Orchestral Works by George Chadwick and Frederick Converse

The American Music Society label of the 1950s has been an interest of this blog since its first post. Today we have an ARS LP with compositions by two composers from New England - George W. Chadwick (1854-1931) and Frederick S. Converse (1871-1940).

I believe these were the first recordings of both works.

Both works come from the early years of the 20th century, and both are from the German Romantic tradition, being influenced by Richard Wagner and Richard Strauss.

Converse called his work a "fantasy" and Chadwick a "symphonic ballad," but both were inspired by literary sources.

Converse actually studied with Chadwick, and both were pupils of the German composer Josef Rheinberger. Both also were associated at different times with the New England Conservatory - Chadwick as director and Converse as a member of the faculty and later dean.

George Chadwick

Chadwick's work is based on Robert Burns' poem Tam O'Shanter, dating from 1914. In this piece, Tam indulges in a night of revelry, followed by he and his horse losing their way and encountering ghouls on their journey.

In his book on American music, John Howard Tasker had this to day about the composer: "In many ways Chadwick was typically American in his music, not from his use of folk songs or historic subjects, but by something far subtler, something he could never have avoided even if he had tried. His delicious impertinence is genuinely American, the dry humor of the Yankee. He added life to the forms he used, and gave us something vital. There is a freshness in his music that is a matter of spirit rather than of style or idiom." The imputation of these characteristics to a national character is a sweeping generalization - especially in music that is German in form and Scottish in inspiration - but it is true that they did characterize Chadwick's music.

You may be interested in comparing Chadwick's depiction of Tam's drunken episode to that of Malcolm Arnold, which was previously posted here.

Frederick Converse

Like Chadwick, Converse was a talented composer who produced impressive music. His fantasy on Whitman's The Mystic Trumpeter dates from 1903-04.

The notes to this release state: "Converse omitted one episode from Whitman's original poem, 'This because I wished only to use the elemental phrases: mystery and peace, love, war and struggle, humiliation, and finally joy. So I divided the poem into five parts and my music follows this division. Each section is tied to the preceding one by characteristic phrases for trumpet.'"

Gustav Holst also composed music inspired by The Mystic Trumpeter, which has been recorded a few times. Composers also have been inspired by other Whitman works. His Drum Taps (which appeared in some editions of Leaves of Grass) was set by Howard Hanson, whose recording is here. Also Ralph Vaughan Williams' Nona Nobis Pacem largely consists of Whitman settings.

Max Schoenherr

ARS, as was its usual practice, attributed the recordings to the "American Recording Society Orchestra." The actual orchestras involved were almost always European, and generally Viennese. A Classical Discography identifies the Vienna Symphony as the ensemble in the Converse work, with the recording taking place November 8 and 9, 1952.

There is no date or ensemble listed for the Chadwick, but it is certainly possible that it was recorded at the same time as the Converse. The discography says that the conductor for both works was Meinhard von Zallinger, but the record itself lists Max Schoenherr. The latter recorded other works for ARS, so it seems likely that Schoenherr is the conductor here.

The download includes scans and texts of the Burns and Whitman poems and links to analyses of each work.

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From the Back Room: Bloch and Herbert

No sooner had I posted Buster's Back Room, where I listed some of the many projects I had completed but never offered on this blog, than a few people asked for this record.

It's a good one - from 1952 and the American Recording Society, it includes two relatively neglected works: Ernest Bloch's Trois Poèmes Juifs and Victor Herbert's Cello Concerto No. 2.

Walter Hendl

The works are split between two conductors: Walter Hendl, an American who at the time was the music director of the Dallas Symphony, and Max Schoenherr, an Austrian whose recorded works tended to be on the lighter side, such as operetta. Both were accomplished musicians.

Max Schoenherr

The record did attract some notable critical acclaim. John Briggs of the New York Times led his column about recent recordings with these thoughts: "The American Recording Society, aided by a grant from the Alice M. Ditson Fund of Columbia University, is continuing to turn up unusual and interesting works over-looked in the rush of ordinary commercial recording.

"Such a piece is the Victor Herbert Cello Concerto, newly available on records as performed by Bernard Greenhouse and the American Recording Society Orchestra, Max Schoenherr conducting.

Victor Herbert

"The concerto is a workable piece, designed for practical performance, affording the soloist ample opportunity to display his virtuosity. It is by no means a trivial work. The composer of Naughty Marietta and The Red Mill was also first 'cellist of the Philharmonic-Symphony and for some years conductor of the Pittsburgh Symphony. His concerto is the work of a musician trained in the thoroughgoing nineteenth-century German school, writing for an instrument which he knows at first hand. Herbert’s manipulation of the orchestra is easy, fluent and unforced."

Bernard Greenhouse

Cellist Bernard Greenhouse, who was then a solo artist, would help found the famed Beaux Arts Trio in 1955, with pianist Menahem Pressler and violinist Daniel Guilet.

Ernest Bloch

Bloch's superb Trois Poèmes Juifs also received praise from the Times and the Saturday Review. The Times: "On the same recording is heard a fine performance of Ernest Bloch's sensitive and moving Trois Poèmes Juifs, played by the American Recording Society Orchestra under the direction of Walter Hendl." The Saturday Review added that the piece was "beautifully formulated" and "well-performed," and that Hendl directed with "eloquent effect."

The Bloch may be the sole recording of the work: A Classical Discography does not list another. Herbert's two Cello Concertos have each been recorded a few times.

Both of these performances are listed as being by the "American Recording Society Orchestra," which generally turned out to be a European ensemble. A Classical Discography lists the Herbert as being recorded by the Vienna Symphony, but does not have an ID for the orchestra heard in the Bloch composition.

The recording of the concerto was tubby (I've addressed that characteristic), although the cello was and is well caught. The Bloch is nicely done.

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