Myra Hess

Here are some splendid recordings by Dame Myra Hess, as requested by David a while back.

She often has not received her due as an artist. Here is an admiring take by the critic Bryce Morrison: "Unlike Horowitz, to take an extreme example, she never sought to stun and bemuse, to leave her audience more exhausted than elated, or to create an impossibly wide chasm between artist and listener. Hers was a voice that ‘connected’, leaving her audience refreshed and, as she would have wished, conscious of the miracle of great music."

Myra Hess

Although these recordings are otherwise available, I did want to bring them to you because they show the artist's beautiful touch and sensitivity. Another reason is that it allows me to display an example of the cover designs by Atelier Cassandre.

Atelier Cassandre was the studio, I believe, of A.M. Cassandre, one of the greatest graphic artists of the 20th century. It's by no means clear that Cassandre himself designed this cover, or others in a very long series that I believe originated with Pathé in France, but whatever their provenance, they are all quietly superb.

While this is not as good an example as some, it nonetheless displays many of the series' characteristics. First, the extraordinarily elegant typography for "Myra Hess." Cassandre himself was a typographer, whose most notable contribution was Peignot. My favorite Cassandre font is Bifur, which is Art Deco incarnate. Another characteristic is the use on an inset photo or illustration. The result is simple and clean - and could hardly be more out of style. You can see a page of examples of these covers, concentrating on typography, here.

In focusing on the cover, I have not done justice to the music, which is very well done. My pressing, visually mint, has a bit of rustle in the Schumann, which I have minimized.

LINK (August 2025 remaster in ambient stereo)

Herb Jeffries, Part 2

We had a good reaction to our first post of Herb Jeffries, the ex-Ellington balladeer, so here's another.

Jeffries' signature tune was Flamingo, so it appears here as well on the previous Mercury album. Also Basin Street Blues, in the same arrangement with street cries, only here Herb does them, not a second voice. Those two tunes were cut with Les Brown. Leading the band on the other numbers is Dick Hazard.

This 1952 collection is just as good as the Mercury album, so if you liked that one, hope you'll enjoy this one as well.

REUP (May 2014)

The Johnson Family Singers

"Each Sunday morning at this time Columbia presents fifteen minutes of hymns and sacred songs with the Johnson Family Singers... a father, mother, and four children. Southern-born, steeped in the tradition of the Deep South, the Johnson Family Singers bring to the well-beloved, familiar songs of Christian people everywhere a sweetness and simplicity of interpretation."

This is the way the Johnson Family Singers were introduced during their radio heyday of the 40s. It gives a bit of the background of this group, captures their style - but the fact that it was being read on one of the major radio networks also conveys that the Johnson Family Singers were a commercial success.

Betty with Ma (Lydia) and Pa (Jesse) Johnson

This 1955 record - one of the group's earliest albums (it may be the first; I'm not sure) - also conveys some of that duality. The record is earnestly presented, but it's also contains several of the most well-worn pop gospel staples. The group is backed by studio musicians, who are quite good but also give the record a slick feel.

If this sounds critical, I don't mean it to be. The Johnson Family Singers are favorites of mine, and they spawned a very good pop singer, Betty Johnson (on the left in the cover photo), who was often seen on American television in the late 1950s and made several excellent albums.

Note: this album has now been remastered and augmented with four additional songs found on the 12-inch LP version. Addendum (September 2024): this LP is now available in ambient stereo via the link below.

LINK to Old Time Religion

Jean Françaix

Here are two delightful neoclassical pieces by Jean Françaix, recorded shortly after their composition. Unexpectedly - at least to me - both come from German orchestras.

The soloist in the Concertino for Piano is Françaix himself. The music manages to be memorable even though the whole piece lasts less than eight minutes. Telefunken recorded this with the Berlin Philharmonic in 1937. The conductor was Leo Borchard, who became the BPO music director for a few months after the second world war, until a sentry killed him by accident.

Jean Françaix

Eugen Jochum led the 1939 recording of the Serenade for 12 Instruments during his residence as Hamburg music director from 1934-49.

This record is one of a series that Capitol sourced from Telefunken circa 1950 - many of them recordings by the Concertgebouw Orchestra under Willem Mengelberg. All have this same drab cover style - particularly unsuited to Françaix's sparkling music.

Note (September 2023): this recording has now been remastered in ambient stereo.

Painting the Clouds with Sunshine

I think this one is fairly obscure - both the movie and the record.

Painting the Clouds with Sunshine was a 1951 vehicle for Gene Nelson and Virginia Mayo, as well as Dennis Morgan and Lucille Norman, who are the performers here.

We have encountered Lucille Norman before, opposite Gordon MacRae in Capitol's version of The Desert Song. Dennis Morgan was a sometimes lead in Hollywood comedies (Christmas in Connecticut ought to be showing up on your TV starting in about a month) and also in the occasional musical.

Norman, as noted before, was a very good singer, and was sometimes used by Hollywood studios as a vocal double. Morgan was an OK faux-Irish tenor who was himself dubbed by Allan Jones in the Great Ziegfeld, which was Morgan's first film.

The musical selections are a mish-mosh, but the George Greeley arrangements are bright and well-recorded, and this is worth hearing for all those who love their musicals.

Digression No. 11

Awhile back I was lamenting the fact that I couldn't share the score of Lovely to Look At. (Don't have it.) Well, my friend Mindy has come to the rescue and is offering it via the link below.

On behalf of all Kathryn Grayson and Howard Keel fans, thanks to Mindy for these great tunes!

LINK

First Recordings of Barber and Copland

Here we have two superb works in what I think are their first recordings, and distinctive ones at that.

Louis Kaufman was a stalwart of the film music orchestras and made quite a few records for budget labels. He takes a very personal and romantic view of the gorgeous Barber concerto - much different from the poker-faced approach that's normal in most music these days. He, the indefatigable conductor Walter Goehr, and their pseudonymous orchestra also do a great job with the finale, which usually sounds like an afterthought.

Aaron Copland makes an appearance to conduct his early Piano Concerto, which is from the Jazz Age and sounds it. It's great fun and very enjoyable in this performance by the talented Leo Smit, a friend of Copland and a superb interpreter of his piano music. The sound isn't too bad.

The Musical Masterpiece Society and its sibling labels made many interesting records. We've seen several already on this blog, and more are to come.