Weber: Bassoon Concerto (Gwydion Brooke)

Gwydion Brooke

Generally considered the doyen of English bassoonists, and one of the great English wind players of the 20th century, Gwydion Brooke (1912-2005), or, to use his birth name, Frederick James Gwydion Holbrooke, was the son of composer Joseph Holbrooke; he was also the brother-in-law of another great English wind player, clarinetist Reginald Kell.  Beecham hand-picked him when organizing his Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in 1946, adding him to a distinguished wind lineup that included Dennis Brain, which collectively became known as the "Royal Family."  Brooke, in fact, recorded the Mozart Bassoon Concerto with Beecham in 1958.  But before he joined the RPO, he was a member of Malcolm Sargent's Liverpool Philharmonic, with which he made this first recording of Weber's Bassoon Concerto:

Weber: Bassoon Concerto in F Major, Op. 75
Gwydion Brooke with the Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra
conducted by Sir Malcolm Sargent
Recorded December 31, 1947
English Columbia DX 1656 and DX 1657, two 78-rpm records
Link (FLAC files, 44.19 MB)
Link (MP3 files, 20.48 MB)

Brooke's obituary in The Independent, published on April 5, 2005, contains a lot of information about him and is well worth reading.

Weber: Sonata No. 1 (Claudio Arrau)

Claudio Arrau, 1941

The Chilean pianist Claudio Arrau (1903-1991) left a vast recorded repertoire (a complete discography can be found here).  However, the portion of it dating from the 78-rpm era is quite meager, and it really only got underway when Arrau moved to New York in 1941 and began recording for Victor.  His output for Victor was not large (only five sets, plus a fascinating account of Bach's "Goldberg Variations" that didn't get released until 1988), but it featured large-scale works for the first time in his recording career.  The first recording he made for Victor was of this Weber sonata, a work he did not record again:

Weber: Sonata No. 1 in C Major, Op. 24
Claudio Arrau, piano
Recorded February 20, 1941
Victor Musical Masterpiece Set M-884, three 78-rpm records
Link (FLAC files, 51.09 MB)
Link (MP3 files, 30.22 MB)

A PDF file, reproducing the original booklet for Set M-884, is included with the download.

Casadesus: Two Early Concerto Recordings

One of my all-time favorite pianists, the Frenchman Robert Casadesus (1899-1972) (pictured above in characteristic pose with pipe in mouth) is the subject of today's post.  Heir to a musical family - his uncles, Henri and Marius, were founding members of the Société des Instruments Anciens which pioneered in the use of historical stringed instruments - he remains unsurpassed to this day as an interpreter of the music of his friend Ravel, and I grew up on his wonderful recordings of Mozart concerti with George Szell conducting.  Here are two early concerto recordings by Robert Casadesus, the Weber work being a recorded première:

Weber: Konzertstück in F minor, Op. 79, for piano and orchestra
Robert Casadesus with orchestra conducted by Eugène Bigot
Recorded June 6, 1935
Columbia Masterworks set MX-59, two 78-rpm records
Link (FLAC file, 36.69 MB)
Link (MP3 file, 18.69 MB)

Saint-Saëns: Piano Concerto No. 4 in C minor, Op. 44
Robert Casadesus with the Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra of New York
conducted by Artur Rodzinski
Recorded February 5, 1945
Columbia Masterworks set MM-566, three 78-rpm records
Link (FLAC files, 62.6 MB)
Link (MP3 files, 32.91 MB)

Cover by Alex Steinweiss

My thanks again to Ken Halperin of Collecting Record Covers for supplying me with the Saint-Saëns set.

For those interested in Robert Casadesus, there's a wonderful website, with a complete discography, contributed to by (among others) members of the Casadesus family.

Robin Hood on Young Peoples Records

Well, this is a little bit of a change of pace.  I present today a pair of records that I had and loved as a kid, Young Peoples Records' 1950 presentation of the Robin Hood story.  Admittedly, the tale is a bit sugar-coated in this version, with the Sheriff of Nottingham presented as a cowardly buffoon (one can hardly imagine the real Sheriff submitting as meekly to his eventual fate as this one does) - but how well-characterized he is, by the Metropolitan Opera tenor George Rasely (1889-1965).  And how wonderful are the tunes!  I really repsonded, as a youngster (and still do), to the maddeningly memorable, ersatz-Elizabethan songs, and the Sportsman's Song on side 3 owes quite a bit to Gilbert & Sullivan with its choral repetitions of the soloist's words.  The music was written by Herbert Haufrecht (1909-1998), about whom I can find out little other than that contained in his New York Times obituary here.  The narration is by Alexander Scourby (1913-1985), best-known as the first person to record the entire Bible, on talking books for the blind in the early 1940s - click here to see the American Federation of the Blind's page about Scourby.  And the script and lyrics are by Raymond Abrashkin (1911-1960), a frequent collaborator on Young Peoples Records, as was the conductor, Max Goberman.

Abrashkin-Haufrecht: Robin Hood
Soloists, chorus and orchestra conducted by Max Goberman
Recorded c. 1950
Young Peoples Records 1010-11, two 10-inch vinyl 78-rpm records
Link (FLAC file, 39.16 MB)
Link (MP3 file, 22.31 MB)

As I said, I had these records as a child, but I re-acquired the set about five years ago from an online dealer, and therefore obtained what I didn't have previously, namely, the original double sleeve (the front of which is pictured above).  The lyrics and text of the story are reproduced inside, and they are provided as JPG files with this download.

I had several dozen Young Peoples Records (and records on its affiliated label, Children's Record Guild), which, even in the early 1970s, were still available as 78s in specialized outlets.  Therefore I was fascinated by David Bonner's book about them which appeared in 2008.  (David's blog, named after his book, "Revolutionizing Children's Records," is among my blog links at right.  His first post of 2009 contains a bit written by yours truly.)  In the wake of the book's appearance, I transferred four Young Peoples Records on classical music subjects, all dating from the late 1940s, and posted them to the RMCR newsgroup.  These are still available, along with a new FLAC version; here are the details:

The Wonderful Violin (script and narration by Douglas Moore)
Mischa Mischakoff, violin
Young Peoples Records 311, one 10-inch vinyl 78-rpm record

Said the Piano to the Harpsichord (script by Douglas Moore)
David Allen, Gilbert Mack, Sylvia Marlowe
Young Peoples Records 411, one 10-inch vinyl 78-rpm record

Round and Round - Fun and Facts on the Fugue
David Allen, Gene Lowell Chorus, Horace Grenell (piano)
Young Peoples Records 431, one 10-inch vinyl 78-rpm record

Weber: Rondo for Bassoon and Orchestra
Eli Carmen (bassoon) with orchestra conducted by Max Goberman
Young Peoples Records 1009, one 10-inch vinyl 78-rpm record

All four records in one ZIP file with JPGs of the covers.
Link (FLAC files, 63.66 MB)
Link (MP3 files, 31.51 MB)

At the same time I uploaded a ridiculously abridged recording of Prokofiev's "Peter and the Wolf," from a Cricket 78 that has been in my possession since I was seven years old (and, I'm afraid, sounds like it!):

Prokofiev: Peter and the Wolf (abridged)
"Reginald Carol" (narrator), with orchestra
Cricket C-11, one 7-inch vinyl 78-rpm record
Link (FLAC file, 15.36 MB)
Link (MP3 file, 6.39 MB)

UPDATE (Aug. 25, 2015): I have just learned the actual provenance of the abridged "Peter and the Wolf" - it derives from a Royale LP, No. 1246, where the narration is credited to Bob Danvers-Walker (1906-1990), best known for his narration on British Pathé newsreels.  The anonymous orchestra is conducted by Reginald Leopold (1907-2003). Royale, of course, was an Eli Oberstein label, and "Obie" was known to license a bunch of children's material to Cy Leslie, founder of Pickwick Records, to jumpstart his Cricket Records line. This recording was one of those. The Royale issue was a full-length recording of "Peter and the Wolf" - which Cricket hacked down to a six-minute length, while cloaking Mr. Danvers-Walker in pseudonymity by borrowing the first name of his conductor!