8H Returns with Toscanini Conducing Griffes, Kennan and Grofé

Toscanini by David Levine

It wasn't very long ago that our friend 8H Haggis was packing the comments section of this blog with limited-time uploads from his vast storeroom of fine musical goods. I am pleased that he has returned tonight with a splendid concert for us all - Arturo Toscanini and the NBC Symphony with a program of American music, as heard on February 7, 1943 from NBC's Studio 8H in Rockefeller Center.

As perhaps you have inferred from the dual "8H" appellations in the preceding paragraph, 8H Haggis has adopted his name from the studio that Toscanini used for most of his famous broadcasts. (The "Haggis" is a play on the name of critic B.H. Haggin - another Toscanini admirer.) And so one of 8H's principal interests is in rescuing the Toscanini legacy from the sludge pit of awful sound in which it is often mired.

Griffes by Levine

The concert for today is one that should interest all who fancy 20th century American music. It starts with Henry Gilbert's anachronistic "Comedy Overture on Negro Themes" (1910), then picks up considerably with two superb works - Kent Kennan's "Night Soliloquy" (1936), which has appeared on this blog before, and Charles Tomlinson Griffes' "White Peacock" (1915). As 8H says in his characteristically pungent and informative notes (included in the download), the Griffes and Kennan receive "magical, rapt interpretations."

The program concludes with a remarkable performance of Ferde Grofé's technicolor masterpiece, the "Grand Canyon" Suite. 8H tells us that this 1943 line-check recording of the work is not only "a far better and more expressive performance than Toscanini's famous (and quite popular) commercial RCA Victor records of 1945," but that it "presents vastly more realistic fidelity than the RCA Victor RECORD engineers were willing to give Toscanini!" I concur, and can only add that the concluding "Cloudburst" section is more vivid than the real thing!

Grofé

This is one of Toscanini's most memorable achievements in the American repertoire - and I say that even though I am not much of an admirer of the Maestro, who has only appeared on this blog once before, and that as an accompanist.

Thanks, 8H, for this new favor.

Americana for Solo Winds and Strings

This Mercury LP celebrates the conservative but highly attractive music of the composers associated with Howard Hanson at the Eastman School - with the notable addition of Aaron Copland, in what may be the only recording of Copland's music led by Hanson.

The delightful and striking cover seems to pay homage to Copland's "Quiet City," and perhaps Kent Kennan's "Night Soliloquy." An alternative cover used for an EP issue (at the end of the post) switches to a rural motif more in keeping with the conductor's "Pastorale."

Howard Hanson

A few words about the lesser known composers:

Kent Kennan and Homer Keller

Kent Kennan, an Eastman School graduate, spent most of his life teaching, but he was an active composer earlier in his career and near the end of his life. He wrote a few widely used instructional books.

Homer Keller was another product of the Eastman School. He wrote three symphonies and spent much time teaching.

Bernard Rogers and Wayne Barlow

Bernard Rogers was head of Eastman's composition department for several decades.

Wayne Barlow earned undergraduate, master's and doctoral degrees from Eastman, then taught there for many years. "The Winter's Past" is also known as "The Winter's Passed" - either makes sense, as would "The Winters Past," for that matter.

The recordings were made in October 1952 and May 1953. The sound has been remastered in ambient stereo and is very good. The download includes several reviews.