Ormandy Conducts Romantic Favorites

For one of the greatest conductors of the 20th century, it's amazing how many of Eugene Ormandy's mono recordings have not been re-released, at least as far as I have been able to determine. Today's post includes several of those elusive items, all dating from near mid-20th century.

The program encompasses two 10-inch LPs and an EP, all on Columbia Records.

 

Sibelius and Rachmaninoff

 

The first LP couples Sibelius' "Finlandia" and "The Swan of Tuonela" with Lucien Cailliet's effective orchestrations of three Rachmaninoff piano preludes, including the composer's greatest hit, the Prelude in C-sharp minor (Bum - bum - BUMM. Da - da - da. Bum - bum - BUMM).

 

John Minsker

The Rachmaninoff works are in turns grandiloquent (the C-sharp minor), tranquil (the G major) and dramatic (the G minor). Cailliet had been a Philadelphia clarinetist who wrote arrangements both for Leopold Stokowski and Ormandy. 

 

Sibelius' "Finlandia" was a favorite of Ormandy, who recorded it six times, twice with chorus. The "Swan of Tuonela" is beautifully done here, with an eloquent and elegant English horn solo by the eminent John Minsker.

 

Suppé and Weber

The second 10-inch LP couples Franz von Suppé's famous and much abused overture to the operetta Poet and Peasant with the overture to Carl Maria von Weber's opera Der Freischütz.

 

The Poet and Peasant is just fine, but I will take issue with the performance of the Freischütz overture, a favorite of mine, which barely hints at the dramatic or supernatural elements of the opera.

 

The Weber overture is the earliest recording among all these items, dating from January 1946 and first issued on 78. The Suppé work comes from a April 1950 session. It too was issued first on 78, then about a year later with the Weber as one of the first issues in Columbia's 10-inch AL series. These early AL discs contained barely more music than the 7-inch EPs that soon would gain favor. The first AL releases all were contained in generic covers with the fussy design shown above. The download includes an article on the series.

 

Strauss and Tchaikovsky

 

On the EP, we have the Waltz Suite from Richard Strauss' opera Der Rosenkavalier, coupled with another famous waltz, drawn from Tchaikovsky's Serenade for Strings. These works are all in Ormandy's wheelhouse. He and the superb Philadelphians do well by them. The EP has a bonus of a wonderful Jim Flora cover depicting the "Presentation of the Rose" from Rosenkavalier. The knight does appear to be sniffing the flower, rather than presenting it to the bored Sophie. (You will need to click on the image to see what I am talking about.)

Ormandy recorded music from Der Rosenkavalier seven times; he chose this waltz suite three times, once with the Minneapolis Symphony in 1935, then with the Philadelphia ensemble in 1941 and 1952. This is the latter version.

 

The Rosenkavalier waltzes also came out on an all-Strauss 12-inch LP a few years later, coupled with Don Juan, Till Eulenspiegel and the Love Scene from Feuersnot. Missing no formats or coupling alternatives, Columbia at one time packaged the Rosenkavalier and Eulenspiegel recordings on a 10-inch disc. It featured Jim Flora artwork that was apparently designed as a companion to the EP cover shown above. I don't have the Strauss LP, but I did scrounge up the cover, which you can see at right. It shows Till Eulenspiegel engaged in his "merry pranks," which seem to be taking place at Watts Towers.

 

The Tchaikovsky waltz is extracted from one of Ormandy's complete recordings of the Serenade, which come from 1946, 1952 and 1960. Discographer Michael Gray claims that the 1952 version remains unissued, so this is apparently the 1946 edition.

The complete Serenade for Strings was coupled on an early Columbia LP with John Barbirolli's New York recording of the Theme and Variations from Tchaikovsky's Suite No. 3. 

 

Bonus Item on Buster's Swinging Singles

 

Full disclosure - the Strauss-Tchaikovsky EP is a new transfer of a disc I featured on my other blog many years ago. But there also is something new on that blog to go along with this post - the 1946 Ormandy/Philadelphia recording of Glinka's Ruslan and Ludmila Overture. I've contrasted it with a competing version from the Boston Pops and Arthur Fiedler, dating from 1939 - which I prefer, but make your own decision!

Edith Sitwell's 1949 Façade

The other day I was listening to some early-30s radio recordings of George Gershwin performing his own music, and was struck by how different his rendition of the first piano Prelude was from the version done by his follower Oscar Levant in the 1940s. Levant makes the piece sound like an Americanized Satie, while Gershwin shows it to be from the ragtime tradition.

I'm probably not alone in preferring Levant's evocative playing to Gershwin's brisk run-through - even though there is something that tells me I should prefer the composer in his own work.

This, too, is the case with William Walton's settings of Edith Sitwell's poetry. Do I have to like Walton's own 1929 recording of Façade, with Sitwell and Constant Lambert as reciters, recently presented here? Or can I admit to a strong predilection for this 1949 outing by Sitwell and a chamber orchestra led by the young Frederik (here spelled Frederick) Prausnitz?

In truth, I also prefer Dame Edith's recitation on this 10-inch LP to her efforts 20 years before. While she does not have the breath control of her younger self, she seems more engaged with Prausnitz's flexible reading of the score.

1948 Horst P. Horst portrait of Edith Sitwell

Then again, this is not to say that Walton would approve. Reader JAC, who knows the piece intimately from having performed it several times, commented on the 1929 version: "Study of the score reveals that Dame Edith never mastered the specific rhythms that Walton wrote, particularly the syncopations; sometimes she wasn't even in the right measure."

Columbia's 1949 recording was designed to be a 25th anniversary edition of Façade's first public performance. The cover notes by Osbert Sitwell describe its genesis and the scandal that attended that premiere. Columbia's Goddard Lieberson indulges in some hyperbole about Sitwell, and the whole thing is presented as being produced "in cooperation with the Museum of Modern Art," although it's not clear what's MOMA contribution had been. The very good recording comes from Columbia's 30th Street Studio.

Columbia engaged the wonderful Jim Flora for its cover. His idiosyncratic drawings are well in tune with the spirit of the proceedings, with his letter forms a particular delight.

Frederik Prausnitz

A final note: this may have been conductor Prausnitz's first record session. He went on to be typed, at least in the recording studio, as a 20th-century specialist. His next record, also for Columbia, was of Carl Ruggles, in 1954. He went on to conduct scores by Wolpe, Sessions, Schoenberg, Riegger, Musgrave, Gerhard, Dallapiccola, Carter and Busoni for Columbia, EMI and Argo.

More from Sauter-Finegan, Florence Henderson and Bruno Walter

More today from the Satuter-Finegan Orchestra, Florence Henderson and Bruno Walter (not together, I should add). These are quick follow-ups to some of the posts that have appeared here in recent months. I'd like to say you have been clamoring for them, but that wouldn't be true, so I'll just say that I hope some of you enjoy them!

A few words about each (you can tell I am tired of writing about these particular artists):

Sauter-Finegan Orchestra - Concert Jazz. This is the troupe's fourth LP (I have the third but can't find it), and it follows a familiar path, with some compositions by the individual maestros, some vocals, including an odd version of John Henry, and interesting arrangements. Great sound, a Jim Flora cover and a scan of the second cover, depicting Sauter and Finegan on stage. Recorded in 1954-55.

Florence Henderson - The Best from Fiorello! and The Sound of Music. My first post by the future Mrs. Brady was surprisingly well received by people who didn't know she sang, or who knew she sang but had never heard her do so. Like that initial LP, this album has potted versions of two Broadway hits of the time (1960) - Fiorello! and The Sound of Music. Henderson once again sounds like Mary Martin, which is especially appropriate in the latter score. The Sid Bass arrangements are loungy, which isn't to my taste in this repertoire.

Bruno Walter/Philadelphia Orchestra - Beethoven Symphony No. 6. Another installment from Walter's Beethoven cycle of the 1940s. Here he takes a break from the New Yorkers, and travels to Philadelphia and the Academy of Music for January 1946 sessions. This to my ear is a less successful performance and recording than the efforts with the PSONY, but enjoyable enough. Below, a Columbia ad from 1946 touting this new release among others. The transfer is from an early LP.

Lord Buckley Pops His Fingers

So you say you have never heard a Lord Buckley monologue? Imagine the story of Hiawatha as told by a Southern preacher or Marc Antony's eulogy of Caesar as done by a overripe English actor - all in 50s hipster lingo. ("The bad jazz a cat blows wails long after he's cut out!") That's Lord Buckley.

It's cool stuff, to be sure, but also strangely arid in the way that cool jazz can be. The mind wanders.

I looked on Wikipedia for some info on the Lord and found a strange tale of him being financially supported by Ed Sullivan (!) for many years. I wonder if this is true - it sounds to me like the kind of cosmic joking that Buckley himself might appreciate.

Speaking of eccentric artists, this record has a cover by the estimable Jim Flora, who does his best to illustrate the title cut.

Full disclosure: unlike the other covers on this site, this is not my image. The rip is mine, of course - it is from the double-EP version of the 10-inch LP.

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