The eminent American harpsichordist Sylvia Marlow (1908-1981) is heard today in two works dedicated to her by the composer Vittorio Rieti (1898-1994).
In the Concerto for Harpsichord, the orchestra is conducted by Samuel Baron, better known as a flutist, although he conducted throughout his career. Baron also takes part in the Partita for Flute, Oboe, String Quartet and Harpsichord, conducted by Marlowe from the keyboard.
Vittorio Rieti
These are delightful works in a neoclassical vein from the pen of Rieti, an Italian who was resident in the US after 1940. Despite the scowling portrait of the composer at left, Rieti's music is known for its charm. He composed two ballet scores for Serge Diaghilev during the 1920s, both choreographed by George Balanchine. The composer and choreographer continued to work together after both moved to America.
Marlowe was particularly fond of the Partita, which she commissioned and recorded three times. The Harpsichord Music Society, which she founded, commissioned the concerto.
Known both for her mastery of the baroque repertoire and her dedication to contemporary composers, Marlowe was one of the key figures in bringing renewed attention to the harpsichord during the mid-20th century.
Sylvia Marlowe
The performances here are everything you might wish, and the upfront sound is what American Decca was providing on disc during the 1960s. (These date from June 1966.) If anything, though, Marlowe's instrument is buried in the mix - in contrast to many other harpsichord records of the day, where the instrument is unrealistically loud. One minor drawback to the sound is the presence of some rustle in the right channel.
This transfer was in response to a request on another forum.
I've featured the Blackwood Brothers Quartet a few times on this blog and its companion, but have never offered a full album by the group. So here is the group's first LP, a 10-incher from 1952. And as a bonus, I have included the four songs added in 1956 to fill out a 12-inch version of the same album.
The Blackwoods were and are arguably the most important and popular southern gospel group of all time, sharing that status with the Statesmen and Hovie Lister.
Before and for some time after signing an RCA Victor contract, the Blackwoods put out records on their own label, a few of which you can find in the post on my singles blog. But greater prestige and better distribution were to be had with the RCA affiliation.
The eight songs on the 10-inch LP were recorded by the personnel on the cover above: (top) bass Bill Lyles and tenor Dan Huskey, (middle) lead James Blackwood and baritone R.W. Blackwood, and (bottom) pianist Jack Marshall. These date from January and May 1952.
The songs added to the 12-inch LP are "The Love of God" and "Everywhere He Went" from January 1952, and "Oh, What a Time" and "The Hand of God" from October 1952. On the latter two songs, tenor Bill Shaw replaced Dan Huskey. (This group is depicted at right, in an image from now-vanished Grand Old Gospel Reunion site.)
That group, which would remain intact for a few years, was widely admired. The Southern Gospel History site terms them, "Four outstanding, versatile vocalists accompanied by arguably the finest quartet pianist of the day. This was as close to a perfect quartet as the world of gospel music had experienced thus far."
In June 1954, the group won Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts competition, but just two weeks later a plane crash claimed the lives of R.W. Blackwood and Bill Lyles. After the tragedy, James Blackwood's first impulse was to disband, but he ultimately reformed the group with Cecil Blackwood replacing his brother R.W., and J.D. Sumner replacing Bill Lyles. This version of the quartet would remain together for 11 years, achieving tremendous success. I believe the 12-inch LP cover below depicts that quartet, although the earlier configurations are heard on the record.
Previously on this site, we have heard from the eminent choral conductor Robert Shaw leading Bach cantatas with Cleveland Orchestra members and presumably vocal forces from that ensemble's choir.
Today we find him guiding his namesake chorale in an early RCA Victor LP, recorded in 1950, just two years after he founded the group. The repertoire is nostalgic songs from long ago, which had attained newfound popularity in the postwar era. (See, for example, this collection from Jo Stafford and Gordon MacRae, also from 1950 and also including "Sweet and Low" and "In the Gloaming.")
The young Robert Shaw
The chorale's performances are predictably secure and sensitive. A few words about the soloists might be helpful.
Soprano Shirlee Emmons joined the chorale on its founding. She later was widely cast by regional opera companies, then became a noted voice teacher and author, including a book on Lauritz Melchior.
Baritone Raymond Keast sang for Shaw as far back as the latter's days with Fred Waring. Keast was in the Broadway casts of Allegro and Song of Norway in the 1940s. He also appeared on the 1955 RCA recording of La Forza del Destino (which included Shaw Chorale).
The accompanist is Raymond Viola. I haven't found much information on him, other than he was one of the artists on a 1952 RCA recording of the Bartok Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion.
RCA later turned this 10-inch record into a 12-incher by adding the six Schubert songs that the chorale's male voices had recorded in 1949. The sound on this version is quite good.
This is a follow-up to my post of last November presenting a Columbia LP of ballet music conducted by Efrem Kurtz. That post contains an introduction to the career of this talented conductor who made many records with the New York Philharmonic and the Philharmonic Orchestra.
Efrem Kurtz
I mentioned then that Kurtz was the music director of the Houston Symphony from 1948-54, but had recorded only a few items with that ensemble. Today we are concerned with his Houston recording of two pieces of French ballet music, Erik Satie's Parade (Realistic Ballet) and a suite from Georges Auric's Les Matelots ballet. The sessions were held in Houston's City Auditorium in December 14, 1949. It was a busy day for Kurtz and his charges - all their Columbia recordings were made during that session, including suites from Kiss Me, Kate and South Pacific, plus Fauré's Pavane, used as a filler on the Kiss Me, Kate 78 set.
Auric by George Hoyningen-Huene; Satie by Man Ray
Kurtz was particularly well suited to conducting the Satie and Auric ballets. Before coming to the US, he had been the conductor of the Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo for a decade. That was the successor troupe to Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, which premiered those works. Kurtz worked directly with Léonide Massine, who choreographed both ballets.
Satie and Auric were connected through an association with what became known as "Les Six." In 1917, Satie had assembled a group of younger composers he dubbed "Les nouveaux jeunes," including Auric. That group later became the basis of Les Six, with Jean Cocteau as guiding light rather than Satie.
This 10-inch LP is well played and recorded, and the music is delightful.
Here by request is another tribute to the immensely gifted composer-arranger-pianist Michel Legrand, who died a few days ago. It is his 1959 LP Scarlet Ribbons - Michel Legrand's Folksongs for Orchestra, so called even though "Scarlet Ribbons" isn't a folk song at all.
The liner notes tell us that Legrand wanted to include the song even though it was of recent (1949) vintage because of its "charming folk flavor." The Legrand LP dates from mid-1959, just before "Scarlet Ribbons" became a big hit in the version by The Browns. It had previously been recorded by Jo Stafford and Harry Belafonte.
Legrand
Legrand's album is a remarkable example of his gift for orchestration, often using incongruous elements to create something new and unexpected. His version of "Red River Valley" could not be farther from the North Dakota prairies. The opening orchestral figure leads you to think that he is launching into "The Continental"! And his almost cinematic remake of "Goodnight, Irene" is a long way from Lead Belly.
This is what made his work so fascinating, of course. He was a true master of his craft.
FYI - my singles blog has an obscure EP from 1957 with Legrand's arrangements of Angelo Francesco Lavagnino's music for the Italian documentary Lost Continent. It's a pleasing bit of exotica, which was in fashion at the time.
Today I want to look at the early career of Carol Bruce, a talented singer and actor who has appeared on this blog a few times before.
Born in 1919, she first gained notice as a teenage vocalist with Larry Clinton's band. Fortunately, YouTube has a good quality 1938 clip of her with Clinton in "Stop and Reconsider. Bruce had considerable presence even at that early age.
Nineteen-forty was a big year for the young performer. She made her Broadway debut in the Irving Berlin musical Louisiana Purchase, where she made a big splash with her number "The Lord Done Fixed Up My Soul."
Still from Louisiana Purchase, Bruce at center
Life Magazine was so impressed that it devoted two photo spreads to her that year - in addition to a separate article about Louisiana Purchase.
Decca records signed the young vocalist later that year, pairing her with arranger Harry Sosnik. Among her first records were covers of two English hits: "Wish Me Luck as You Wave Me Goodbye," associated with Gracie Fields, and "A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square," a Vera Lynn specialty. Bruce copes well with Sosnik's leaden two-beat arrangements.
For her next assignment, Decca changed tack by assigning Bruce eight Latin-flavored numbers, directed by one of the label's top talents, Victor Young. Decca then marketed the set as the Carol Bruce Souvenir Album that is the basis of today's post. (Note: the Discography of American Historical Recordings claims that Sosnik directed these sides. However, the Decca album and labels credit them to Young, and the arrangements sound nothing like Sosnik's earlier charts for Bruce.)
Bruce does well with this material, although she had not yet developed the abundant personality that shines through in her later recordings, such as her 1958 Tops LP, which first appeared here in 2011 and which I have newly remastered.
Today's download includes several bonuses, including the Decca recordings of "Wish Me Luck as You Wave Me Goodbye" and "A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square," as well as one of Life Magazine's features on the singer and two songs from Louisiana Purchase. While there was no cast album for the musical, Bruce
recorded the title song and "The Lord Done Fixed Up My Soul" for the
small Schirmer label. Perhaps fittingly, Bruce's rendition of her big
number is reminiscent of the great New Orleans singer Connie Boswell. (I
haven't been able to find out of Schirmer Records was associated with
the publishing company of the same name. However, the songs from Louisiana Purchase were published by Berlin's own company, not Schirmer.)
In 1941, Paramount Pictures bought Louisiana Purchase as a vehicle for its big star Bob Hope, who took over the William Gaxton role. Victor Moore, Vera Zorina and Irène Bordoni repeated their stage roles. Paramount replaced Bruce with another singing actor, Dona Drake, but "The Lord Done Fixed Up My Soul" was only heard in instrumental form.
Meanwhile, Bruce did make it to Hollywood that same year, via a three-film contract with Universal Studios. She sang two songs in This Woman Is Mine, released in August, and another two in Keep 'Em Flying, a November release featuring the insufferable Abbott & Costello. Bruce's big number in the latter film was "You Don't Know What Love Is," a superb Don Raye-Gene de Paul composition that has since become a standard. Universal dropped the song from Keep 'Em Flying, but then included it in Bruce's third and final film for the studio, Behind the Eight Ball, where she was saddled with the nitwit Ritz Brothers.
Although Universal cut "You Don't Know What Love Is" from Keep 'Em Flying, it did put out a promotional record of Bruce's rendition, backed with a number from her co-star, Martha Raye, also dropped from the production. (At least the studio was consistent.) You can find that record on my companion blog.
As Mama Carlson
Bruce eventually had a long career in Hollywood, and today is far better known as an actor than a singer. She is well remembered as "Mama Carlson" in the American television show WKRP in Cincinnati (although not by me - I never watched the show).
Most of today's selections were found during my recent descent into the bottomless pit of Internet Archive, but all have been remastered and are in good to excellent sound.
Three conductors are particularly associated with the music of Carl Nielsen - Erik Tuxen, Thomas Jensen and Launy Grøndahl. Today we explore the legacy of Grøndahl, in the form of Nielsen's Fourth Symphony, "The Inextinguishable."
Launy Grøndahl
Grøndahl was the permanent conductor of the Danish National Orchestra (also known as the Danish National Radio Orchestra, among other names) from 1925-56.
I believe this convincing performance was the first recording of the work, which is probably Nielsen's most performed symphony, along with the 5th. It dates from August 1951. The sound is excellent. My transfer comes from a Danish pressing made for export under the Odeon label.
The transfer was made as the result of a request on another site, but I thought some readers here might enjoy it as well.
'Clouds' and 'Lost in a Fog'
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This is a companion piece to a post on the main blog in which I discuss Les
Brown's 1952 LP *Musical Weather Vane*, along with two other Brown albums.
Th...
1 month ago
About This Blog
Many blogs feature music from old LPs; usually rips from CD reissues. Very few (like, none) concentrate on the music from the 10-inch LPs that were fairly common from the first several years of the long-playing record, roughly 1948-57. This blog does. We also make room here for other LPs and even 78 and 45 singles from the pre-stereo era.
The title of the blog is an homage to an R&B record of the same name by Bullmoose Jackson and His Buffalo Bearcats. (Not sure why a moose would be fronting a band of bearcats, nor why they would be from Buffalo when Jackson was from Cleveland.) The Moose was selling double-entendre blues; we are promoting primarily pop music and classics, although all genres are welcome here!
