20th Century Music for Clarinet and Piano

Stanley Drucker is one of the best known clarinet players of the recent past but he has made relatively few solo recordings. Here is one from 1971 with five excellent works from eminent 20th century composers. The Odyssey LP pairs Drucker with pianist Leonid Hambro, himself a distinguished figure.

Stanley Drucker

Drucker, born in 1929, was the principal clarinetist of the New York Philharmonic for an amazing 49 years, from 1960 until 2009. He was with the orchestra for more than 62 years - his entire working career.

Leonid Hambro

Hambro (1920-2006) made a number of recordings early in his career for such labels as Allegro, but later became known for his comedic bent. He spent a decade as the sidekick of Victor Borge, and appeared on P.D.Q Bach and Gerard Hoffnung programs. He also collaborated with synthesizer player Gershon Kingsley for a record of Switched-On Gershwin. He was a talented accompanist as well.

For this LP, Drucker and Hambro programmed Leonard Bernstein's early and enjoyable Sonata, Sonatinas from Darius Milhaud and Arthur Honegger, Debussy's brief Petite Piece for clarinet and piano, and a typically discursive but lovely sonata by Sir Arnold Bax.

I suspect that this was an independent production that Drucker and Hambro brought to Columbia, which put it out on its budget Odyssey label, mainly devoted to reissues. The sound is vivid but it does compress the dynamic range of the performance.

I transferred the LP is response to a request on a classical sharing site, but I thought some readers here might enjoy it as well.

Circa 1970s ad

'Fancy Free' and 'On the Town'

The young Leonard Bernstein

Back in February I featured an early Robert Shaw Chorale LP, which led in a roundabout way to a discussion in the comments section of the competing albums that had resulted from Leonard Bernstein's 1945 Broadway musical On the Town. I was familiar with some of the recordings but not others, so theater music experts JAC and Andy Propst were kind enough to fill me in on what I had missed.

This led to my own exploration of the two On the Town sets as well as the ballet Fancy Free, which had inspired the musical. I sourced the original recordings from needle drops on Internet Archive, and cleaned up both the music and the scans. I thought some of you might be interested in these materials as well. Here is some background on the productions and recordings.

Fancy Free

Jerome Robbins choreographed Fancy Free for the Ballet Theatre to lively and witty music by Bernstein. It opened in April 1944. Decca recorded the score in June with the composer conducting the Ballet Theatre Orchestra.

Bernstein's wonderfully quirky opening ballad "Big Stuff" is heard from a radio on stage before the three sailor-protagonists burst on the scene. It is said that Bernstein wanted Billie Holiday to record the song for the production, but didn't think he could get her, so used his sister Shirley's voice instead. But Holiday did eventually record the song, several times. The first of her four tries was in November 1944, with a band led by Toots Camarata. This version was not approved so she tried again with Camarata and a different group the following August. No luck again, so she did it again with a different ensemble in January 1946. Finally in March of that year she achieved an acceptable take with a small group that included Joe Guy and Tiny Grimes, and Decca released that version in its 78 album of Fancy Free. I've included all Holiday's recordings of the song as a bonus.

The download includes additional production photos, some from the collection of Harold Lang, who danced one of the sailor roles in the ballet, and who later became a musical comedy star himself, notably as Bill Calhoun in Kiss Me, Kate and as Joey in the hit 1952 revival of Pal Joey.

On the Town

Leonard Bernstein, Jerome Robbins, Betty Comden, Adolph Green

The story is that Oliver Smith, who designed the Fancy Free sets, convinced Robbins and Bernstein that the scenario could be made into a successful musical. Perhaps so, but the team must have been thinking in those terms all along, because On the Town opened in December 1944 - only eight months after the Fancy Free opening. This was hardly enough time for Bernstein to compose the music, Robbins to choreograph the dances, Comden and Green to write the book, and George Abbott to cast and direct the production. But whatever its provenance, the musical was an artistic and commercial success.

As was often the case in the 1940s and on into the 50s, there was no integrated original cast album for On the Town. Instead, the principals were split between RCA Victor and Decca recording sessions, both beginning in February 1945.

Victor split the recordings between Bernstein and among young whiz, Robert Shaw. The composer conducted a studio orchestra in recordings of the ballet music. This is much different in some ways than the kinetic music that Bernstein wrote for Fancy Free; the "Lonely Town" Pas de deux is heavily indebted to Aaron Copland's Quiet City and Lincoln Portrait from a few years earlier. Regardless of its influences, the music is glorious. "Lonely Town" in particular is remarkably fine.

Rather than having individual singers assay Bernstein's songs, Victor made the unusual decision to turn the vocal music over to Shaw, who arranged the pieces for chorus and conducted those particular recordings. The result is enjoyable, while not resembling what could be heard and seen on Broadway. For that you could turn to the competing Decca recording.

For their recordings, the Decca company contracted with Betty Comden, Adolph Green and Nancy Walker of the original cast, leaving out John Battles and assigning his two big numbers ("Lonely Town" and "Lucky to Be Me") to Mary Martin, who was a Decca recording artist at the time. The musical backing varied - Lyn Murray for the opening scene and the Comden and Green numbers, Camarata for Mary Martin's songs and Leonard Joy for Nancy Walker. Martin handled the ballads well, even though Camarata's tempo is much too fast for "Lonely Town."

The download includes cleaned-up cover and label scans, the insert booklet and production stills for Fancy Free, and a January 1945 Life Magazine feature about On the Town. Vivid sound on all the recordings.

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Bernstein Conducts Gershwin and Copland

I wanted to mark the centenary  of Leonard Bernstein's birth, but it is difficult to find a recording by him that hasn't been reissued, with the possible exception of the obscurities I have uploaded previously.

So I decided to explore some of his earliest LPs, starting with this RCA Victor album.  It presents Bernstein's first thoughts on two composers with whom he is identified - George Gershwin and Aaron Copland. Gershwin died while Bernstein was at Harvard, but Copland was a lifelong friend and influence.

Bernstein and Copland in 1945

Bernstein was still a young man when these records were made in 1947 and 1949, but he clearly has his own ideas about the scores, both of which he puts across convincingly.

His An American in Paris provides a nice contrast to the Paul Whiteman version I uploaded last week. I believe it uses the version of Gershwin's own scoring revised by his publisher after the composer's death. Bernstein handles the Copland's Billy the Kid music beautifully. You can hear a few echoes of the score in Bernstein's own theater music.

These recordings are with the so-called "RCA Victor Symphony Orchestra," apparently composed of New York players assembled for the two sessions.  The performances are generally very fine, although the pick-up orchestra lacks the personality of Whiteman's musicians. The sound is pleasing, if a trifle boomy and with a few odd balances.

Beethoven 5, with Walter Conducting, Bernstein Commenting

Omnibus was a relatively long-lived series on U.S. television that was concerned with the arts and sciences. Leonard Bernstein was one of its star performers with his lectures on musical subjects.

Bernstein on Omnibus, demonstrating
his ideal conducting posture

Columbia issued this LP in (I believe) 1955 to capitalize on Bernstein's first Omnibus appearance, in which he discussed and conducted some of Beethoven's discarded sketches for the first movement of the fifth symphony. This vinyl version is not the soundtrack to the TV show; it was recorded specially for the LP medium, although it covered the same ground as the telecast.

The record company coupled Bernstein's commentary with its February 1950 recording of Bruno Walter leading the New York Philharmonic, the second of that conductor's readings for Columbia. It's a good effort, more dynamic than the fifth contained in well-known stereo cycle from late in Walter's life.

For his part, Bernstein compels your attention whether his comments are insightful or commonplace, a trait shared with his conducting. Columbia was apparently excited by this issue, to the point of preparing a gatefold cover (scans are in the download) and inventing a logo for Lenny (see image at right) that looks to me like a jalapeno in cross-section. Maybe I eat too much Mexican food.

I actually transferred the Walter recording from its earlier incarnation on ML4790 because my copy of CL918 has a pressing fault on that side. The cover of ML4790, with its focus on Walter's nostrils, is below. The sound is good.

I have been slowly making my way through Walter's mono Beethoven cycle for Columbia. This link takes you to the previous entries. I also have a few other recordings of Bernstein's commentary, which I hope to present at some future time.

Schuman's Concerto on Old English Rounds

I had a request for this record, which is outside the blog's usual time frame. But I decided to post it anyway because it is such a exceptional product.

The LP contains the first, and I believe only, recording of William Schuman's Concerto on Old English Rounds. The young violist Donald McInnes commissioned the work under a Ford Foundation grant. Its premiere was in 1974 with the Boston Symphony and Michael Tilson Thomas. Leonard Bernstein heard the broadcast, through the intercession of the composer, and programmed the piece with the New York Philharmonic in April 1976. The recording was made a few days later.

Donald McInnes

McInnes recalled an after-concert conversation with Bernstein: "He said during the performance he had a dream of me playing Berlioz’s Harold en Italie, which he was conducting in New York and Paris in 1976." The violist did go on to record the Berlioz work with Bernstein and the Orchestre National de France. It too is a fine achievement.

The Bernstein-McInnes team is just right for this work, which is itself of considerable interest. McInnes is wonderfully secure soloist, and Bernstein is fully in command of the proceedings. In the liner notes, Schuman admits to being a disciple of Roy Harris in his early years, but I have always thought this work was influenced by Benjamin Britten. That may be because I purchased Andre Previn's recording of Britten's 1949 Spring Symphony at about the same time as acquiring this LP upon its release in 1978. Britten and Schuman both set archaic texts in a conservative modern idiom, although this work has a significant solo instrument, which is lacking in the Britten.

McInnes has pursued a career in academia and the West Coast film studios.

The sound from Columbia's 30th Street Studios is excellent, but the thin vinyl pressing was slightly warped, leading to some momentary image instability that shouldn't be noticeable unless you use headphones.

Larry Kert Sings Bernstein

It's too bad that the people who originated some of the most famous roles in musical theater history aren't better remembered. Case in point: Larry Kert, who created the role of Tony in West Side Story, surely one of the most influential musicals ever staged.

Kert never again achieved anything like the renown he earned in this retelling of Romeo and Juliet in mid-century Hell's Kitchen, New York. He was passed over for the role in the film version, taken by Richard Beymer, whose singing voice was dubbed by studio vocalist Jimmy Bryant (not the same person as the guitarist of that name). He appeared in flop musicals. He held lead roles in Cabaret and Company, but as a replacement.

Larry Kert with Carol Lawrence in West Side Story

There is no doubt that Kert was a fine talent, with a particular affinity for the music of Leonard Bernstein, as presented here. He was in fact brought to the West Side Story cast by the show's lyricist, Stephen Sondheim, who wrote the notes for this album.

Three of the 12 songs here are from West Side Story - "Maria," "Tonight" and "Something's Coming." These are all of Kert's songs from the show, save "One Hand, One Heart." But just as welcome are "Lonely Town" and "Some Other Time" from On the Town, "My House" from Peter Pan, and especially "It Must Be So" from Candide, in a wonderful performance.

This record was issued on Seeco, which although primarily known as a Latin label, also had a pop and jazz line at times. It came out in 1960, when Kert was appearing in West Side Story, which had reopened on Broadway after a brief hiatus.

The arrangements are by Richard Wess, who had gained some notice for his backings for Bobby Darin during Darin's swinging period, notably for "Mack the Knife." If I would prefer a sound more like what might have been heard in the theater, the arrangements are nonetheless good. [Note (July 2023): This recording has now been remastered, and the severe sibilance on Kert's voice as recorded has been substantially tamed.]

Bernstein and the NYPO in Venice, 1959

A while ago, I wrote about the original musicals presented on US commercial television in the 1950s. Classical music also had a presence on commercial TV back then, and its face and voice were those of Leonard Bernstein, then the music director of the New York Philharmonic.

I remember seeing Bernstein on the television program Omnibus when I was just a wee Buster. He later made a series of programs sponsored by Lincoln and then Ford. Four of the programs in that series were issued on promotional LPs by Ford's advertising agency, Kenyon & Eckhardt. The particular program represented by this record was presented on CBS in November 1959.

The agency didn't do such a good job with the record production, though, and the sound is subfusc. Little Buster with his 3-inch tape recorder might have done as a good a job taping the thing off his parent's Philco. Big Buster has done his best to compensate in the transfer, and the results are at least listenable.

As I know from personal experience, having met him once, Bernstein was a magnetic personality, and that comes through on this record. He is an eloquent speaker, convincing even when superficial - and I dare say that goes for his music-making as well. Here you get a bit of the Marriage of Figaro overture and two-thirds of a Mozart piano concerto, along with as much commentary from the conductor.

While Bernstein is not a favorite of mine, his influence and importance are undeniable and his charisma unmistakable.

REMASTERED VERSION - MARCH 2015