Solomon Plays Tchaikovsky and Chopin

The pianist Solomon made many great records - a number of which have appeared on this blog recently. But none, to my ears, are quite as dazzling as his 1949 version of Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1, made with Issay Dobrowen and the Philharmonia Orchestra.

Today's post combines that performance with most of Solomon's Chopin recordings from the 1940s.

Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1

Issay Dobrowen was an exceptional accompanist and was often used in that role by HMV. He and Solomon had a rare rapport, never so much as in this recording of the Tchaikovsky.

Issay Dobrowen

I will admit that I had my fill of this particular concerto about 40 years ago, but the work of Solomon and Dobrowen made me rethink my prejudice against it. Solomon handles the insane difficulties of the piece with such aplomb - always in perfect concert with Dobrowen - that one's only reactions can be fascination and admiration. The entire work proceeds in such a manner.

This 1949 edition was the pianist's second go at the concerto in the recording studio, although he had been performing it regularly since he was 12. In 1929 he traveled to Manchester for a Tchaikovsky session with Hamilton Harty and the Hallé Orchestra. This was Solomon's first concerto recording, following a few Liszt pieces made a week or so beforehand. He was to record no more concertos until the Bliss in 1943, followed by the Beethoven third in 1944, both with Boult. The Brahms Concerto No. 2 with Dobrowen came in 1947, the Liszt Hungarian Fantasia with Walter Susskind in 1948, and the Scriabin and Tchaikovsky concertos in 1949.

Solomon's biographer Bryan Crimp noted, "[Producer Walter] Legge was particularly keen to have a brand new recording of the Tchaikovsky concerto for HMV's entry into the LP market while the release of a recording of the Scriabin concerto would in all probability, have resulted in a premiere recording. The Tchaikovsky recording did indeed become the first HMV ‘plum label' LP record."

The Scriabin concerto remained unissued until 1991. Solomon undertook it as a favor to Legge, although neither he nor the conductor had played it before. According to Crimp, "the reservations of both pianist and conductor are, regrettably, plain for all to hear." My own view is that it is well worth a listen, although the transfer that has been issued is below pitch and screechingly bright, not flattering either to the Philharmonia strings or the pianist. Rebalanced, it sounds fine. (Anyone interested in my redo of a lossy copy of the concerto can leave a note in the comments.)

The Tchaikovsky was set down May 26-28, 1949 in Abbey Road Studio No. 1. The sound is very good, with this transfer coming from the HMV LP issue of the 1950s (cover above), from my collection. I also have a later LP reissue with marginally cleaner sound, but the engineer had added unnecessary reverb to that disc, so I went with the earlier edition. The concerto and the Chopin pieces discussed below have been mastered in ambient stereo.

Nine Pieces by Chopin

"Those familiar only with Solomon’s work in the post-World War Il years, an era in which he was recognised as the pre-eminent Beethoven interpreter, might find this earlier reputation as an incomparable Chopin player something of a surprise," wrote Bryan Crimp, "though proof, if needed, can be readily found in his recordings for Columbia made during the first half of the 1930s and for HMV during the early- and mid-1940s."

Solomon began his Chopin recordings with two Polonaises, a Fantasie and an Ėtude in 1932, none of which are repeated in this set from the 1940s. In late 1934, he took up two F major Ėtudes, Op. 10, No. 8 and Op. 25, No. 3, the latter of which he remade in 1942, and which is included in this collection.

The earliest Chopin recording here also dates from 1942, the Nocturne in E flat major, Op. 9, No. 2. Later in September, he began recording three Ėtudes - the F major Ėtude mentioned above, along with two Ėtudes in F minor - Op. 10, No. 9, and Op. 25, No. 2, completing them in October.

Solomon's final Ėtude disc was the Op. 10, No. 3 in E major, made in June and July 1945. He concluded the recordings in this set in early April 1946 - the Ballade No. 4 in F minor, Op. 52, the Waltz No. 14 in E minor, Op. Posth., and the Mazurka No. 48 in A minor, Op. 78, No. 2.

Abbey Road Studio 3

All these recordings come from Abbey Road Studio No. 3 and have good sound. These transfers were cleaned up from 78 needle-drops found on Internet Archive.

Solomon recorded no additional Chopin works after 1946, and for the final decade of the pianist's career, he and HMV focused on the works of Beethoven and Mozart. Crimp observed, "By the late-40s Solomon’s repertoire became more concentrated. There was less Schumann and certainly less Chopin. Beethoven began to dominate."

The Beethoven concerto cycle has been posted here (1 and 3, coupled with Grieg and Schumann) and here (2, 4 and 5). Mozart's Concerto No. 15 was packaged with the second set of Beethoven concertos. A post with more Mozart concertos and sonatas is forthcoming.

Dobrowen Conducts Haydn, Borodin and Wagner; Also, Six Ambient Stereo Remasters

Here is a second serving of music conducted by Issay Dobrowen (1891-1953). This is a follow-up to a recent post of works by Russian composers. Today we broaden the focus to include the music of Haydn and Wagner, along with Borodin. All recordings are with the Philharmonia Orchestra.

Also new today - six more remasters of classical recordings in ambient stereo. But first, the Dobrowen discs.

Haydn - Symphony No. 104 (London)

Dobrowen's 1946 recording of Haydn's Symphony No. 104 may be the only symphony he recorded from the classical era that was released. He did set down Beethoven's fifth symphony the day before this Haydn work, but that performance remains unissued. He also accompanied Artur Schnabel in two Beethoven concertos.

The Haydn is well played by the then-new Philharmonia, which had just begin recording a year before. (Its first date was led by Walter Susskind, the second by Constant Lambert.) Dobrowen's performance is not particularly romanticized, as was common practice earlier in the century. He makes the minuet of the third movement rather like a peasant dance, in keeping with the theme of the finale, which is derived from a Croatian folk song, and the first movement, which has folk-like elements.

The sound (from Abbey Road Studio No. 1, as with all these recordings) is quite good, its impact enhanced by ambient stereo processing.

Borodin - Prince Igor, Overture and Polovtsi March

Haydn's symphony, his last, dates from 1794. Almost a century later we are in a different sound world with music from Borodin's opera Prince Igor, premiered after the composer's death in 1890. The excerpts here begin with the overture, which in actuality was composed by Glazunov making use of themes from the opera.

The Polovtsian music, too, required the assistance of another composer, in this case Rimsky-Korsakov, who orchestrated it. Here we have the March. It is often coupled with the Polovtsian Dances;  Dobrowen did record the Dances, but I don't have a transfer of that set. The conductor's other Prince Igor selections are vividly characterized, in keeping with the Russian romantic music contained in the first Dobrowen collection.

The Borodin recordings date from 1949 and again benefit from good sound. You can hear another take on the music via Walter Susskind's 1952 recording.

Wagner - Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg - Prelude to Act I

Wagner began working on Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg in 1868, which is about when Borodin started on Prince Igor. It became Wagner's only comic opera; also the longest opera in the standard repertoire.

Perhaps recognizing the lighter nature of the proceedings, Dobrowen takes swift tempos throughout his 1947 recording of the Prelude to Act I. This music is often given a much more weighty performance (which it can well stand). The light treatment is accentuated by the recording, which in this RCA Victor LP transfer had very little bass. That aspect of the recording is not helpful in this music, which has important lower brass lines. I rebalanced the sound to alleviate this problem, with some success.

Quite a few posts featuring the vintage Philharmonia Orchestra have appeared here lately. It's natural and perhaps unfortunate to write about symphonic performances as if they were the work of one person, the conductor, instead of 100 professionals. So let me just mention that the recordings of this period are graced by the presence of the Philharmonia's then-famous wind principals, depicted below. (The photo is circa 1950.)

Sidney Sutcliffe, oboe, Gareth Morris, flute, Dennis Brain, horn, Cecil James, bassoon, Harold Jackson, trumpet, Frederick Thurston, clarinet

The catalog of Dobrowen's recordings is relatively slim. EMI had pegged him as an accompanist, and he was adept at handing those assignments. He assisted such artists as Ginette Neveu, Bronislaw Huberman, Solomon, Boris Christoff, Kirsten Flagstad as well as Schnabel. Otherwise, he may have been seen as a specialist in Russian music. That said, his earliest recordings, dating from 1929, were of Grieg, Dvořák and Sinding.

The recordings in this post were sourced from my collection and needle-drops on Internet Archive. Coming up is Dobrowen's recording of Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1, in a splendid performance, again with Solomon, with whom the conductor had an evident rapport.

Ambient Stereo Remasters

As before, the links below take you to the original posts. Download links are near or at the end of the comments. We start off with three M-G-M classics from the 1950s, by request.

Lenore Engdahl Plays Griffes. The late pianist Lenore Engdahl did not make many records, but this one is a gem, consisting entirely of piano music by the American impressionist Charles Tomlinson Griffes. This excellent recording dates from 1955.

Music by Paul Bowles and Peggy Glanville-Hicks. Paul Bowles was equally well known as a writer and composer. Here we have two of his best works, along with Peggy Glanville-Hicks' Letters from Morocco, based on Bowles' correspondence to her.

Copland and Weill Suites; Contemporary American Piano Music. Arthur Winograd conducts Copland's Music for Movies and a Weill suite of his own devising. Also, pianist Andor Foldes turns up with contemporary (c1940s) music by American composers.

Swanson - Short Symphony, Diamond - Rounds. Two of the best and best-regarded works by their composers on this vintage American Recording Society release - Howard Swanson's Short Symphony and David Diamond's Rounds. Dean Dixon and Walter Hendl conduct.

Solomon Plays Bliss and Liszt. Another in the series devoted to pianist Solomon. The first recording of Arthur Bliss' bravura Piano Concerto, along with Liszt's Hungarian Fantasia. Sir Adrian Boult and Walter Susskind lead the orchestras.

Boult Conducts Vaughan Williams' A Pastoral Symphony. This Vaughan Williams symphony may be his greatest, and there is no better recording than this one, led by Sir Adrian Boult in 1953. Excellent sound.

Issay Dobrowen Conducts Russian Music

The Russian conductor Issay Dobrowen (1891-1953) was active in the recording studios for the EMI labels in the postwar years until his relatively early death at age 62. He had been the chief conductor of the San Francisco Symphony, the Oslo Philharmonic and the Gothenburg Symphony, which he led from 1941 until his death.

On this blog, he has led the accompaniment to Solomon in their recording of Brahms' second piano concerto.

Although Dobrowen made his career primarily outside Russia, he was perhaps inevitably considered a specialist in Russian music, and it is in that repertoire that we find the materials for today's post - primarily the music of Rimsky-Korsakov, but also short works by Glinka and Tchaikovsky. The program begins with the latter selections.

Glinka and Tchaikovsky

Any conductor wanting to open a concert with a bang surely considers programming the overture to Mikhail Glinka's 1842 opera Ruslan and Ludmilla. It provides an orchestra the perfect opportunity to play catchy themes at breakneck speed. In the right hands, it is exhilarating - and that is certainly the case as Dobrowen leads the Statsradiofoniens Symfoniorkester (Danish State Radio Symphony Orchestra) in a blazing reading.

The Glinka is the earliest recording in the set, dating from 1950.

Dobrowen in action

Next, the scene shifts to London and Kingsway Hall for a July 1951 date with the Philharmonia Orchestra, yielding two famous excerpts from Tchaikovsky's 1879 opera Eugene Onegin - the Waltz from Act II and Polonaise from Act III. Again, these are beautifully played and well recorded - and delightful music.

The Glinka and Tchaikovsky works were originally issued on 78; EMI did not begin to produce LPs until 1952. These transfers were cleaned up from the original issues as found on Internet Archive. 

The balance of the post is devoted to two LPs from my own collection. I've processed all works in ambient stereo, and the sound throughout is strikingly good.

Rimsky-Korsakov - Le Coq d'Or and Tsar Saltan Suites

Dobrowen returned to the Kingsway Hall in December 1952 to conduct orchestral suites extracted from two of Rimsky-Korsakov's operas - Le Coq d'Or and The Tale of Tsar Saltan, both based on Pushkin poems.

Le Coq d'Or was Rimsky's final opera. He did not live to see its 1909 premiere.

Tamara Karsavina as the Tsaritsa of Shemakha in Diaghilev's 1914 Coq d'Or production

Dobrowen conducts the musical suite that Glazunov and Steinberg produced after Rimsky's death.

The Tale of Tsar Saltan also is a late opera, dating from 1900. The suite from the opera comes from three years later, and was devised by the composer.

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov

In his notes, Gerald Abraham writes that Rimsky-Korsakov "possessed the power of creating a world, or (more accurately) creating music that evokes a world. Like Pushkin's, it is a world in which the matter-of-fact is fused with the fantastic, the naïve with the sophisticated, the romantic with the humorous, the beautiful with the absurd." These are well captured in the Dobrowen recordings with the Philharmonia.

From an ad in The Gramophone, October 1953

Rimsky-Korsakov - Schéhérazade 

Like the suites above, Rimsky's Schéhérazade, which dates from 1888, is an example of "orientalism." Leaving aside the term's colonialist implications, in art it manifested itself as an escape to the exotic. And what could be more exotic than the story of the ruler Shahryar, convinced that women were faithless and habitually having his wives put to death, being captivated by the nightly tales told by his latest wife, Schéhérazade, and eventually sparing her life after 1001 such stories.

The legend of Schéhérazade forms a framing device for a collection of folk-derived tales and literature from the Middle East collected over centuries. It became known as One Thousand and One Nights and eventually in English as the Arabian Nights.

Rimsky adopted the framing device and its exotic setting, and initially titled the four movements of his suite after several such tales - "The Sea and Sinbad's Ship," "The Story of the Kalendar Prince," "The Young Prince and the Young Princess," and "Festival at Baghdad. The Sea. The Ship Breaks against a Cliff Surmounted by a Bronze Horseman." Paradoxically, he did not want the work to be seen as programmatic beyond the sense of being an "Oriental" adventure, and later eliminated the titles.

Well, the music is programmatic to the extent that there is an unmistakable sea-voyage quality to some of the music, and there certainly is a theme that represents Schéhérazade relating her tales. Beyond that, no program is stated nor needed for enjoyment.

Mikhail Fokine and Vera Fokina in the Schéhérazade ballet

That does not mean that others have not added such a program to the work, notably via the 1910 Mikhail Fokine-Léon Bakst production staged by the Ballets Russes, which featured such fare as a "Golden Slave" seducing one of the Shah's wives.

Rimsky's inspiration is well conveyed by the December 1952-January 1953 recording by Dobrowen and the Philharmonia, made in Abbey Road. That said, Andrew Porter in The Gramophone was unimpressed: "Dobrowen has here achieved what I should have thought to be impossible: he makes Schéhérazade, a masterpiece of vivid colour and excitement, thoroughly dull and tedious."

It's true that Dobrowen's tempi can be slow - I checked timings of the first movement, and he takes about a minute longer than some other recordings. The slower tempi don't bother me, but it does dim the excitement.

My LP transfers come from the original US Angel releases, which have English pressings. The sound, as mentioned, is excellent.

Solomon in the Brahms Concertos

The great pianist Solomon has appeared here a number of times recently. This latest apparition brings two of my favorites - the Brahms piano concertos, both done with the Philharmonia Orchestra - the second in 1947 and the first in 1952, both for HMV.

Let's discuss them in the order of their recording.

Piano Concerto No. 2

Brahms' Concerto No. 2 is an extraordinary work, quite long due to its encompassing four movements rather than the usual three, and demanding for the soloist.

As was his pattern, Solomon surmounts all the challenges seemingly without difficulty, and without ever drawing attention to his own virtuosity. He is of one mind with the conductor, the Russian-born Issay Dobrowen (1891-1953). The interplay in the fourth movement is something to hear.

Issay Dobrowen

As the critic Richard Freed wrote, "Pianistically, Solomon is dazzling; musically, he and Dobrowen make sublime good sense, balancing the lyrical and the heroic, the grand and the intimate elements of the work in a clean, classical reading that has plenty of thrust but no heaving and churning in the name of Romantic expressiveness, no gestures toward monumentalism."

I enjoyed Dobrowen's work here and will be transferring some of his recordings of Russian music for a future post.

This recording comes from Abbey Road, April 29-May 1, 1947.

Piano Concerto No. 1

For the first piano concerto, HMV, the orchestra, conductor Rafael Kubelík and Solomon moved to the more resonant acoustic of Kingsway Hall, with sessions on September 3-5, 1952. For whatever reason, HMV didn't get around to releasing the recording in the UK until 1955, although it seems to have come out in the US somewhat earlier.

As was often the case with Solomon's concerto recordings, the critics were split in their verdicts. The Gramophone: "It seems to me that the combination of Solomon and Kubelík could have produced a superlative recording, but there must have been a lack of watchfulness in the making of the disc, for there are many flaws in balance and interpretation." Stereo Review: "The performance is certainly among the most outstanding on disc and will be the very first choice of many listeners. Solomon virtually owned this music: it held no problems for him technically. and he was obviously completely at one with its musical message."

Rafael Kubelík

The performance is not showy, to be sure, and the pianist was the opposite of flashy. As with Solomon's other recordings, there are times when more fire might be warranted, but that was not his way.

At the time of the recording, Kubelík (1914-96) was about to embark on his final season as the music director of the Chicago Symphony, an unhappy tenure that lasted just three years. As for this recording, Harris Goldsmith wrote in High Fidelity, "Rafael Kubelík conducts sympathetically, although I don't sense the extraordinary meeting of minds evident in the B flat concerto with Dobrowen." I think that's a fair comment.

I believe I have presented most of Solomon's concerto discs here in the relatively recent past. He also recorded the Tchaikovsky first concerto (twice), Mozart concertos and the Scriabin concerto. I have have the Tchaikovsky and Mozart recordings and plan to transfer them. The Scriabin work is not in my collection.

As was the case with a few of my recent posts, I've presented the Brahms concertos in ambient stereo, which adds some air around the mono signal and brings it forward. These transfers came from a very clean HMV reissue from the 1970s, as found in my collection (literally - I forgot I had it). The sound is remarkably good.

The download includes several reviews and a 1949 article on Solomon from The Gramophone.

Ad in The Gramophone, September 1955 (click to enlarge)