

Amahl and his mother, as the Three Kings approach upstage

NBC presented the opera on Christmas Eve, 1951. The lead roles of Amahl, a shepherd boy, and his mother were taken by Chet Allen and Rosemary Kuhlmann, both excellent in this recording, which was made in January 1952. Allen, a former member of the Columbus Boychoir, later appeared in films and on television, but did not make a successful transition to adult actor. He committed suicide at age 45. Kuhlmann had been in The Consul and Music in the Air on Broadway, and continued to appear in both opera and musical theater - including replacing Shannon Bolin as Meg in the national tour of Damn Yankees. She was always identified with her role in Amahl, however.

The televised production of Amahl and this recording were conducted by the 21-year-old Thomas Schippers, who became closely associated with the music of both Menotti and Samuel Barber. He was highly regarded for his work with opera, but his neglected orchestral recordings are worthwhile as well. I hope to present some of them in the future.

Thomas Schippers

This recording is exceptionally well performed and recorded, and fully deserves the fame accorded to it as a memento of the first performance. The 26-page booklet includes a synopsis and the libretto, in addition to Menotti's notes. I've also included a Life magazine article with photos from the 1952 City Center Opera production, which includes the production image above and several others. Life proclaimed the work a "Christmas classic," and so it is. What a time that was for the arts in America.

Amahl and the Kings

An Ania Dorfmann Recital

Previously in my Ania Dorfmann series, we have had her Grieg and Mendelssohn concerto pairing, Chopin waltzes, and Beethoven's first concerto with Toscanini.

Ania Dorfmann

Today we present a varied recital, which actually may have been similar to programs she may offered at the time. We can assume that the Liszt, Mendelssohn and Chopin at least were in her standard repertoire, because she had recorded them for 78 issues at various times dating back to 1932. Only the Menotti is at all unusual - a Ricercare and Toccata on a theme from the composer's first opera, The Old Maid and the Thief. The piano work was new when Dorfmann recorded it; although the cover notes claim that Menotti composed it in 1940, the published edition cites research that dates it as being from 1951, the year before the pianist took it up.

This set derives from three January 1952 dates in Town Hall (not to imply that they were recorded at public recitals - there is no audience present). Dorfmann is in typical sparkling form, and RCA Victor does well with the sound.

Louis Lane Conducts American Composers, Plus a Bonus

To mark the death of conductor Louis Lane, I recently shared on another site my transfer of Lane's 1961 Epic LP, "Music for Young America," made with the Cleveland Pops Orchestra, at that time the summer incarnation of the Cleveland Orchestra. Lane was the longtime assistant, associate and resident conductor of the Cleveland ensemble, during the Szell years.

I thought I might also make it available here, together with a substantial bonus of more music by Cleveland-related composers (see below).

Louis Lane

The performances in Lane's program of music by conservative American composers are finely judged and clean cut, a fitting tribute to an excellent musician and the superb Cleveland ensemble.

It may be a little ironic that the chosen “Music for Young America” was composed by five older composers, two of whom had already passed away at the time of the recording. But that doesn’t take away from the quality of the works themselves. The most familiar is Aaron Copland’s “An Outdoor Overture,” followed by the suite from Gian Carlo Menotti’s "Amahl and the Night Visitors." Wallingford Riegger’s “Dance Rhythms,” unlike many of his other works, is tonal.

The second side is devoted to two Cleveland composers. Herbert Elwell, longtime critic of The Plain Dealer, is represented by his most frequently performed work, the ballet suite from "The Happy Hypocrite." Finally, there is “The Old Chisholm Trail” from Arthur Shepherd’s suite “Horizons” (I believe Shepherd designated it as his Symphony No. 1), a relatively early example of Americana, dating from 1926.

To make the Cleveland connection complete, the informative liner notes are by Klaus Roy, longtime program annotator for the Cleveland Orchestra and himself a notable composer.

LINK to Music for Young America (April 2025 remastering)

Music by Herbert Elwell and Ernest Bloch

Now to the bonus disc - a private recording of Elwell's "Blue Symphony," a setting of John Gould Fletcher's poem "The Blue Symphony" from the 1940s, together with Ernest Bloch's Piano Quintet, written in 1923, when the composer was head of the Cleveland Institute of Music.

Herbert Elwell

The worthy performances are by the Feldman String Quartet, with soprano Elizabeth V. Forman and pianist Gloria Whitehurst Phillips. The recording was made for the Roanoke Fine Arts Center in 1962.

LINK to music by Elwell and Bloch (April 2025 remastering)

Menotti's Sebastian Ballet Suite

Here's the second in a short series of early recordings of Gian Carlo Menotti's music, in this case the first recording of music from his 1944 ballet Sebastian.

These selections are just as attractive as the Menotti violin concerto presented on this blog not long ago. The performances led by Dimitri Mitropoulos are excellent. The "Robin Hood Dell Orchestra" was by and large (if not entirely) composed of Philadelphia Orchestra musicians.

Columbia issued this recording in 1947, a big year for Menotti, whose short operas The Medium and The Telephone had been presented on Broadway to some acclaim.

The cover is by Alex Steinweiss. Columbia's sound and surfaces were very good. My copy of the original 78 set has some dish warp, but it does not affect the sonics to any great degree.

Dimitiri Mitropoulos conducted the music of both Menotti and Samuel Barber. Here, at the 1958 European premiere of Vanessa: Front - Mitropoulos, Rosalind Elias, Eleanor Steber, Barber. Rear - Giorgio Tozzi, Ira Malaniuk, Menotti, unidentified, Alois Pernerstorfer, Nicolai Gedda, Rudolf Bing.

Menotti and Honegger Led by Munch

This post is notable for Gian Carlo Menotti's neglected violin concerto. Not that I am shrugging off Arthur Honegger's second symphony, but this recording has been reissued repeatedly, unlike the Menotti work.

This was the first and for many years the only recording of the concerto, written in 1952 for Efrem Zimbalist. By the time this version was set down in November 1954, the work had also been taken up by Tossy Spivakovsky, who is heard here with Charles Munch and the Boston Symphony.

This is a beautiful concerto in a vibrant rendition. It is surprising that both the concerto and the recording are not better known.

Munch recorded the symphony at least three times. Honegger completed the work in 1942, and Munch took the Paris Conservatoire Orchestra into the studio that same year to begin work on a recording, which for some reason was not completed until 1944. This reading is from March 1953.

Honegger scored his symphony for strings with a prominent trumpet part in the final movement, presumably played here by Roger Voisin, longtime BSO principal.

While the symphony has become a well-known work, the Menotti concerto does not deserve its obscurity. The download includes a doctoral dissertation on the work by Laura Tomlin that gives historical details and a detailed analysis.

The Symphony Hall sound, as usual, is quite good. I will have a few other early Menotti recordings up on the blog relatively soon.