'Fancy Free' and 'On the Town'

The young Leonard Bernstein

Back in February I featured an early Robert Shaw Chorale LP, which led in a roundabout way to a discussion in the comments section of the competing albums that had resulted from Leonard Bernstein's 1945 Broadway musical On the Town. I was familiar with some of the recordings but not others, so theater music experts JAC and Andy Propst were kind enough to fill me in on what I had missed.

This led to my own exploration of the two On the Town sets as well as the ballet Fancy Free, which had inspired the musical. I sourced the original recordings from needle drops on Internet Archive, and cleaned up both the music and the scans. I thought some of you might be interested in these materials as well. Here is some background on the productions and recordings.

Fancy Free

Jerome Robbins choreographed Fancy Free for the Ballet Theatre to lively and witty music by Bernstein. It opened in April 1944. Decca recorded the score in June with the composer conducting the Ballet Theatre Orchestra.

Bernstein's wonderfully quirky opening ballad "Big Stuff" is heard from a radio on stage before the three sailor-protagonists burst on the scene. It is said that Bernstein wanted Billie Holiday to record the song for the production, but didn't think he could get her, so used his sister Shirley's voice instead. But Holiday did eventually record the song, several times. The first of her four tries was in November 1944, with a band led by Toots Camarata. This version was not approved so she tried again with Camarata and a different group the following August. No luck again, so she did it again with a different ensemble in January 1946. Finally in March of that year she achieved an acceptable take with a small group that included Joe Guy and Tiny Grimes, and Decca released that version in its 78 album of Fancy Free. I've included all Holiday's recordings of the song as a bonus.

The download includes additional production photos, some from the collection of Harold Lang, who danced one of the sailor roles in the ballet, and who later became a musical comedy star himself, notably as Bill Calhoun in Kiss Me, Kate and as Joey in the hit 1952 revival of Pal Joey.

On the Town

Leonard Bernstein, Jerome Robbins, Betty Comden, Adolph Green

The story is that Oliver Smith, who designed the Fancy Free sets, convinced Robbins and Bernstein that the scenario could be made into a successful musical. Perhaps so, but the team must have been thinking in those terms all along, because On the Town opened in December 1944 - only eight months after the Fancy Free opening. This was hardly enough time for Bernstein to compose the music, Robbins to choreograph the dances, Comden and Green to write the book, and George Abbott to cast and direct the production. But whatever its provenance, the musical was an artistic and commercial success.

As was often the case in the 1940s and on into the 50s, there was no integrated original cast album for On the Town. Instead, the principals were split between RCA Victor and Decca recording sessions, both beginning in February 1945.

Victor split the recordings between Bernstein and among young whiz, Robert Shaw. The composer conducted a studio orchestra in recordings of the ballet music. This is much different in some ways than the kinetic music that Bernstein wrote for Fancy Free; the "Lonely Town" Pas de deux is heavily indebted to Aaron Copland's Quiet City and Lincoln Portrait from a few years earlier. Regardless of its influences, the music is glorious. "Lonely Town" in particular is remarkably fine.

Rather than having individual singers assay Bernstein's songs, Victor made the unusual decision to turn the vocal music over to Shaw, who arranged the pieces for chorus and conducted those particular recordings. The result is enjoyable, while not resembling what could be heard and seen on Broadway. For that you could turn to the competing Decca recording.

For their recordings, the Decca company contracted with Betty Comden, Adolph Green and Nancy Walker of the original cast, leaving out John Battles and assigning his two big numbers ("Lonely Town" and "Lucky to Be Me") to Mary Martin, who was a Decca recording artist at the time. The musical backing varied - Lyn Murray for the opening scene and the Comden and Green numbers, Camarata for Mary Martin's songs and Leonard Joy for Nancy Walker. Martin handled the ballads well, even though Camarata's tempo is much too fast for "Lonely Town."

The download includes cleaned-up cover and label scans, the insert booklet and production stills for Fancy Free, and a January 1945 Life Magazine feature about On the Town. Vivid sound on all the recordings.

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A September Serenade, Mundell Lowe, Plus a Vocal Reup

Lately I have been off investigating Tchaikovsky recordings (see posts below), so good friend David Federman has filled the void with three very interesting recordings: a "September Serenade" compilation and two recordings by the splendid guitarist Mundell Lowe, one composed of Alec Wilder originals. My meager offering is a reup of the first album by an unknown but talented vocalist, Marge Dodson.

A September Serenade

David pays homage to September and the changing of the seasons in this mix spanning 40 years of song. His commentary:

"Most of these songs you know, but I'm sure 'A Faded Summer Love,' 'The Trembling of a Leaf,' and 'A Lonely Park,' will be new to most, if not all, of you. Even the familiar may surprise you.

"I have included a gorgeous duet version of 'Autumn Leaves' by Chet Baker and Ruth Young that I'm sure will blow your mind. It follows Yves Montand's 1950 version of the original song, 'Les Feuilles Mortes.' And Ella Fitzgerald's first recording of 'Early Autumn,' is very much a byproduct of the bop era that spawned this glorious ballad. [By the way, I've included a different song of the same name, recorded by Claude Thornhill in 1947.]

"Few have sung 'September Song' as beautifully as Felicia Sanders, another of jazz's many breast cancer victims. Although there is little rock and roll here, the Mamas and the Papas' 'California Dreamin'' is a full-fledged Autumn standard. So is Neil Young's 'Harvest Moon.' 'See You in September' is my one concession to artful teeny-bopper music. The recordings used here is the original, first released by a Pittsburgh group, the Tempos, in 1959. Although the song became a hit for others, I think its first version remains the best.

"Autumn is, I'm afraid, a very sad season - one of loss and departure. While there are some 'happy' songs here like ''Tis Autumn' and 'Autumn In New York,' the majority are sad. Some songs are so glorious, I've supplied two versions. Hence you'll hear both Sidney Bechet's and Bing Crosby's versions of Victor Herbert's 'Indian Summer' as well as Richard Himber's and Billie Holiday's recordings of 'Autumn in New York.'" 

Mundell Lowe

David includes two LPs by Mundell Lowe: New Music by Alec Wilder and The Mundell Lowe Quintet. His discussion of the first named:

"Any album by guitarist Mundell Lowe is an important one. Add in the trumpet of Joe Wilder and the album is elevated to momentous. Cap off the recording with 12 compositions composed especially for Lowe by Alec Wilder and conducted by him for these sessions and it is an historic occasion. Liner notes by Frank Sinatra, an ardent advocate of Wilder's music who recorded a landmark album of his pieces in 1946, only add another jewel to this crowning achievement (see pdf included in album folder).

"What you have here are 12 wonderful compositions for wind octet recorded in June and July of 1956 and released on Riverside that same year. As far as I know, this marvelous record has never been issued on CD and is not available in any digital format."

Marge Dodson

Back in 2011 I wrote, "Although she made only three albums that I can trace, Marge Dodson was well regarded in her day, and for good reason - she was quite a fine singer. There is little information available on her today, but I did ascertain that she continued singing in clubs into the 1970s."

This LP, In the Still of the Night, was her first, done for Columbia in 1959.

See the original post for a link to a newly remastered version.

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!

A Buster Bonanza: Kay Thompson, Johnny Costa and Paul Whiteman

Because I've been away most of the past two weeks, I wanted to get some new material up on the blog quickly. So I've turned to several items that I've had in the queue for some time, but never posted for one reason or another. Here are some abbreviated thoughts about each.

Kay Thompson Singles

Kay Thompson was one of the strongest influences on 20th century vocal arrangements, especially in her work for vocal groups and in Hollywood musicals. She has appeared here before in a collection of Johnny Green melodies produced in the 1940s, when she and Green were both at M-G-M.

The current collection of 10 songs from singles begins with two early solo sides made in 1937 and attributed to "Kay Thompson and her Rhythm Singers." The backing singers include such well-known names as Bea Wain, Hugh Martin, Al Rinker and Ken Lane. The uncredited orchestra is the band of Jack Jenny, her husband at the time.

We next have a few rare items on the Viking label from 1941. Viking records were notoriously fragile - I think the surface consisted of a thin layer of shellac over cardboard. I have a copy of this single that is in awful shape, so I've used a somewhat better (but still imperfect) transfer found on Internet Archive.

Next are four 1947 selections with her proteges the Williams Brothers - including some repartee with Andy. The final item is her 1956 single on the Cadence label. It's notable because on one side she portrays the heroine of her popular children's books, Eloise, "the little girl who lived on the top floor of the Plaza Hotel in New York."

Johnny Costa - In My Own Quiet Way

Johnny Costa is best known for his many years as the music director of Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood. He was an immensely talented pianist, who has been featured here twice - for his Savoy LP Introducing Johnny Costa, and his Coral LP Piano Solos, both from 1955.


Those two records were showcases for Costa's Tatum-style improvisations. Today we have his piano with string backing, on a 1959 Dot LP called In My Own Quiet Way. The album does not say who wrote the arrangements, but it seems likely that Costa did so.

Amidst the lush sound of strings, Costa moderates his baroque improvisations, with the result ending up close to the easy listening genre. Still, it's enjoyable, and I recommend it to all who enjoy his other LPs. Please note that there are a few queasy patches where the pitch drops momentarily.

Paul Whiteman - Irving Berlin Songs

Paul Whiteman's legacy has been explored on this blog periodically, primarily via his many Gershwin recordings. In today's post he tackles the songs of Irving Berlin in the form of a album collecting eight sides recorded in 1939.

Six of the eight were made with an orchestra, the other two with "Paul Whiteman's Woodwinds." Vocalist Clark (here "Clarke") Dennis joins him for three of the songs; Joan Edwards for two of the others. Both are competent singers who were on the radio with Whiteman at the time, although Dennis can turn shrill on high notes, and Edwards is bland. Also appearing, uncredited, on some of the songs are the Modernaires. The great accordionist Joe Mooney is in the band on one of the dates.

These are unremarkable records, but well done and vividly recorded. They come via lossless needle-drops found on Internet Archive and restored by me.

Bonus: Blue Stars Singles with Blossom Dearie

Finally, a reup by request of three single sides that the great singer Blossom Dearie made with the Blue Stars of Paris in 1956. I originally prepared these as a tribute to Dearie upon her death a decade ago. She does not solo, but the three songs are nevertheless entertaining. They are "Broadway at Basin Street," "Hernando's Hideaway" (here called "Amour, Castagnettes et Tango") and "Jumpin' at the Woodside."

Please go to the original post for a link to this particular upload, now newly remastered.

Love Songs from Risë Stevens, Plus Reups

Risë Stevens was a popular mezzo-soprano at New York's Metropolitan Opera for many years, but she also did well crossing over into the popular repertory, particularly in the 1940s.

Previously on this blog I've uploaded her 10-inch LP of Victor Herbert melodies. Today we have a 78 set of familiar love songs, recorded for Columbia in 1946. The album was one of several she produced with the assistance of the Shulman brothers - Alan provided the charts and Sylvan conducted the orchestra.

Like Stevens, the Shulmans were active crossover artists. Cellist Alan and violinist Sylvan were one half of the Stuyvesant Quartet, one of the finest such ensembles then active. They both were members of Toscanini's NBC Symphony. Alan wrote both pop and classical compositions. And they were members of the New Friends of Rhythm, a jazz group that made a number of records for Victor.

The Stuyvesant Quartet in 1947 - Sylvan Shulman,
Bernard Robbins, Alan Shulman and Ralph Hersh

Stevens does well by these familiar tunes, ranging from Rodgers and Hart, Porter and Gershwin to the Mercer-Kern "Dearly Beloved," one of my favorite songs. She also includes Victor Herbert's "I'm Falling in Love with Someone," which she remade for the Herbert LP mentioned above.

Good sound on this one. In addition to the colorful Columbia ad below, the download includes a 1950 Life magazine article on the singer.

Please scroll past the ad for some reups.

Life magazine, 1946 (click to enlarge)

Reups

As usual, the links below take you to the original posts. All of these have been remastered and are now in tip-top shape - better than me, in fact.

Josef Marais - Songs of the South African Veld. If he is remembered at all today, folk singer Josef Marais is known for the records he made with Rosa de Miranda as Marais and Miranda. But before forming that duo he made captivating discs with his Bushveld Band. This was his first album, dating from 1939 and 1940. The original transfer was courtesy of reader JohnnyUSA.

Josef Marais - Songs of the Veld Vol. 2. This follow-up album collects the records Marais made in 1941. It includes his best-known song - at least among people of my generation - "Marching to Pretoria."

The Glasgow Orpheus Choir. My post on this group - dating from 10 years ago - was not what you call a rave. I now realize I was reacting to the overwhelming self-importance of the choir's director, Sir Hugh Roberton. The group itself is excellent and the program is enjoyable.

Eddie Fisher - Eddie Fisher Sings & A Girl, a Girl. Fisher is not one of my favorite singers, but he was skillful and popular. He also married (and divorced) the delightful Debbie Reynolds and sired the equally delightful Carrie Fisher. This post includes the 10-inch LP Eddie Fisher Sings and adds the EP A Girl, A Girl as a bonus.

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Kurtz, Sevitzky, Golovanov and Rodziński Conduct Music from Khachaturian's Gayane

I am of two minds about the music of Aram Khachaturian (1903-78), the composer of Armenian descent. I enjoy some of his music (the Violin Concerto in particular), but can't stand much of it (the symphonies, the piano concerto). His ballet suites are uneven - individual dances can be enchanting or ear-splitting.

Today I want to examine his best-known ballet, Gayane (also transliterated as Gayaneh and Gayne), presenting it in four versions.

• The first was the initial recording of music from the ballet, with Nikolai Golovanov conducting a radio orchestra. 
• The second (Efrem Kurtz and the New York Philharmonic) was the first Western recording, which helped to start the mania that formed around Gayane's most notorious and noisiest piece - the Sabre Dance - in the postwar era. 
• Another, recorded by Artur Rodziński during his short tenure as Chicago Symphony music director, was issued to capitalize on the Sabre Dance vogue. 
• The final recording, from Fabien Sevitzky and the Indianapolis Symphony, didn't come out until several years later.

Kurtz, Rodziński and Sevitzky were all talented conductors who have appeared on this blog a number of times. This is the first time I have featured Golovanov, who was the leading Russian conductor of the day.

Background of the Ballet

The young Khachaturian

Khachaturian initially wrote the Gayane music for a ballet called Happiness in 1939. That ballet soon morphed into a drama taking place on a collective farm, where the protagonist Gayane must chose between what is right and her feelings for her husband, who turns out to be a traitor. That original scenario has apparently changed a number of times since its first production, in 1942.

The composer extracted three suites from the ballet as early as 1943, although I believe their contents may have changed over time. This makes little difference for our discussion. As often happens with ballet music, conductors like to construct their own sets of excerpts - as is the case with the four represented here.

Recording History
 

Label from one of the Golovanov 78s

As far as I have been able to trace, the first recording of music from Gayane was in 1945, led by Golovanov, who conducted the All-Union Radio Orchestra in five selections from the ballet. I've been able to locate three of those selections for the download.

Efrem Kurtz took the Sabre Dance into the studio that same year, but Columbia chose not to issue it. Undaunted, Kurtz returned to the microphones in April 1946 to record what he called the Suite No. 1, although it differed from the composer's own conception. It started off with the Sabre Dance, which Khachaturian had slotted into the third suite. Columbia issued the Kurtz-led excerpts as 78 set M-664, right after Morton Gould's String Time, featured here recently.

First issue of the Kurtz recording

Columbia finally got around to issuing the Kurtz set in March 1947. The following month, the album showed up on Billboard's best-selling classical list for the first time. It kept appearing there periodically for many months. Columbia promoted the album with a giant photo of Kurtz in Life's October 13, 1947 issue.

Life magazine ad (click to enlarge)

Other record companies took note. In 1947, EMI paired Nikolai Malko with the Philharmonia, M-G-M brought in Macklin Marrow to record with a studio band, and, in November and December, RCA Victor had Artur Rodziński record four excerpts with the Chicago Symphony.

Cover of Rodzińsk's set

By March 1948, the Sabre Dance was becoming increasingly popular. On Billboard's March 12 classical singles chart, it held down the first four spots, in versions by Oscar Levant, Kurtz, Rodziński and Arthur Fiedler. Kurtz's set was the top-selling album.

Popularity of the Sabre Dance and More Recordings

Much of this popularity was fueled by the pop versions of the Sabre Dance that began appearing as 1947 turned into 1948. There were big band arrangements from Freddie Martin and Woody Herman, and Levant recorded his piano and orchestra transcription for Columbia. I cover all these records in a Sabre Dance round-up on my singles site, along with a vocal adaptation from the Andrews Sisters and a Yiddish version from Mickey Katz ("You're gonna plotz!").

UK cover for Kurtz's LP of his two suites

Over time, the Rodzinki faded into obscurity, but the Kurtz recording just kept on being reissued. In preparation for the imminent launch of LP, Columbia had him return to the studio in December 1947 to record a second suite. It then coupled the two suites on ML-4030 in its first flight of LP recordings in 1948. Eventually it was issued in many countries - the download shows the artwork used in France, South Africa and Argentina, along with the UK and various US covers. Amusingly, the Argentines took Columbia's cover for Mitropoulos' record of the Ippolitov-Ivanov Caucasian Sketches, threw out the typography and substituted Kurtz, Khachaturian and Gayane. Also amusingly, in 1955 US Columbia reissued the Kurtz LP with a cover that labeled it "Sabre Dance" in big type and "Gayne Suites" in small type, with no mention of the composer, conductor or orchestra, at least on the front.

The recordings have continued through the years. Khachaturian himself first set down a piano version in 1950, followed by orchestral suites with the Philharmonia in 1954. I have the latter LP, but chose instead the Sevitzky-Indianapolis version from 1953, which couples Gayane excerpts with a suite from the ballet Masquerade, which also has attained much popularity via its memorable Waltz.

Sevitzky LP cover

Comparing Kurtz, Rodziński, Golovanov and Sevitzky

Three of the four conductors here were Russians by birth - Golovanov, Kurtz and Sevitzky, but I am not sure that gives them more of a feel for the music than the Polish Rodziński. The composer drew upon Ukrainian, Georgian, and Russian music along with Armenian for Gayane - and even incorporated a Polish mazurka into Masquerade. The Sabre Dance may be the best-known piece, but there are several dances that are reminiscent of Tchaikovsky and especially Rimsky, and memorable in their own right.

The only selection chosen by all conductors was the Sabre Dance, as you might expect. Here are a few thoughts about how the four sets compare in the excerpts they share.

Dance of Ayshe

First a slight clarification: what Rodziński presents as the "Awakening and Dance of Ayshe" is actually just the Dance. Sevizky does include the Awakening. Kurtz does not.

Rodzinski and Kurtz are both very well played. Rodziński is the most strongly characterized, although the orchestral balances can be strange. Sevitzky's ensemble is not as polished as the mighty Chicago and New York orchestras, the finest of the day along with Boston. Apparently trying to provide a stronger profile for the music, Sevitzky takes a more symphonic approach than the others. But simpler is better - the music is repetitious, but very beautiful.

Dance of the Rose Maidens

This is another luscious piece that Rodziński does well; his reading is controlled and strongly profiled, but still lovely.

Kurtz takes a much faster tempo than Rodziński, which the New Yorkers sustain beautifully.

Unlike the others, Sevitzky includes the Introduction, which opens the first suite and is followed by the Dance. Here, some of the solo playing is not up to the standards of the other orchestras. While his basic tempo seems fine, but he can't resist a distracting tendency to change speeds and dynamic levels.

Lullaby

An extraordinarily lovely piece, the Lullaby was strongly influenced by Scheherazade, and is related to the Dance of Ayshe. It is beautifully done by Rodziński. Here Kurtz begins by underplaying the gorgeous melody, perhaps emphasizing the nocturnal quality of the lullaby.

Russian Dance

Only Golovanov and Kurtz include the Russian Dance in their selections. Kurtz's orchestra is much more refined than the Russian radio band.

Sabre Dance

In the Sabre Dance, Rodziński adopts a fast tempo, which extremely well executed by his musicians. It's not really a dance tempo, though. The Chicago horns are fantastic.

Rodziński, February 1947

My guess is that Rodziński wanted to outdo the Kurtz reading that was already in the market. Kurtz's tempo is not as fast as Rodziński's. He underplays the contrasting trio, but does comes roaring out of that section.

Sevitzky sets a good tempo, also underplays the trio, but his reading is generally nicely done.

Seated are Shostakovich, Khachaturian and Golovanov, 1945

Golovanov's recording is notable in that he has what sounds like a saxophone lead the trio section theme, while the others give the theme to the strings. The trio usually sounds too muted in comparison with the raucous main section; the pungent saxophone sound helps avoid this.

Conclusion

Overall, I prefer the virtuosic Rodziński recording, even though it includes only four of the dances. His conducting is always apt, and the orchestral playing is remarkable.

Among the pop recordings of the Sabre Dance discussed on my other blog, Mickey Katz is far and away my favorite, even though I don't understand Yiddish. His manic presentation is perfect for the music.

Note about sources: I transferred the Kurtz from the UK Columbia pressing (cover shown above). The Sevitzky transfer is from the original Capitol release. The Rodziński and the Golovanov selections are courtesy of needle drops found on Internet Archive. The sound ranges from boxy (Golovanov) to excellent (Rodziński).

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