Milhaud Plays and Conducts His Compositions

More today from the fertile imagination of composer Darius Milhaud, in the form of four works issued by Columbia at mid-century. All involve Milhaud as conductor or pianist.

The compositions are his Symphony No. 1, Suite  Française, Cantate de l'Enfant et de la Mère and La Muse Mènagére.

Symphony No. 1

Milhaud's music seldom conveys anguish, and such emotion can't be found in the first symphony, even though it was written at a difficult time for the composer.

While it is perhaps not as sunny as Columbia's LP cover would have you believe, it is nonetheless melodic and as genial much of Milhaud's output.

The symphony was written on commission from the Chicago Symphony for its 50th anniversary year, 1940-41. But as Milhaud started to work on the piece, war broke out in Europe. The composer was unable to work for a few months, but finally was able to finish the work just before fleeing Aix-en-Provence for the U.S. Only in the slow movement is there any hint of the struggle in Europe.

Milhaud himself conducted the first performance in October 1940, and went on to perform his work with several other orchestras, including the Columbia Broadcasting Symphony, which performs in this January 1947 recording.

In his survey of Milhaud's recordings, critic Robert Matthew-Walker wrote, "The recorded performance of the symphony is magnificent; indeed, this composer-conducted account has always convinced me that it is one of the very greatest symphonies of the twentieth century."

The 78 set included a short piece, "In Memoriam," in commemoration of the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor. It was not included on the 10-inch LP that I transferred, and I've been unable to find a copy of it.

Suite Française

Cover of the 78 set

The Suite Française also has a connection to the Second World War. Milhaud named the five parts of te suite for five French provinces - Normandy, Brittany, Ile-de-France, Alsace-Lorraine and Provence - "the very ones in which the American and Allied armies fought together with the French underground for the liberation of my country," he wrote.

Milhaud's aim was to make the music accessible to student ensembles. "I used some folk tunes of these provinces. I wanted the young Americans to hear the popular melodies from those parts of France where their fathers and brothers fought to defend the country from the German invaders." This joyous music has pre-echoes of the suites soon to be written by the British composer Malcolm Arnold.

The first version of the suite was written for band, and was introduced by the Goldman Band only six weeks after V-E Day. The orchestral version soon followed and was premiered by the New York Philharmonic and Maurice Abravanel in July. Milhaud conducted the same orchestra in this recording, dating from early January 1946.

The original issue of the suite was in a 78 set whose cover is depicted above. My transfer comes from a Columbia Entré LP reissue from the mid-1950s.

Cantate de l'Enfant et de la Mère; La Muse Mènagére

The next record moves away from orchestral works to chamber music with poetry and a piano suite with the composer performing.

Maurice Carême

The first work is La Cantate de L'Enfant et de la Mère, settings of poetry by the Belgian Maurice Carême. The cantata was written in 1938 for performance by the composer's wife, Madeleine Milhaud, the Pro Arte Quartet and pianist Paul Collaer.

Milhaud relates of the premiere, "I conducted the performance in the enormous concert hall of the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels.... It must have looked like a flea-circus, for our soft music and tender, intimate poetry recital came after some bravura pieces executed by the military band of the Guides, in full dress uniform."

Madeleine and Darius Milhaud

Carême, whose works also were set by Poulenc among other composers, was inspired by children's poetry, and wrote simple verses concerned with the family.

This 1950 performance marked the recording debut of the Juilliard String Quartet, which in its various incarnations has been in residence at that school for the past 75 years. This recording features the original personnel: violinists Robert Mann and Robert Koff, violist Raphael Hillyer and cellist Arthur Winograd. The piano part is taken by Leonid Hambro.

The Juilliards: violinists Robert Mann and Robert Koff, violist Raphael Hillyer, and cellist Arthur Winograd

Madeleine Milhaud was an actress and writer, who was responsible for the libretti of her husband's operas Médée, Bolivar and La Mère Coupable. Her lovely voice is just right for this material.

While I have been unable to locate either texts or translations of Carême's poetry, friend of the blog Peter has come up with the back cover of the Seraphim reissue of the disc, which does include translations of the verse. It is included in the download. It's a low-resolution scan, but can be read with some squinting. Thanks, Peter.

The second side of the record continues the domestic theme. The Household Muse (La Muse Mènagére) is a piano suite in which the composer depicts scenes from the Milhauds' everyday life. The gentle music shows the influence of Milhaud's mentor, Eric Satie.

I believe this recording was made in early 1946 bur not issued before this LP came out. That lapse may have been because of technical considerations: Milhaud's piano is dully recorded and there apparently was rustle on the master (an early review complains about it).

I've brightened the sound of Milhaud's piano a bit and lowered the background noise. The Cantata had the opposite problem - close and harsh sound. I've added a small amount of convolution reverberation to the mix and the results are pleasing, at least to me.

As mentioned, the Symphony and Suite Française come from my collection. I worked from a lossless transfer on Internet Archive for the other works, which were requested by longtime friend of the blog rev.b.

This post is a follow-up to a recent item with Milhaud's Saudades do Brasil and Piano Concerto No. 4 in brilliant performances by Zadel Skolofsky. 

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