'Lost Summer Love,' the Sleeping Beauty Mystery Put to Rest, Plus a Reup

Today we have a second autumn-themed mix from David Federman, an answer to the Great Sleeping Beauty Mystery, and a reup from ex-Cugat canary Abbe Lane.

'Lost Summer Love'

David has dubbed his latest compilation "Lost Summer Love." He writes, "This is an autumn-themed mix, meant to augment the almost sacred sense of loss that comes every September and October."

In five parts, it is typically eclectic, ranging from Chet Baker to Hal Kemp to the Glasgow Orpheus Choir. I am particularly fond of the two versions of the superb but forgotten melody, "It All Comes Back to Me Now," both by the superb but almost forgotten vocalist David Allyn - one at the beginning of his career and one from an later, unreleased Warner Bros. LP.

The download includes 33 songs in all, along with David's commentary.

The 'Sleeping Beauty' Mystery Solved

The subhead above may sound like the title of an Erle Stanley Gardner novel, but it actually relates to the who-directed-it mystery involving conductor Nicolai Malko's RCA Bluebird LP of excerpts from Tchaikovsky's ballet music for The Sleeping Beauty.

I posted the LP not long ago, only to have a knowledgeable fellow say that there was some dispute as to whether Malko did actually conduct the excerpts. Some people apparently claimed that they were a reprint of Constant Lambert's 1938 Sadler's Wells recordings instead.

I was familiar with the Lambert recordings - and plan to post them here soon - and that contrarian thesis did not seem right to me. For one thing, the excerpts on LP included a piece that Lambert didn't record in 1938. And the excerpts he did record then did not seem to be the same as the ones on the LP.

Since then, all the evidence that has been submitted (i.e., the original 78s and 45s containing the Malko recordings) have supported the conclusion that the LP is indeed the complete set of Malko excerpts. I believe it is the only place they can be found in toto.

Why the confusion? I suspect that RCA did initially issue the Bluebird LP with Lambert's recordings in place of Malko's. They apparently corrected the mistake in a subsequent pressing - the one I own and posted.

Abbe Lane Reup

One quick reup today - Abbe Lane's RCA LP Where There's a Man, from 1959. Abbe, at one time a Xavier Cugat singer and wife, wasn't a great vocalist, but she was a great deal of fun, as this album demonstrates. I think Miss Lane must has a steady following - this is the second time a reup has been requested. Follow this link to the original post.

The Curious Case of Malko's "Sleeping Beauty"

Is it you, Nicolai? Or you, Constant?

My post directly below combines two Tchaikovsky readings by the illustrious conductors Constant Lambert and Nicolai Malko. The 1955 RCA Bluebird LP includes Lambert's 1941 Romeo and Juliet with the City of Birmingham Orchestra, and Malko's 1952 excerpts from The Sleeping Beauty with the Philharmonia Orchestra.

Or does it? No sooner did I cross-post my item to a Google classical music group than one of the knowledgeable members there dropped a line to say that there has been some dispute as to whether this was really the Malko recording. Apparently RCA had issued the LP with Lambert's 1939 Sleeping Beauty selections in place of the Malko items, while attributing them to the Russian conductor.

I thought this was curious. I am familiar with Lambert's Sleeping Beauty recordings - and am planning to post them - and the 1939 records do not match up with what is contained on the RCA LP. For example, "Red Riding Hood and the Wolf" appears on the RCA album but does not appear to be among the excerpts that Lambert set down in 1939. (He did record it in 1946.) Conversely, Lambert had a go at the famous Waltz in 1939, but it does not appear on the Bluebird LP.

I also checked the items that this LP and the 1939 recordings hold in common, and they do not seem to be the same, to my ears. Admittedly, comparisons are difficult because the excerpts are not uniformly labelled and the scores can be edited differently for the various recordings.

Later, another member posted a transfer from one of the Malko 78, and it does match the same selections on the Bluebird LP. And checking the Tchaikovsky Research site, what appears to be contained on the original 78s seems to match what's on the LP, although the site seems to be unaware of the two sides that aurally match the Bluebird album.

First and second LP covers

I wonder if RCA, after flubbing the first edition of the LP, did in fact correct the later editions. The record exists in two different versions - one with the stock ribbon cover that Bluebird was using at the time, the second my later issue with Romeo and Juliet on the cover. The group member who raised the issue is acquiring an original English EP of the music to make sure.

In the meantime, one thing that did come to light is that my transfer of the Sleeping Beauty excerpts is still a half-step flat - even though I had raised the pitch a half-step already, knowing that it was not correct. So I have adjusted the pitch again (hopefully accurately this time), and have posted a link to a new file both in the comments here and the original post.

Update: another member sent along a transfer of all the Malko Sleeping Beauty 78s, and they do correspond to additional items on the LP.

Lambert and Malko Conduct Tchaikovsky

Today we return to the recordings of composer-conductor-arranger-author Constant Lambert in a work by Tchaikovsky, a composer he favored. We also hear another Tchaikovsky composition led by a much different maestro, the expatriate Ukrainian-Russian Nicolai Malko (1883-1961).

The Lambert recording is Romeo and Juliet, Tchaikovsky's dramatic and descriptive so-called "Fantasy-Overture," here in a 1941 performance with the City of Birmingham Symphony. For some reason, neither on the original 78s nor here, in its only LP issue, were the Birmingham forces identified, being tagged only as a "Symphony Orchestra."

Constant Lambert by Madame Yevonde, 1933

The Birmingham musicians were not known to be a virtuoso ensemble - during the war the orchestra was composed of part-time players. Lambert draws good results from the group, however - certainly better than a few of the orchestras that have appeared on this blog. It's possible the orchestra was augmented for this recording.

Lambert takes the introduction slowly (too slowly for me), contrasting this music with the turbulent second section, depicting the Montagues and Capulets. The love music is nicely handled by the orchestra. Throughout, as often happens with 80-year-old recordings, the impact of the music suffers from a compressed dynamic range.

I don't think the Lambert recording has had an official reissue since this 1955 LP version, nor has Malko's rendition of excerpts from Tchaikovsky's score for the ballet Sleeping Beauty. Both were issued originally on 78 by HMV - even the 1952 Malko recording, which also appeared on EP - and have not been revisited by that company or its successors, to my knowledge. If anything, the Malko has been even more neglected than the Lambert. This 1955 RCA Victor issue is the only LP version of both scores that I can find.

Malko was a fine conductor who made many excellent records for EMI in the 1950s, first with the Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra and then the Philharmonia, who appear here in the Sleeping Beauty excerpts. Even so, he never had a prestigious orchestral position in the West, being best known for working regularly with the Danish orchestra.

Nicolai Malko

Malko takes a dry-eyed approach to Sleeping Beauty. It's all very impressive, but there is little emotion here in what is, after all, a fairy tale. The orchestra - probably the best in England at the time - plays beautifully throughout. The sound from Abbey Road is, as it often was, clear but not overly warm.

Label of the Waltz 78

The complete Sleeping Beauty is a long (nearly three-hour) score, and RCA is of little help in identifying the handful of excerpts that Malko chose. The disc is not banded and George Jellinek's notes are vague. I spent some time with the more-or-less complete Previn recording, and have identified the selections in the download by number. Malko programs many of the familiar items in the score - the Introduction, the "Rose Adagio," "Puss-in-Boots and the White Cat" - but curiously leaves out the big waltz that is the ballet's most famous dance. It turns out that he had recorded it a few years earlier with the Danish Radio Symphony for another HMV 78. I've appended that title as a bonus.

HMV EP cover

The Malko recordings do not appear to relate to any production of the ballet, even though the HMV EP cover depicts Margot Fonteyn in the Royal Ballet's production. As far as I can tell, Malko never conducted one of the Sadler's Wells/Royal Ballet performances. They were primarily led by Lambert during the 1940s (with a few Beecham incursions), and by Robert Irving and John Hollingsworth in succeeding years. Irving himself recorded a two-disc Sleeping Beauty set with the Covent Garden orchestra in 1955. It appeared on the blog a few years ago and is still available here.

Lambert also recorded excerpts from the score, on two occasions: in conjunction with the 1939 Sadler's Wells production, called The Sleeping Princess, and in 1946 when The Sleeping Beauty was mounted by the ballet company in its new home, Covent Garden. One of my next posts will collect those recordings, along with the ballet music from Gounod's Faust as conducted by George Weldon - who himself taped a more-or-less complete version of Sleeping Beauty with the Philharmonia in 1956.

Returning to the Malko recording, I should note that the RCA transfer was about a half-step flat, which I've corrected. The LP was issued on the budget Bluebird label, so perhaps the company didn't expend as much care on the low-priced product as on its prestigious Red Seal mark. By the way, can anyone explain those black blobs enshrouding the lovers on the cover?

Update: Please see the post above this one, which delves into the question of whether the Sleeping Beauty excerpts contained on this record were really conducted by Malko - or by Lambert. (I think the likeliest answer is still Malko.) In the process, a kind reader has pointed out that the Sleeping Beauty transfer is still below score pitch - even though I adjusted it once - so I have readjusted it, and I think it is correct now - but please let me know if not!