The Music of Daniel-Lesur

Continuing a series of recordings of French music by the radio orchestras of that country, today we have three works by Daniel-Lesur (1908-2002), one of the members of the La jeune France group.

Sources differ about his full name - was it Jean-Yves Daniel Lesur or Daniel Jean-Yves Lesur? - but he went by the name "Daniel-Lesur" throughout his career.

La jeune France: Olivier Messiaen, Yves Baudrier, André Jolivet and Daniel-Lesur

The composers Olivier Messiaen, André Jolivet, Yves Baudrier and Daniel-Lesur founded La jeune France in 1936, to promote less abstract forms of music than were then the fashion. The group has been called neo-impressionistic, but their styles differ from one another. For example, Messiaen, Daniel-Lesur's lifelong friend and the best-known member of the group, was a mystic and developed his own idiosyncratic methods that are much different from his friend's approach.

In his book French Music Today, the musicologist Claude Rostand described Daniel-Lesur as "a sincere musician, fond of clarity, hostile to facile exterior effects, to the excesses of the advance guard as well as to stilted formulae."

Writing in 1973, soon after this LP was released, the critic Royal S. Brown noted, "Daniel-Lesur. although less ambitious than Jolivet and Messiaen, found a highly personal idiom marked by strong, insistent rhythms (frequently derived from dance patterns) and an almost English pastoral quality lacking in the style of the other Jeune France composers."

These characteristics were indeed what you will hear on this record, which encompasses Daniel-Lesur's Symphonie de Danses, Sérénade pour orchestre à cordes and Pastorale.

Edouard Lindenberg

The performers are the Orchestre de Chambre de l'ORTF as led by Edouard Lindenberg (1908-73), a Romanian conductor resident in Paris after 1950. Lindenberg, little known in this country (the US), made quite a few recordings for European labels. He died not long after this LP was issued.

This recording has not be re-released in any form, to my knowledge, although the music has been recorded by other artists. The composer remains relatively neglected - there seems to be only one CD of his music currently available.

Daniel-Lesur

Daniel-Lesur also had a distinguished career as an organist (at Ste. Clotilde and the Benedictine Abbey of Paris), teacher, and arts administrator (head of the Schola Cantorum and the Opéra National de Paris).

This transfer was requested by a reader. My pressing was relatively clean except for one unfixable fault. To cover that, I edited in a short section of a live performance led by Louis de Froment, suitably matched to the Lindenberg recording. The overall sound is very good.

The download includes Royal Brown's lengthy survey of 20th century French music - dated, certainly, but still useful.

LINK

'Inside Sauter-Finegan' (and S-F Reups)

The Sauter-Finegan Orchestra, circa 1954. Eddie Sauter is at the microphone.
The singers may be Anita Darian and Andy Roberts.

Fourteen years ago I posted four Sauter-Finegan Orchestra LPs and stopped there, although I have several others. Today we have a much delayed restart of the series - along with newly remastered versions of the S-F albums that have appeared here before.

Way back when, I offered the first and second S-F albums, recorded in 1952-53; the fourth LP, from 1953-54; and the Rolf Liebermann Concerto for Jazz Band and Orchestra, from late 1954. More about them below, along with a link to a collection of non-LP recordings.

But first, the new item.

Inside Sauter-Finegan

Today's post centers on the third S-F LP, Inside Sauter-Finegan, recorded in 1954. We might as well start the discussion with the first thing you see - the spectacular Jim Flora cover above, with caricatures of Bill Finegan and Eddie Sauter, who appear to have ingested a few musical instruments for lunch.

The arrangers were actually sober looking fellows such as you might have encountered at a local church service. They just happened to be two of the finest musicians of the day, whose music indeed sounded more like the Flora cover than the Metronome cover below.

Eddie Sauter and Bill Finegan

Sauter and Finegan themselves provided extensive liner notes printed on three sides of the gatefold sleeve. For some reason known only to the producer, the notes on the pieces do not follow the order they appear on the LP. (Also, the type layout on the first page is all fouled up.) Enough griping; there is much good information here.

The title Inside Sauter-Finegan is designed to denote that the LP displays the individual talents of the musicians. Let me spotlight the soloists first; then I'll run down the rest of the numbers.

Nick Travis

The excellent trumpet player Nick Travis is featured on the Ralph Freed-Burton Lane perennial "How About You?", of Garland-Rooney fame, here called "How About Choo" for some reason. Travis is accompanied by a small ensemble selected from the band.

Bobby Nichols

Another trumpeter, Bobby Nichols, is heard in Bill Finegan's nocturne, "New York ... 4 A.M." The bandleaders commented, "Bobby has bushy red hair and looks like what most people think a trumpeter should look like." I dunno, he doesn't look a thing like Louis Armstrong or Dizzy Gillespie. Maybe Red Rodney.

Sonny Russo

Arthur Johnston and Johnny Burke didn't write "Pennies from Heaven" for Sonny Russo (it was for Bing in the film of the same name), but the trombonist does his best to make it his own on this recording, particularly in the spectacular cadenza.

Joe Venuto

Joe Venuto was the xylophone (I believe) soloist in "When Two Trees Fall in Love," which Sauter wrote for him. The bandleaders tagged Joe as a young man with "unlimited potential." He became a long-time studio percussionist. (There's a nice tribute to him here.)

Andy Roberts

Andy Roberts is the vocalist in Willard Robison's second-greatest hit, "Old Folks," written with Dedette Lee Hill. Roberts had excellent diction and a lovely voice, but may have been a touch too urbane for Robison's small-town ethos.

Also on this excellent LP are:

• Sousa's "The Thunderer," called "The 'Thundisbreak'" here, which adapted surprisingly well to the Sauter-Finegan manner.

• Bill Finegan called his "Finegan's Wake" a "mock wake." He writes, "This piece frowns - but if you look (or listen) closely you will see the twinkling eye beneath the frown." His words rearrange the features of the face, but you get the idea.

• "Four Horsemen" is a feature for Bobby Nichols, Nick Travis and lead trumpet Al Maiorca, along with Harvey Estrin on clarinet.

• The other vocalist on the record is Sally Sweetland, whom we recently featured here. Included in that post was "Autumn Leaves" from this LP, but I somehow missed her skillful vocalese contribution to "10,000 B.C.," which as Sauter himself notes, is at base stereotypical "Chinese" music.

• Finally, "September's Sorrow" is Sauter's attempt to "capture the forlorn quality of pleasure irretrievably lost."

LINK to Inside Sauter-Finegan

Reup - New Directions in Music

My original post combined the 10-inch version of the album with the four songs that were later added to make a 12-inch version.

The article includes a brief early history of the band. I wrote, "Although the popularity of the band didn't last, it did start off life with a promising record called 'Doodletown Fifers,' an arrangement of a Civil War tune that became the band's theme. This LP contains that song along with other pieces that are among Sauter-Finegan's best-remembered numbers - 'Moonlight on the Ganges,' 'April in Paris,' a fine arrangement of 'Azure-Te,' and their version of the Troika from Prokofiev's Lieutenant Kije Suite, called 'Midnight Sleighride' here."

A newly remastered version of the LP in ambient stereo can be found via the original post here.

Reup - The Sound of the Sauter-Finegan Orchestra

The band's second album was apparently slated to be another 10-incher, but was expanded to the 12-inch format late in the process by adding the bandleaders' "Extended Play Suite," which had appeared on an EP. To complete my post, old friend Ernie contributed the "Extended Play Suite, Vol. II," which did not appear on the album. 

From the original 2010 post: "The Sound of S-F, intended to appeal to the nascent hi-fi cult, was not designed to be a cohesive record. It offers up a potpourri of vocals, attempts to recreate the 'Doodletown Fifers' success, and even a rhythm and blues cover."

Notable are the three vocals by the great Joe Mooney, including the semi-hit "Nina Never Knew."

This LP also is newly redone in ambient stereo. The original post (and link) are here.

Reup - Concert Jazz

The Concert Jazz LP contains features for Joe Venuto, Nick Travis, Sally Sweetland and Andy Roberts (an elaborate take on "John Henry" that displays his acting ability). Also, Finegan riffs on Gershwin's Concerto in F. Vocalist Anita Darian is featured in the lengthy "Pictures from Sauter-Finegan Land," which has a narration by Roberts. It's a period piece that starts off "Busy, busy, busy highways," goes into generic bustling-city music, and proceeds from there to Vermont and other places.

You'll note that there is another Jim Flora cover on this album.

For some reason I wrote very little about Concert Jazz when I first offered it, so there's no sense sending you back to the original 2015 post. You can find the newly remastered version of the LP via the link below.

LINK to Concert Jazz

Reup - Liebermann - Concerto for Jazz Band and Orchestra

In late 1954, Sauter-Finegan got together with the formidable Fritz Reiner and the Chicago Symphony for a recording of Rolf Liebermann's Concerto for Jazz Band and Orchestra. I posted the results as long ago as 2010, but have now reworked the sound in ambient stereo. 

Actually both the concerto and its disk mate, Richard Strauss' Don Juan, were recorded in stereo but not released as such until later. Back in 2010, a reader provided a link to the stereo tape version of the Liebermann (which still works), and I've now re-recorded the Don Juan from its first stereo release on LP, dating from 1968.

More information and the link can be found via the original post here.

Sauter-Finegan Obscurities

Earlier this year I collected nine non-LP selections from the Sauter-Finegan band for my other blog under the name "Sauter-Finegan Obscurities."

The selections are "Pale Moon" (with vocalese by Florence Fogelson), "Coco Bongo," "'O' (Oh!)," "Of Thee I Sing," "Joey's Theme," "Science Fiction," "Honey Babe," "Don't Be Angry" and "I Am a Camera."

Details on these pieces and the link can be found in the original post.

The LPs are all from my collection; the singles were cleaned up from Internet Archive.

Ahronovich Conducts Tchaikovsky's Manfred

The Russian-Israeli conductor Yuri Ahronovitch (1932-2002) has appeared here several times and has achieved a certain level of popularity among listeners. I had a request for more from him, so here is his 1977 recording of Tchaikovsky's Manfred. 

Yuri Ahronovitch

This is the first time we have had a chance to hear the conductor at his most subjective. His Nielsen Third Symphony was powerful but not eccentric; the same could be said of Taneyev's Fourth Symphony. And in the Taneyev Concert Suite he was the well-mannered accompanist to a tidy and not in the least temperamental soloist.

Manfred is extravagantly Romantic music; Ahronovitch was an extravagant conductor, so it's a combination that should have worked out. Whether it did or not was a matter of some debate.

Lord Byron

Tchaikovsky called Manfred a "Symphony in Four Scenes," but it could also be considered four interlinked symphonic poems. The composer, at the behest of Balakirev, patterned it after Berlioz's Harold in Italy. Both were inspired by works of Lord Byron. The French composer explained Harold's solo part as follows: "I wanted to make the viola a kind of melancholy dreamer in the manner of Byron's Childe-Harold." Manfred has no soloist, but nonetheless concerns the troubles of another melancholy Byronic hero.

In both works, Lord Byron's heroes mirrored his own travails. The noble poet had evacuated from England to the Alps after scandals that involved a supposed affair with his half-sister. His hero Manfred, similarly, has an unspecified but forbidden relationship with with his late love, Astarte. He is tortured by this, resorts to the supernatural to help him forget, but remains bereft.

Eventually he chooses death, famously telling an Abbot, "Old man! 'tis not so difficult to die."

Pyotr Tchaikovsky

In conducting Manfred, Ahronovitch's tempos struck some reviewers as excessively slow. Edward Greenfield in The Gramophone: "Not since the days of Mengelberg at his most wilful can I remember a Tchaikovsky performance which indulged so freely in rhythmic caprice ... I could hardly believe my ears at Ahronovitch’s treatment of the lovely Andante theme for muted strings at bar 171 in the first movement representing Astarte. I thought that the first phrase of five quavers and a dotted minim would never end, and after that the following pause was equally exaggerated. No doubt that extreme ritenuto style can on occasion in a live performance give a sense of spontaneous expressiveness, but here it sounds mannered to a degree, with Tchaikovsky’s free-sung phrases getting glued up."

But others were convinced by the performance. Here's Ivan March two months later, reviewing the tape edition in the same magazine: "EG [Edward Greenfield] and I are generally at one on Tchaikovsky interpretations but I enjoyed Ahronovitch’s account of Manfred more than he. It is very much a personal reading, certainly, but in this Byronic work one can accept a little licence; for instance I found Ahronovitch’s treatment of the tender second subject of the first movement (on muted strings) rather moving and his extreme ritenuto style effective in its way. Certainly this performance has transferred well to tape with good detail and an impressive weight and richness in the bass."

Whatever the merits of the performance, there are many memorable moments in Tchaikovsky's score. For me, Ahronovitch is at his best in the dramatic fourth movement. 

The record was transferred from a mint copy in my collection with dramatic if none-too-subtle late-analogue sound. This is a notably well-filled LP; the second side is 36 minutes long!

The link below is for the 16-bit, 44.1 kHz version. A 24-bit, 96 kHz transfer is available on request.

LINK

The Complete Lee Wiley on Columbia, Plus Bonuses

Following her series of songbooks for small labels in the 1940s, Lee Wiley moved on to a major company, Columbia, for which she recorded three LPs in 1950 and 1951.

Today's post brings together all those albums, and adds a few bonus items as well.

Specifically, we have:

• Night in Manhattan - Wiley's first Columbia LP, from 1950
• Lee Wiley Sings Irving Berlin - A return to the songbook format, from 1951
• Lee Wiley Sings Vincent Youmans - Recorded at about the same time as the Berlin album
• Treasury Department Guest Star - The songs from a program promoting savings bonds, circa 1951
• Maggy Fisher's Piano Playhouse - A 1950 LP by Wiley's piano accompanists for these LPs - Cy Walter, Stan Freeman and Joe Bushkin

All the Wiley recordings are from my collection. The piano disc was remastered from Internet Archive. There are separate links at the end of each section below.

Previously, Lee has been featured here in the music of Cole Porter, Harold Arlen, George Gershwin and Rodgers and Hart.

Night in Manhattan

For Wiley's first Columbia LP, she was co-starred with trumpeter Bobby Hackett, with pianist Joe Bushkin (and "His Swinging Strings") in smaller type. Both had often appeared with Lee, so this was a promising line-up.

The addition of strings was becoming a popular way to add some "class" to the proceedings. It became fashionable in jazz following Charlie Parker's 1950 LP. Previously, Sinatra often had used strings in his recordings, as had many other singers and big band leaders.

Perhaps it is the surroundings, but both Bushkin and Hackett sound more inhibited than they had in earlier recordings with Wiley, and the song treatments lack variety without the additional soloists that could be heard in the previous songbooks.

Bobby Hackett

That aside, the album is a complete success vocally. Lee, who is in great form, chose four songs by her mentor, bandleader Victor Young - "Any Time, Any Day, Anywhere" (which Wiley co-wrote), the fabulous "Street of Dreams," "A Ghost of a Chance" and the lesser-known "A Woman's Intuition," with an awkward lyric by the usually reliable Ned Washington.

Joe Bushkin

Also on the program was Bushkin's "Oh! Look at Me Now," with a special set of lyrics by Johnny DeVries. As vocal expert Will Friedwald noted, "the original hero sings of his desire to fall in love, the new heroine sings of her avaricious desire for checks and jewelry."

The other songs are two Wiley often recorded - "Sugar" and "Manhattan" - and the Gershwins' "I've Got a Crush on You," which she had revived for her 1939 songbook. Friedwald thinks the new version was influenced by Frank Sinatra's 1947 recording, which also features Hackett and perhaps not coincidentally Mitch Miller (on oboe). Mitch produced Lee's Columbia records.

Alternative 10-inch cover; 12-inch cover 

Night in Manhattan was originally a 10-inch LP. Columbia later issued it in 12-inch format, adding two songs each from Lee's Berlin and Youmans collections, which are discussed below.

LINK to Night in Manhattan

Lee Wiley Sings Irving Berlin

For her 1951 LPs, Columbia (probably in the form of Mitch Miller) teamed Wiley with the regular two-piano team of Cy Walter and Stan Freeman, who had appeared on radio as a duo, made a 1950 LP for M-G-M (see below) and would record separately and together for Columbia. 

Both were interesting characters. Walter was a fixture on the New York club scene, while Freeman is best known for playing the harpsichord on two hits - Rosemary Clooney's "Come On-a My House" and Percy Faith's "Delicado." (Stan also was a comedian.)

Cy Walter and Stan Freeman looking glum in the radio studio

Friedwald speculates that this teaming was an attempt to appeal to cabaret habitues, as was Wiley's sophisticated appearance on the LP cover.

Whether the accompaniment works or not is a matter of some dispute. There's no question that Lee sings beautifully. Walter and Freeman mesh quite well. But they also can sound as if they are in a different world from the vocalist, like they are in a separate acoustic. And there is a lack of variety in the sound, even more so than on Night in Manhattan.

Wiley complained to her friend Gus Kuhlman that she was not too happy with the records, and others agree. I'm not among them. Taken by themselves, they are a joy to hear, not least because they include some seldom-heard songs.

The Berlin LP starts off with one of the composer's greatest songs, "How Deep Is the Ocean?" from 1932. (I am reminded here of Sinatra's 1960 recording with a famous bass trombone solo - probably by George Roberts.)

The unfamiliar "Some Sunny Day" comes from 1922, and is one of the many, many Mammy-Alabamy numbers of the time. This one does have the distinction of including a talking hen, which you won't find in many songs. While the lyrics aren't great, the tune itself is catchy.

Irving Berlin

"I Got Lost in His Arms" is from Berlin's 1946 hit Annie Get Your Gun. Introducing the song was Ethel Merman, a much different artist than Wiley, to be sure. But Wiley is at her best here, and the pianists appropriately scale back their sound.

The performance of "Heat Wave" is fascinating because it features Berlin's opening verse and an interlude that few other artists have included, making a seemingly simple number far more complex. The song comes from 1933's As Thousand Cheer, where it was performed by Ethel Waters, one of Wiley's influences. Waters' 1933 recording also reflects the complete as-written composition.

J. Harold Murray and Katherine Carrington introduced "Soft Lights and Sweet Music" in 1932's Face the Music. A popular success, it was recorded by many artists at the time, then revived by Dick Haymes in 1948.

Lee Wiley in performance, circa 1950

"Fools Fall in Love" is a superior song, although little known. Will Friedwald remarks that the few other singers who performed it included Teddi King (who learned it from Wiley) and Marlene VerPlanck (who learned it from King). Several artists did record the song upon its being published in 1940, but it was little heard thereafter until Lee's performance.

Back in 1926, "How Many Times" was popular with recording artists, but today it isn't one of Berlin's most recognizable compositions. Wiley handles this up-tempo number with great authority. It is one of the best items on this LP.

Finally, another Ethel Waters song from As Thousands Cheer - the wrenching "Supper Time," where the singer's husband isn't coming home any more. He has been lynched. The song and performance are brilliant.

LINK to Lee Wiley Sings Irving Berlin

Lee Wiley Sings Vincent Youmans

Vincent Youmans is perhaps the only composer with a Wiley songbook who isn't a household name today. He was popular in his prime, but he wrote almost nothing after contracting tuberculosis in 1934, while still in his 30s. His neglect is a shame - there is much to admire here.

Youmans was famous for building melodies from short phrases. Lee starts off her LP with perhaps the best known example, "Tea for Two." It came from the composer's huge hit of 1924-25, No, No Nanette (which endured a campy revival in 1971). 

Vincent Youmans

Wiley's second song, "Sometimes I'm Happy," is even earlier and was first published with different lyrics before being cut from one show, used in a flop and eventually finding a home in the 1927 success Hit the Deck. It, too, is repetitive, but the initial melodic figure complements the lyrics and the song also has a soaring section to provide contrast. Both songs have Irving Caesar lyrics.

Lee herself had recorded the next selection, "Time on My Hands," soon after its introduction by Marilyn Miller in 1930's Smiles. The song is deservedly famous, and Wiley's knowing reading of Harold Adamson's languid lyrics is perfect.

In performance, about 1950

So, too, is the much different song "Rise 'n' Shine," a cheerful Depression-era ditty introduced by Ethel Merman in 1932's Take a Chance. I believe the song had fallen into obscurity until Lee revived it. Buddy DeSylva was the lyricist.

"More Than You Know" is one of Youmans' most famous compositions, and for good reason. This torch song has been featured by artists from Ruth Etting to Barbra Streisand. Here it is in an affecting version by Wiley. The song, which comes from the 1929 musical Great Day, has words by Billy Rose and Edward Eliscu.

Like "Rise 'n' Shine, "Should I Be Sweet?" is from Take a Chance, and is just as unknown today. June Knight performed it in the original production. Victor Young recorded it in 1934, which may be where Wiley learned it. Buddy DeSylva wrote the words.

Cy Walter and Lee Wiley

The yearning "Keeping Myself for You" is beautifully suited to Wiley's sympathetic approach. The pianists are at one with her on this number. Youmans and Sidney Clare wrote the song for the 1929 film version of Hit the Deck. Jack Oakie (of all people) and Polly Walker sang it in the film, which is now lost. It is another song that fell into an undeserved oblivion before Lee revived it.

The LP concludes with "Why, Oh Why," another little-known song, although I suspect some of you may have heard it before. It comes from the stage production of Hit the Deck. The lyrics are by Clifford Grey and Leo Robin. It's an excellent song in a terrific performance.

In summary, this record is a gem, and should be better known.

LINK to Lee Wiley Sings Vincent Youmans

Treasury Department "Guest Star"

Wiley appeared on a US Treasury Department "Guest Star" transcription that radio stations broadcast in early 1952. I've included her two songs, along with an introduction by announcer John Conte and a plug for US Savings Bonds by Lee and Conte.

The label says that the program is with "Harry Sosnik and the Defense Bonds Orchestra," but the Lee Wiley Bio-Discography speculates that her songs are actually airchecks from a late 1951 radio program with trumpeter Billy Butterfield and Joe Bushkin's combo.

From the early 1950s

The arrangements are similar to the ones used on the Night in Manhattan album, and her two songs are selected from that record's repertoire - "Manhattan" and "A Ghost of a Chance," both of which she does well.

This transfer is from the original 16-inch transcription disc.

LINK to Treasury Department Guest Star

Cy Walter and Stan Freeman - Maggy Fisher's Piano Playhouse

Cy Walter and Stan Freeman performed together for a few years on a curiously name radio program, Maggy Fisher's Piano Playhouse. Among their guests on the program was Joe Bushkin, and the LP the three made for M-G-M in 1950 is a fitting way to close this post.

The seven selections include only one song on the Wiley LPs above - Irving Berlin's "Soft Lights and Sweet Music." That's one of the two numbers that includes Bushkin; the other is a double-length version of "Indiana."

Richard Rodgers in the radio studio with Cy Walter and Stan Freeman

Otherwise, Walter and Freeman present "Falling in Love with Love," "Orchids in the Moonlight," "Oh! Lady Be Good," "Younger Than Springtime" and "The Most Beautiful Girl in the World."

Note: In the first version of this transfer there was a truncated opening to Indiana due to an editing error. Corrected versions of both the song and the complete LP are below.

LINK to Maggy Fisher's Piano Playhouse (corrected)

LINK only to corrected Indiana (Parts 1 and 2)

I expect to devote a similar post to Wiley's RCA Victor recordings soon.

Russian Music from Kansas City

The Kansas City Philharmonic Orchestra made but two LPs in its 50-year history, both under Hans Schwieger (1906-2000), music director from 1948-70. These worthy recordings of Russian music, the subject of today's post, both come from early 1959.

The recordings were made for Urania, which had assembled an extensive catalogue of LPs sourced from Europe and was looking for projects in the US. Schwieger chose the repertoire, selecting scores that were unusual but still appealing. He chose two works by Sergei Prokofiev, Alexander Glazunov's fourth symphony, and Mili Balakirev's Overture on Three Russian Themes.

Hans Schwieger

Schwieger was born in Cologne in 1906, and did well in his nascent music career until the Nazis came to power. His wife was Jewish, which limited his prospects. Like many others, he ended up in the US, arriving in 1938. All was well until a few days after Pearl Harbor, when he was mistakenly arrested as an enemy agent. He was interred for more than a year. (More about the conductor's life can be found in this excellent series.)

Schwieger succeeded Karl Kruger and Efrem Kurtz as conductor of the Kansas City Philharmonic, which was dissolved in 1982, but soon was succeeded by the Kansas City Symphony.

Prokofiev - Symphonic Suite of Waltzes, Gypsy Fantasy

The major work on the first Urania LP is Prokofiev's Symphonic Suite of Waltzes, which the composer assembled from several of his other works and premiered in 1947. Schwieger and the Kansas City orchestra presented the first US performance in late 1958.

Sergei Prokofiev

The six movements and the sources of the dances are as follows:

• I. The Meeting, from the opera War and Peace
• II. Cinderella at the Castle, from the ballet Cinderella
• III. Mephisto Waltz, from the film Lermontov
• IV. The End of the Tale, from Cinderella
• V. New Year's Eve Ball, from War and Peace
• VI. Happy Ending, from Cinderella

Ad in High Fidelity

For me, the finest (and most familiar) movement is the sweeping final waltz from Cinderella. (The composer's suites from the ballet can be found here.)

The Gypsy Fantasy comes from the late ballet The Stone Flower, which was not premiered until after Prokofiev's 1953 death.

In general, the record received good reviews. HiFi Review: "[T]he repertoire is interestingly conducted by Hans Schwieger, the Kansas City Philharmonic's regular music director ... Schwieger is revealed on this Urania disc as a musician of excellent taste and outstanding ability. His beat is firm; he maintains a tightly disciplined control over the ensemble; and he conducts with imagination."

Alfred Frankenstein of High Fidelity, however, was not impressed by the second work, calling it a "very ordinary piece of hack work."

LINK to Prokofiev LP

Glazunov - Symphony No. 4; Balakirev - Suite on Three Russian Themes

The Balakirev and Glazunov compositions were recorded at the same sessions as the Prokofiev. A contemporary article in the Kansas City Times says they were scheduled for March 22 and 24, 1959 in the World War II Memorial Building.

The Prokofiev release was given a relatively elaborate presentation. It came in a box with notes, and the fancy labels bore Schwieger's signature. The second LP was a bare-bones affair - no box, no photos and black-and-white labels.

Alexander Glazunov

Glazunov's symphony had been recorded before - by Evgeny Mravinsky and the Leningrad Philharmonic - but this appears to have been its first recording in the West.

Balakirev's Overture on Three Russian Themes (here called the Overture on Themes of Russian Folksongs), had been recorded twice before in the West - by Lovro von Matačić in London and by László Somogyi in Paris.

Glazunov's symphonies have never achieved popularity in the Western world, but they do have much to offer the sympathetic listener. Initially influenced by such earlier composers as Balakirev, by the time of the Symphony No. 4 (1893) Glazunov had adopted a less nationalist tone and did not make use of Russian themes, such as can be heard in the Balakirev work on the same disc.

Mili Balakirev

Balakirev was 30 years the elder of Glazunov, part of a generation that made extensive use of folk materials. The delightful Overture on Three Russian Themes, an early work (1857-58), is an excellent example. The folksong "In the fields stands a birch tree" would later be used to memorable effect in Tchaikovsky's Fourth Symphony. "There was at the feast" reappears in Stravinsky's Petrushka.

This second Urania LP did not elicit the same positive reviews as the Prokofiev album. The only national review I found was in HiFi Review, where David Hall wrote, "The Balakirev Overture has already received a superb monophonic recording ... and it must be said that Schwieger's merely neat and precise performance is no match for it. The Glazunov performance by Schwieger and his Kansans is in similar vein."

Hans Schwieger in rehearsal

Although the two LPs were recorded during the same sessions, the sound of the Prokofiev was much better received.

Hall's opinion of the second record: "The recorded sound in stereo has fine spread, but not much depth, warmth or the kind of presence that makes for the best kind of symphony orchestra sound."

Actually the two records do sound different. The string sound in the Prokofiev was very wiry, possibly because the violins were too closely miked, which I've tamed. The second LP does not have such a glare, but it also does not, as Hall wrote, offer much depth or warmth.

1961 ad

But even so, these are worthy representations of a very good orchestra under a skillful conductor. It's too bad more were not forthcoming.

I transferred these records from my collection as the result of a request. The download includes an article on Schwieger from the Kansas City Times, as well as ads, the reviews, scans, etc.

LINK to Glazunov-Balakirev LP

A Celebration of Dimitri Tiomkin

The Russian-born film composer Dimitri Tiomkin (1894-1979) famously thanked all the classical greats when accepting his 1955 Academy Award for The High and the Mighty. But Beethoven and Tchaikovsky would not have thought of having a whistler warble a memorable (and eerie) theme for one of their works - a theme that would become a huge popular success.

Tiomkin may have had roots in the classics, but he also was a powerful hit maker, writing both sweeping scores for his film assignments and theme music that often topped the charts.

Today we look at both sides of Tiomkin via:

• The Popular Dimitri Tiomkin, a set of 21 theme songs from his most fertile decade (1952-61), representing both huge successes and more modest but still worthy efforts.

• Movie Themes from Hollywood, Tiomkin's own 1955 LP of his compositions

• Return to Paradise, his unusual 1953 album of music from the film, with star Gary Cooper narrating the story

• Dimitri Tiomkin Obscurities (on my other blog), with such items as his first record (from 1934), foreign language versions of his themes, a mambo rendition of The High and the Mighty, and other items

The Popular Dimitri Tiomkin

Tiomkin's first huge hit was the theme from the Western High Noon, also known as "Do Not Forsake Me" with Gary Cooper's Quaker wife (Grace Kelly!) threatening to leave him if he shoots the bad guys. It's a bleak tale, with no one in the town willing to stand up to evil, except for Coop.

The story goes that the film was a flop in previews, so the studio wanted to shelve it. But Tiomkin paid for a recording of the title song - the version by Frankie Laine, which became a hit. That led the studio to release the film, which did well. The soundtrack version was by the sonorous Tex Ritter, who also recorded a single for Capitol that sold nicely. Both Laine and Ritter are in our collection.

It of course helped that the simple song was unforgettable. Catchy themes (and Westerns) would mark Tiomkin's career henceforth. The lyrics for "High Noon" were by the brilliant Ned Washington (1901-76), who won his second Oscar for this collaboration with Tiomkin. (The composer won a total of four.)

Our second film is another Western, The Big Sky, but it did not yield a hit for Tiomkin. From that score we do have a heartfelt ballad "When I Dream," sensitively done on a Capitol release by Bob Eberly, the former Jimmy Dorsey vocalist. I don't believe this is sung in the film.

Dimitri Tiomkin with Frankie Laine, Paul Francis Webster (seated), probably producer Milton Sperling, and Ray Heindorf, likely at the Blowing Wild sessions

Tiomkin again teamed with Gary Cooper and Frankie Laine for yet another Western, Blowing Wild, but Dimitri's music and Laine's histrionics did not lead to a hit the size of "High Noon." Paul Francis Webster (1907-84), another frequent Tiomkin collaborator, was the lyricist.

The war film Take the High Ground! did have a theme song, but today we hear the ballad "Julie," a tribute to Elaine Stewart's character. The beautiful Tiomkin melody is graced by a superior performance from studio vocalist Stuart Foster. I've presented this record before, but it merits a reprise.

Like South Pacific, Return to Paradise was based on a James Mitchener story, with Gary Cooper the filmic protagonist. The atmospheric title number was sung by the excellent Kitty White for the soundtrack, but here we have the fine singer Alan Dale with his lovely version for Coral.

The 'Hajji Baba' creative team: Nat King Cole, Dimitri Tiomkin and Ned Washington

Hollywood (and the musical world) were fixated on exotica in the 1950s, and Tiomkin and Washington managed to make it pay off with their hit title song for The Adventures of Hajji Baba. For "Hajji Baba" they had the good fortune to have the perfect vocalist, Nat King Cole, on both the soundtrack and the Capitol recording, arranged and conducted by Nelson Riddle.

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The song is very dated - and more than a little creepy - but nonetheless memorable, and a big hit.

The promotion for the Western A Bullet Is Waiting promised "Explosive and overpowering hate and drama in the High Sierras!", but the single from the film spares us the angst and instead provides a pleasing instrumental number called "Jamie," here performed by LeRoy Holmes and his orchestra. The title is mysterious because none of the film's characters is named Jamie. Also, the song has lyrics (which seem to be by Manny Curtis), but those aren't included here. Still, a nice number.

In a very real way, the star of the airplane melodrama The High and the Mighty is the theme music. Based on a tune whistled in the film by the first officer (John Wayne), it has an otherworldly aura that could portend tragedy or intervention by God (and Wayne). The latter is, of course, what happens. Otherwise, the film is an airborne Grand Hotel.

The theme became massively popular because of its haunting quality. The biggest-selling single may have been the LeRoy Holmes record with whistling by Fred Lowery. I've chosen Victor Young's version with perfect and rather godlike whistling by Muzzy Marcellino, who was also heard on the soundtrack. Marcellino was a former Ted Fio Rito vocalist.

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There were no lack of recordings of the theme. Jumping on the bandwagon (or airplane) in this Cash Box graphic were Tiomkin, Harry James, Perez Prado, Johnny Desmond, Les Baxter, Richard Hayman, Georgie Auld, Eddie Manson, Young, Holmes, Joe Loco, Leo Diamond and the Dorsey Brothers. Prado's mambo version and Desmond's singing can be heard on my other blog. The lyrics, which have nothing to do with the film's plot, were by the ubiquitous Ned Washington. By the way, Tiomkin's own record, which is in his LP below, replaces the whistling with a theremin.

In Friendly Persuasion, Gary Cooper once again starred in a tale of Quaker pacifism contending with a threat to the community The film produced another hit record for Tiomkin, this time working with Paul Francis Webster.

"Friendly Persuasion (Thee I Love)" was sung both on the soundtrack and on records by Pat Boone, who was otherwise known for covers of R&B hits. (Note that the flip side of "Friendly Persuasion" was a remake of a Big Joe Turner single.) Boone was actually a crooner in the Crosby vein, and quite a talented one as his version of Tiomkin's gorgeous theme song amply displays.

The Rock Hudson-Elizabeth Taylor-James Dean epic Giant actually had two theme songs: "Giant" and "There's Never Been Anyone Else But You (Love Theme from Giant)." Both were recorded, but the love theme more often, so I've chosen it for this collection. It gives me a chance to showcase some excellent vocalese from June Brown on the Mercury record by David Carroll and band. 

Giant was Dean's final film before his early death in a car crash. About 15 years ago I posted two different Dean exploitation records, while are still available.

We're back in the old West with Tiomkin, Washington and Frankie Laine for the title song of Gunfight at the O.K. Corral. It's a legendary tale loosely based on real incidents in Tombstone, Arizona in 1881, involving the Earp brothers, Doc Holliday and a band of outlaws. In the film, Burt Lancaster is Wyatt Earp and Kirk Douglas is Doc Holliday.

Laine's inimitable singing was a popular success, although the record did not become as iconic as High Noon.

The film Wild Is the Wind takes place on a ranch but only in that sense is it a Western. Otherwise it's a tale of love, loss and betrayal among Anna Magnani, Anthony Quinn and Tony Franciosa.

Johnny Mathis sang the magnificent theme song both on the soundtrack and on records. It's a unique performance, and a favorite of mine. (I owned the single when I was eight.) It only rose to the 22nd spot on the Billboard listing, but even so sold a huge number of records by virtue of its inclusion on Johnny's Greatest Hits, an LP that was on the charts for 10 years!

This is one of the best things Tiomkin and Washington did, and it shows their range following Gunfight at the O.K. Corral.

Tiomkin and John Wayne re-teamed for Rio Bravo, bringing along two singers as accomplices - Dean Martin and Ricky Nelson. We have three songs from the film, all transferred from a Capitol promo disc in my collection. Dino sings the title song, as he did in the film, and "My Rifle, My Pony and Me," a better song than title. Paul Francis Webster was the lyricist.

Ricky also sings this in the film, but not on the disc. His hit from the film was the traditional song "Cindy," which I've not included here but which can be heard on YouTube in an extract from the Nelson family's TV show The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet. You can spy guitarist James Burton in Ricky's band. The appropriate excerpt from Rio Bravo also is online.

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The third number is "El Degüello" (on the Capitol label "De Guello"). Tiomkin patterned this baleful trumpet motto on the music played by Gen. Santa Anna's buglers before the siege of the Alamo in 1836. "Degüello" literally means "throat-slashing" - it portends that the attackers will show no mercy. Santa Anna's men did not.

For the Capitol recording, Nelson Riddle was in charge, Manny Klein the trumpeter. Tiomkin and Wayne soon were to reuse the theme in Wayne's film The Alamo.

"Degüello" was very influential. Such ominous trumpet themes are a feature of the "spaghetti Westerns" of the 1960s.

When it came to the theme song for the Eric Fleming-Clint Eastwood Western TV show Rawhide, Tiomkin and Washington turned to (who else) Frankie Laine, and for inspiration Frankie's 1949 hit "Mule Train." In one, Laine was driving a team of mules, for the other a herd of cattle. In both cases, he got to shout "hee-yah!" to striking effect.

This stereo version is from Frankie's LP Hell Bent for Leather. The conductor is Johnny Williams, who later turned into famed film composer John Williams.

John Wayne's The Alamo spawned two outstanding songs. "The Ballad of the Alamo," written by Tiomkin and Paul Francis Webster, was clearly inspired by Marty Robbins' incredible "El Paso" of the year before. Fittingly, Robbins got the assignment to perform Tiomkin's story-song. It's an affecting record, even if it does use the same Spanish guitar backing as "El Paso," played by the same guitarist, Grady Martin.

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Almost as fine is the elegiac ballad "The Green Leaves of Summer," here in the hit version by the folk group The Brothers Four. They are effective, but I also recommend the intense Spanish language single by the superb Lucho Gatica, which can be found in the collection on my other blog.

There were no big hits from the war film The Guns of Navarone, but the theme music did stimulate several instrumental versions. This collection includes the adaptation by guitarist Al Caiola, who simplified the film's title to "Guns of Navarone."

The final selection from Tiomkin's great period is the title song from "Town without Pity." Washington's lyrics don't have anything to do with the plot except in a general way. I believe the song is used in the film as source music from a jukebox.

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Despite this throwaway use, it's a great number that was a huge hit for Gene Pitney in his first outing on record. Pitney's distinctive vocalizing became one of the best things about early 1960s music. The singer's next hit was "(The Man Who Shot) Liberty Valance," based on the Western of the same name but not used in the film. This is the type of song that Tiomkin and Washington could write, but it was actually by Burt Bacharach and Hal David.

These selections come from Internet Archive and my collection.

LINK to The Popular Dimitri Tiomkin

Movie Themes from Hollywood

The Coral label invited Tiomkin to make an instrumental LP of his finest movie themes in 1955. Here are a few words about each of the songs, many of which are covered elsewhere.

The High and the Mighty - as mentioned above, Tiomkin uses a theremin rather than a whistler in this version. Heretical but ethereal (and spooky).

Champion - For this Kirk Douglas boxing melodrama, Tiomkin produced a tune that veers too close to "The March of the Wooden Soldiers" at times. There also was a ballad from the film called "Never Be It Said," which can be found in the collection on my other blog.

A Bullet Is Waiting - Tiomkin's version of the ballad "Jamie," also in the collection above via the LeRoy Holmes single.

Strange Lady in Town - This ambling Western tune was a tribute to the "strange lady" - Greer Garson as a doctor who moves to Santa Fe.

Dial "M" for Murder - Tiomkin's dramatic theme for the Hitchcock film can also be found in my collection of "Alfred Hitchcock Obscurities."

Return to Paradise - We have full coverage of this score, with Tiomkin's theme here, the music from the soundtrack below, and a vocal version of the theme on my other blog.

High Noon - Tex and Frankie are above, Dimitri here, "Forlad mig ikke" on the other blog.

Land of the Pharaohs - This one involves Jack Hawkins designing a tomb for a pharaoh. Somehow Joan Collins shows up in a bikini. The music is good, though, and if you want to hear it on a harmonica we have that, too. There's also a song based on the the score, added as a bonus below.

Hajji Baba - You certainly don't need anything but Nat Cole above, but Tiomkin's version is from the source.

Duel in the Sun - This dates back to 1946. A Western with Joseph Cotten and Gregory Peck vying for Jennifer Jones. Fiedler and the Boston Pops did an album of the music back in the day.

I Confess - Another score for Hitchcock. An enjoyable theme that also can be found in an odd tea-dance version on my other blog.

Lost Horizon - Tiomkin's first big success was with the score for this popular 1937 film.

BONUS: "This Too Shall Pass" from Land of the Pharaohs. Tiomkin recorded a single of this number for Coral with Johnny Desmond singing Ned Washington's words. Worth hearing even if Johnny is a little overbearing. I don't believe a vocal was used in the film.

The LP is from my collection.

LINK to Movie Themes from Hollywood

Return to Paradise

Return to Paradise came soon after High Noon, and was a departure in locale and music. The soundtrack LP also was a departure - Coral took music from Tiomkin's soundtrack and added a narration voiced by the lead character, Gary Cooper.

It's a good idea that comes across well on the first listen, but I'm not sure how often you might want to listen to Coop's laid-back delivery.

The music is, however, well worth your time.

I remastered this from an LP on Internet Archive. 

All the selections throughout this post are in ambient stereo, with the exception of Frankie Laine's stereo running of the cattle in Rawhide.

LINK to Return to Paradise