Masses by Harrison and Killmayer

I have had very little time to prepare new items for the blog for a while, so I will be posting some transfers that I made a while back and didn't complete for one reason or another.

In this case, I didn't follow through because while I am very fond of one work on the LP, the other leaves me cold.

The record in question is part of a series on Epic Records presenting contemporary compositions sponsored by the Fromm Music Foundation. This "Twentieth Century Composers Series" included works by Elliott Carter, Luigi Dallapiccola, Lukas Foss, Leon Kirchner, Ernst Krenek and Ben Weber, as well as these Mass settings by Lou Harrison and Wilhelm Killmayer.

I just don't care for the stiff Missa Brevis by the German composer Killmayer, but I will comment on Harrison's beautiful Mass, which is usually called the "Mass to St. Anthony". This record memorializes the second of three versions of the Mass, which has more conventional orchestration than the percussion accompaniment of the version Harrison began in 1939, when he was in his early 20s. He restored the original orchestration, with some additions, in 2001, a few years before his death.

Margaret Hillis

The excellent performances are led by Margaret Hillis with her New York Concert Choir and Orchestra. Hillis, a Robert Shaw disciple, would soon move to Chicago to head the Chicago Symphony Chorus, where she became possibly the most well regarded choral trainer in the US, Shaw aside. I believe these recordings were made in 1955, probably in Columbia's 30th Street studio.

Orchestral conducting was Hillis' first love, but opportunities for women were then even more restricted than they are now. Nonetheless, she left many fine recordings, this among them.

By the way, Blogger's photo function has become dysfunctional, so many of the images on this blog are not appearing at all. I had to use a work-around to post the photos seen here.