Grieg and Mendelssohn from Ania Dorfmann

Here is the second installment in a series of recordings from the underappreciated pianist Ania Dorfmann, following on the Chopin waltzes and Beethoven concerto featured here a while back.

Concert flyer

Both this disc of Grieg and Mendelssohn concertos and the Chopin disc were issued on RCA Victor's Bluebird label. Dorfmann was one of the first artists presented on Bluebird when RCA revived the mark as a budget line in 1952. The big record company was responding to inroads by independents who were issuing all types of European sourced classical recordings and undercutting the price of the majors' high-end lines.

Billboard magazine, in covering the phenomenon, observed delicately that the products of those companies - and the artists themselves - were "of rather uncertain quality." RCA aimed to provide a higher standard of excellence by concentrating on "concert artists who have achieved wide and enthusiastic critical acclaim" but are not yet "by popular standards, the top names in their field." So Bluebird would concentrate on instrumentalists Ania Dorfmann, Ida Haendel and Byron Janis and conductors Erich Leinsdorf, Karl Böhm and John Barbirolli - most of whom have been featured on this blog.

On this concerto disc, Dorfmann is in her usual glistening form, with sturdy backing by Leinsdorf and the "Robin Hood Dell Orchestra" - that is, the Philadelphia Orchestra in its summer configuration. The session in the Academy of Music was in July 1953, with what I assume to be a patching session in RCA's New York studio a month later. The sound is quite good (much better than the current standard), well capturing the glint of Dorfmann's tone. If the Grieg is more enjoyable than the Mendelssohn, it is probably because the former is a more inspired piece. The pianist does well by both works.

Dorfmann did appear on RCA's full-price line at other times - and this present disc was elevated to Red Seal status later on. 

More Dinah Shore on Columbia

I enjoyed my last Dinah Shore post so much that I pulled a few of her Harmony LPs out of storage and transferred them for you today.

1948 ad

Once again, we have 20 songs that Dinah recorded for Columbia from 1946-50, primarily issued on singles during that time. Note that there are a few duplicates from the previous post - in each case the 78 transfer has superior sound.

Not that the sound here is bad - it's just that in making the transfers, the Columbia engineers probably first dubbed the originals onto tape, and then mastered the LP. Interposing this step does take away some of the immediacy of the first generation. The technicians also typically added some reverb to the remastering in an attempt to make the result more spacious. This is noticeable on the "Buttons and Bows" LP, but not too distracting, I hope.

The title song of said LP was one of the big hits of 1948, when Shore was at her peak as a recording artist. As with the first collection, the repertoire consists of pop songs of the day and show tunes. This also is true with the other album, "Sings Cole Porter and Richard Rodgers," where she takes on the big numbers from such shows as South Pacific and Kiss Me, Kate along with other familiar melodies from the two composers.

Throughout the collection, Dinah is winningly warm and personable, although she doesn't quite convey the type of emotion required for such fare as "The Gentleman Is a Dope."

All that said, this is a most agreeable collection in good sound.

Rosina Lhévinne in Chopin and Debussy

Josef and Rosina Lhévinne

In my first post devoted to the little recorded pianist Rosina Lhévinne, I promised a second entry devoted to her Chopin first concerto and one of the few discs she made with her husband Josef before his early death in 1944. I am making good on that promise today, perhaps the only New Year's resolution I will keep all year.

Josef and Rosina's recording of Debussy's "Fêtes," in Ravel's two-piano version, comes from June 1935, and is one of two works they performed for commercial issue. (I do not possess the other, a Mozart sonata.) The rendition is spirited, emphasizing the festive rather than the nocturnal. My transfer comes from an early RCA Camden LP with excellent sound.

The main work is Rosina's second late-in-life concerto recording. Following the Mozart recording that marked her 80th birthday, she was invited into the Vanguard studios to tape Chopin's Concerto No. 1. Accompanying her was the clumsily named Members of the Alumni of the National Orchestral Association, under John Barnett. A word of explanation: the National Orchestral Association provided a training platform for orchestral players who were newly graduated from conservatory. The "Members of the Alumni" included musicians who had gone on to New York orchestras such as the Philharmonic and the Metropolitan Opera. John Barnett was the director of the National Orchestral Association at the time, in succession to Léon Barzin, who had founded the organization in 1930.

The Members of the Alumni are very good, but in Chopin concertos almost all of the interest is in the solo part, and Lhévinne does not disappoint. Her playing displays the same grace and control that made the Mozart concerto such a success. It's a shame she was not asked to record more often.

Vanguard's sonics were dull, but I have done my best to bring out the elegant sound of Rosina Lhévinne's piano, with some success, I hope. The LP also included a performance of Schumann's Overture, Scherzo and Finale, which I have not transferred.

Christmas in Boys Town

An actual 10-inch LP for you today, an early one with the Boys Town Choir that was among Capitol's offerings for the 1949 holiday season.

At that time, Boys Town was a very well known American institution, founded by Rev. Edward Flanagan in 1917, and made famous by two fictional Boys Town films, with Spencer Tracy taking the part of  Father Flanagan. The orphanage for boys was and is near Omaha, Nebraska.

The choir itself is charming in this surprisingly diverse program, although the older boys are distinctly thin sounding, as is often the case with ensembles such as these. The recording is not one of Capitol's best, but serviceable enough.

Father Flanagan had died by the time this record came out, which is nowhere mentioned on the sleeve. The music director for the record was Rev. Francis Schmidt.

More Hymns from Virgil Fox

I thought I would follow up my earlier Virgil Fox posts with another outstanding early collection from the famed virtuoso organist.

This set of great Protestant hymns is a sequel to his A Treasury of Hymns, and is in some ways preferable because it was done on pipe organ rather than an electronic instrument.

These 1957 recordings are from New York's Riverside Church, Fox's own territory, and its Aeolian-Skinner organ.

Promotional flyer from 1957

No recording can convey the physically palpable sound of a great pipe organ, particularly a vinyl pressing with very long sides, which necessarily restrict low frequencies. Nonetheless, this example is fairly successful, giving a good impression of the instrument, if without the gut-shaking deepest tones. I have used an ambient stereo effect to bring out the resonance of the recording space.

This repertoire is highly suited to the holidays, at least for this blogger, being familiar, comforting and inspiring. Hope you enjoy these simple gifts of the season.

All my earlier Fox shares are still available - links are in the comments.

Henri Tomasi and Chistmas in Provence

This delightful music was unknown to me until I acquired the LP at hand, a few years ago. The music is the work of Henri Tomasi, a French composer-conductor of Corsican decent who was a contemporary and associate of Milhaud, Honegger and Poulenc, Like them, his music is highly accessible; unlike them, it is little heard today.

Henri Tomasi

The album, titled Noël en Provence, includes two Christmas-themed choral-vocal works. Side one is devoted to a "Divertissement Pastoral," written for a Mass of the Nativity at the Abbey of Saint-Michel de Frigolet, and setting texts by Alphonse Daudet, Jean Giono, Marie Mauron, Frédéric Mistal and Marcel Pagnol. Side two contains "Douze Noëls de Saboly," on texts by the 17th century Provençal poet Nicolas Saboly.

The performances under the direction of Jacques Jouineau are suitably glowing and sympathetic. The sound combines clarity, warmth and impact in a way that is hard to find in a 21st century recording.

This is perfect for all who have a taste for little-known holiday music. The recording dates from 1963; my French pressing is from a few years later.

Cy Coleman Jazz Trio, Plus Reups

The main event today is an upload of the Cy Coleman Jazz Trio's Why Try to Change Me Now LP from 1959, but this post also includes several remastered reups, one of which inspired the new Coleman transfer.

First, the fresh item. When I wrote about Coleman's Benida LP a while back, I ventured the opinion that Coleman, while a virtuoso, was not a jazz pianist. But here, as a riposte, he is presented with a "jazz" tag and in the company of two certified jazz artists, bassist Aaron Bell and drummer Ed Thigpen.

And in fact the trio does produce something very like jazz, although it is impossible to know how much of the notes you hear were worked out in advance - Coleman was, after all, a well known composer. On the plus side, the group swings effortlessly; on the minus, the pianist relies far too much on the locked hands approach for my taste.

Cy Coleman

The program is largely standards, including Coleman's title song, associated with Sinatra' superb recording (which, I might note gratuitously, is almost the same song as another Frank specialty, "Everything Happens to Me," written by another blog favorite, Matt Dennis, way back in 1940).

If it seems like I am down on Coleman, let me add that I am an admirer both of his instrumental and compositional skills. To prove it, I am also uploading one of his earliest records on my long-neglected singles blog, where he performs with a vocal group called the Cytones. (He should have had then all wear masks of his face and called them the Cyclones.)

The sound here is good, but highly directional early stereo, with the piano on the left and rhythm right. My pressing is clean, except for some surface noise on the title tune.

Now on to the reups, the first of which inspired the new Coleman post.

Night Out Music for Stay-at-Homes. This is a Decca compilation from the 1950s presenting unusual items from Coleman (his first record), Matt Dennis, Erroll Garner, Billy Taylor, and Nat King Cole.

Southern Gospel on RCA. A compilation of singles issued by RCA Victor in 1956-57, with the Blackwood Brothers Quartet, the Statesmen Quartet with Hovie Lister, Stuart Hamblen, George Beverly Shea, and the Johnson Family Singers.

Blackwood Brothers - Own Label 78s. I also went ahead and revisited my post of a few records that the Blackwoods issued on their own label circa 1948 and 1952, which appears on my singles blog. This includes the tremendous "Working on the Building."

Torch Song. This early M-G-M LP presents music from the 1953 Joan Crawford vehicle Torch Song, with singer India Adams dubbing Crawford's vocals and pianist-composer Walter Gross doubling for Michael Wilding's blind pianist, whose unselfish love redeemed La Crawford's temperamental diva character. Touching!

The reup links can be found in via the comments to the original posts linked above, or go to the comments to this post.