Chausson from Francescatti, Casadesus, Guilet Quartet

The Chausson Concert for Piano, Violin and String Quartet is one of the great masterpieces of French Romanticism. Today we have a sterling rendition from some of the finest French instrumentalists of a later generation.

In this latest addition to my series of recordings by Zino Francescatti, the violinist is joined by pianist Robert Casadesus and the Guilet Quartet (at the time, Daniel Guilet and Bernard Robbins, violins, Emanuel Vardi, viola, Benar Heifetz, cello).

Francescatti and Casadesus

The cover announces that the record was released to mark the 100th anniversary of Chausson's 1855 birth. The sessions actually occurred in December 1954 in Columbia's 30th Street Studio, New York.

Francescatti and Casadesus often performed together and are at one in this well-recorded performance.

Gershwin from Kostelanetz, Plus More from Weston

My last post presented two of the recordings that Columbia made to mark the release of the 1945 George Gershwin biopic, Rhapsody in Blue - the Rhapsody with Levant and Ormandy, and An American in Paris with the New York Philharmonic and Rodziński.

Cover of 78 set

The label's third contribution to the Gershwin fest was an album of song arrangements led by its pops maestro, Andre Kostelanetz. Like the concert pieces, Kosty's efforts enjoyed a long life in the catalogue - first the 78 set (left), then a 10-inch LP (cover above), and finally a 12-inch LP (cover at bottom of post). The first part of today's post consists of a transfer of the 10-inch LP, with the addition of the extra items from the 12-inch album.

Now why (you might ask) didn't I just record the 12-inch LP? Well, the name of this blog was a consideration, but the main reason was simply that the older LP had better sound. By the time the 12-incher came out in 1955, it was a ironclad item of faith among transfer engineers that everything sounded better with reverb. The mid-50s version of "More cowbell!!" was "More echo!!" So my download presents the unclouded sound of the 10-inch LP, then adds "I Got Rhythm," "Mine," "Bess, Oh Where's My Bess," and "Strike Up the Band," all taken from the 12-inch disc.

As always with Kostelanetz, the arrangements are busy but full of interest, if lacking in the emotional depth that is an integral element of many of Gershwin's songs.

I decided to add a bonus to the Kostelanetz post in the form of a 1953 10-inch LP from fellow mood music maven Paul Weston. As in my previous Kosty/Weston dual post, the records have one song in common (Gershwin's "Soon"), so you can compare and contrast the differing approaches of these fine arrangers.

Weston's LP is titled Whispers in the Dark after the 1937 Leo Robin-Frederick Hollander song from the film Artists and Models. It's one of the many wonderful songs from that era that are almost unknown today. As with the previous Weston album, the program is enjoyable and satisfying, and the sound is excellent - as it is on the Kostelanetz program.

Cover of 1955 LP

Gershwin from Levant, Kostelanetz and Rodziński

Times Square, 1945

By the time the Warner Bros. had released their romantic biopic of George Gershwin in 1945, the late composer had ascended to a crescendo of fame that endures to this day. His most notorious musical advocate, Oscar Levant, wasn't far behind.

Initially, Levant's popular renown came not from musical performance but from radio appearances. As Life magazine put it in a 1940 profile, "Until about a year and a half ago, Oscar Levant enjoyed a limited fame as a composer of one smash-hit tune, Lady Play Your Mandolin, and as an interpreter of George Gershwin's serious piano music." That was before his triumphant tenure as enfant terrible on radio's Information Please, and the publishing of his amusing first memoir, A Smattering of Ignorance.

So when it came time for Warners to cast their Gershwin movie, Levant was a natural choice not only to play himself, but to dub Robert Alda's Gershwin character at the piano.

1943 ad

Columbia Records had begun pairing Levant with Gershwin's music as early as 1941 with the Three Piano Preludes, and then in 1942 with the Concerto in F, backed by Andre Kostelanetz and the New York Philharmonic. The production of the film Rhapsody in Blue was the impetus for Levant to take on the composition of the same name, with backing by the Philadelphians and Ormandy in June 1945 sessions.

Earlier LP cover

Levant's efforts were only part of Columbia's tie-ins to the film, however, They engaged the New Yorkers and music director Artur Rodziński for An American in Paris, and brought in Kostelanetz for an album of Gershwin show tunes. These were released at the same time as the movie.

All are superb recordings that are more than worthy of their long life in the catalogue. I recently transferred them for my own amusement, and thought some of you might like to hear them as well. Today we have an excellent 1957 LP version of the concerto, Rhapsody and An American in Paris. Later on I'll present the Kostelanetz collection.

FYI - in 1949 Columbia had Levant in the studio to set down the Second Rhapsody and the Variations on "I Got Rhythm" with Morton Gould and a New York orchestra, issuing them on a 10-inch LP with Levant's classic set of the Preludes. I recently reuploaded my transfer of this superb album.

1957 cover

Gauk Conducts Miaskovsky

About a month ago I uploaded a recording of Symphony No. 21 by the 20th century Russian composer Nikolai Miaskovsky (latterly Myaskovsky), in a vivid performance by the Philadelphians under Eugene Ormandy.

I enjoyed that experience so much, I went off in search of more Miaskovsky in my library, and came up with this item - a version of his beautiful Symphony No. 17 as led by Alexander Gauk, the score's dedicatee, who conducted its first performance in 1937.

Nikolai Miaskovsky

This performance is with the USSR Radio Symphony, which I believe is the same ensemble which was variously known as the USSR State Symphony Orchestra, the USSR Large Radio and Television Orchestra, and perhaps other names. It is now the State Academic Symphony Orchestra "Evgeny Svetlanov" - also, so as to continue its legacy of confusion, the Russian State Symphony Orchestra. Gauk was its music director for several years.

Alexander Gauk

The recording here comes from relatively late in Gauk's career (he lived from 1893 to 1963). Sources disagree on the exact date, but it appears to be from the late 1950s. This pressing is on the MK (Mezhdunarodnaya Kniga, or "International Book") label, which the state agency was using for its export issues at the time. You can see the very Soviet-style logo on the cover, with a book slicing through the globe. I believe the rest of the hideous cover may have been the responsibility of the US importer Abbey.

Anyone who had ever heard a recording of this group during this period will know what to expect. Horns that sound like saxophones, blatant brass, etc. (along with much lovely playing, of course), all set in a distant, reverberant acoustic. I imagine this is what Miaskovsky expected, and it has its own distinct charm, at least to me. The mono sound is actually quite good, in its own way.

Gauk was not considered the best Soviet conductor of his time, and apparently even the composer could be indifferent to his skills (even considering the dedication). But this delightful performance of Miaskovsky's work is committed and convincing, providing a good case for the composer's music to be heard far more often than it is today.

Wallenstein Conducts Gershwin and Rodgers, Plus Reups

Robert Russell Bennett's suites from Oklahoma! and Porgy and Bess are still popular, and in the case of the Gershwin opera, his version is probably heard more often than the opera itself or Gershwin's own suite Catfish Row.

Bennett was closely associated with both composers, as the chosen orchestrator of many of their Broadway productions. He did the original orchestration of Oklahoma! and created the suite from Porgy following Gershwin's death, at the request of Fritz Reiner.

Robert Russell Bennett and Alfred Wallenstein

Bennett also collaborated with conductor Alfred Wallenstein, who led the 1935 premiere of a suite from Bennett's opera Maria Malibran. When Wallenstein became conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic in 1943, he quickly recorded the Bennett suites from Oklahoma! and Porgy. The recording of the Rodgers suite dates from August 1944. The Gershwin may have been even earlier, possibly soon after the 1942 revival of the opera.

Decca had rights to both scores, issuing both the original cast album of Oklahoma! in 1943 and selections from Porgy and Bess in 1940 and 1942 with Todd Duncan and Anne Brown of the original 1935 cast. The Decca moguls may have seen the Bennett suites as ways to get the music into even more hands - the suites were shorter and less expensive than the full shows. In the 1946 ad down below, Decca touts the Wallenstein album right along with the Oklahoma! cast album.

This 10-inch LP transfer dates from 1949. The performances are sympathetic and Decca's sound is adequate.

Reups

Conrad Salinger - A Lovely Afternoon (remastered, repitched). The eminent Hollywood orchestrator Conrad Salinger made just one LP.  This latest remaster is the best yet, fixing pitch issues on the original. Thanks to StealthMan for the transfer!

Sonny Burke - Mambo Jambo (remastered). Bandleader Sonny Burke's version of "Mambo Jambo" helped to popularize the mambo in the U.S. This 10-inch LP has his original recordings.

Miss Sadie Thompson (OST remastered). There's a bit of George Duning among the source material and Lester Lee-Ned Washington songs on this forgotten 10-inch soundtrack from a Rita Hayworth flick.

Danny Kaye - Decca DLP 5033 (remastered). The first LP from the comedian-singer-actor, and a very good one.

Larry Adler in Vaughan Williams and Benjamin. The great harmonica player in scores written for him by Ralph Vaughan Williams and Arthur Benjamin.

Copland - Red Pony, Thomson - Acadian Songs and Dances (Scherman). Early recordings of film music by Aaron Copland and Virgil Thomson.

Copland - Our Town, Thomson - The Plow That Broke the Plains (Scherman). More movie music from Copland and Thomson, again led by Thomas Scherman, on the M-G-M label.

1946 ad

Gould Conducts Gould, Direct to Disc

When I recently posted the first recording of Morton Gould's Spirituals for Orchestra, dating from 1946, longtime blog reader Centuri asked me if I had this rendition, conducted by the composer and recorded direct to disc in 1978.

I have owned a copy of the record almost since it came out, so I am pleased to be able to fill Centuri's request with this post - particularly so, because it also includes a definitive account of Gould's Foster Gallery. That composition, dating from 1939, makes mischievous use of Stephen Foster tunes in one of Gould's most interesting scores

Morton Gould at work

All this is presented in what was then considered state-of-the-art sound. For those not versed in the short-lived "direct-to-disc" fad, it involved cutting the master disc for the subsequent vinyl record right at the recording site, eliminating tape recording and the post-production procedures that dimmed the sonics of most vinyl records by removing them several generations from the original sound.

In this instance, the results are mixed. The performance itself is all one could wish, with Gould leading the London Philharmonic at Watford Town Hall, a frequent recording site for the London orchestras. But the sound is recessed, in a manner that was then coming into fashion - a taste that has persisted to this day. I find it frustrating to have the sound of a great orchestra clouded by the resonance of an empty hall. But many disagree, of course, and you may love it. I will say that the sonics are vivid, present and wide-ranging, so in that sense the direct-to-disc approach was a success. The engineer on site was Bert Whyte, who guided the well-regarded Everest classical recordings in the early years of stereo.

Although we may differ on the quality of the sound, perhaps we can agree that the cover is hideous. It either represents a microscopic view of the world's most elaborate stylus approaching the world's dirtiest record groove, or a cheap brooch suspended over a menacing purple valley. Either way, it doesn't seem to have much to do with Morton Gould and his music.

One final note on the sound: although direct to disc was a short-lived phenomenon, digital recording was not. Just before his Crystal Clear sessions, Gould had conducted the London Symphony at the same location for the first digital recordings ever made in England. These would eventually come out on the Varese Sarabande label as vinyl pressings - CDs were five years in the future.

Bert Whyte in the early 1950s

Easy Listening from Weston and Kostelanetz

Some people think all easy listening music sounds alike, but a wide variety of sounds falls within that category - everything from bachelor pad effusions to today's New Age noodling. Even early heroes of the genre such as Paul Weston and Andre Kostelanetz display differing approaches to the same music.

Today's post of 10-inch LPs by the two maestri is evidence, including as it does contrasting versions of the poignant Noël Coward song "I'll Follow My Secret Heart."

Weston betrays his big-band background by arranging the song for sections of the orchestra. Here and throughout the program, he tends to deploy the strings as he would a saxophone choir, while giving the piano part to the harp, to choose a perhaps oversimplified example.

With Kostelanetz, there is no lack of strings and harp, but you may be conscious of more counter-melodies in the texture and far more rubato and dynamic contrasts in the musical line.

I don't mean to imply that I prefer Kostelanetz - sometimes a simpler approach is better, and Weston's approach conveys the emotion that Coward was evoking more effectively than his counterpart.

Paul Weston

In truth, there is much to enjoy in both versions, and throughout both LPs, and the sound throughout is excellent. Kostelanetz's disc dates from 1950, and Weston's from 1952. Kosty (or Columbia) calls his Eight All-Time Hits, which is true for seven of the numbers. But the Victor Young tune, "Beautiful Love," while it has been recorded a number of times, is not a standard. Weston's album is titled Melodies for Sweethearts, which doesn't convey that it comprises waltz tunes.

I might mention that my friend Lee of the blog "Music You (Possibly) Won't Hear Anyplace Else" has featured a number of excellent Kostelanetz discs in the recent past. I hope he won't think I am trying to crowd him off the Kosty korner!

1943 Life magazine ad