Film Music from Copland and Thomson

 Paris 1925: Virgil Thomson, Walter Piston, 
Herbert Elwell, Aaron Copland

Aaron Copland and Virgil Thomson, two of the leading American composers of the 20th century, wrote some of their most appealing works for films.

The film scores of Copland, the more famous composer, are actually not as well known as his popular masterpieces such as Appalachian Spring, while many of Thomson's most recognized pieces were for the cinema.

This post brings together newly remastered versions of works by both composers in the film realm. All appeared here originally many years ago.

Apropos of the photo above, there also are links to works by the Americans Walter Piston and Herbert Elwell. All four composers studied with Nadia Boulanger in 1920s Paris.

For the film compositions herein, Copland and Thomson worked in a relatively simple, accessible idioms for works that centered on rural life. Their music can be contrasted with the urban focus of John Alden Carpenter's ballet score Skyscrapers, which recently appeared here, or some of George Gershwin's works.

Copland - Our Town; Thomson - The Plow That Broke the Plains

This 10-inch LP from 1951 brings together suites from scores by the two composers under the direction of Thomas Scherman and his Little Orchestra Society. Both are treasurable and both are in very good performances.

Thomas Scherman

Copland's music is from 1940. Vivian Perlis has written: "With the threat of impending war, Thornton Wilder's play Our Town, with its look back at an America of homespun values, was tremendously appealing. Copland accepted the invitation to compose the musical score for the screen version of life in the small town of Grover's Corners, New Hampshire. He explained, 'For the film version, they were counting on the music to translate the transcendental aspects of the story. I tried for clean and clear sounds and in general used straight-forward harmonies and rhythms that would project the serenity and sense of security of the story.'" The orchestral suite is from 1944.

The Plow That Broke the Plains was a Pare Lorentz documentary from 1936 that was sponsored by the US Resettlement Administration. Its purpose was to provide the background for the dust storms then devastating the Southwest. The centerprice of Thomson's suite is a memorably sarcastic piece called "Blues (Speculation)," followed by "Drought" and "Devastation."

LINK to Our Town and The Plow That Broke the Plains

Copland - The Red Pony; Thomson - Acadian Songs and Dances

Decca soon would follow up the coupling above with a 12-inch LP that combined Copland's music for The Red Pony with Thomson's Acadian Songs and Dances from the film Louisiana Story. Both films are from 1948.

Vivian Perlis writes about The Red Pony: "The film was adapted from a novel by John Steinbeck and featured famous Hollywood stars. But it was not a commercial success, and Copland's practical nature led him to recast the musical material for concert purposes. The Suite is in six sections with titles that match the action of the film. Although the melodies have a folklike quality, they are Copland's own."

While Louisiana Story was directed by the documentarian Robert Flaherty, it is a fictional work. The film was sponsored by the Standard Oil Co., although its name does not appear in the credits. The story concerns a boy, his pet raccoon, and friendly oil drillers. Thomson's Acadian Songs and Dances, which make up one of the two suites from the film, are delightful. The second suite from Louisiana Story is below.

LINK to The Red Pony and Acadian Songs and Dances

Thomson - Suite from Louisiana Story and Five Portraits

Thomson's suite from Louisiana Story contains music that was not derived from folk sources. The Philadelphia Orchestra and Eugene Ormandy had recorded the score for the film, and these experts for Columbia. Thomson's music was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1949.

The coupling is a suite of Five Portraits of the composer's friends, the best known of whom are Pablo Picasso and the composer Alexander Smallens. Thomson himself conducts the Philadelphians in this 1945 recording.

The transfer is from an early 10-inch LP. (Thanks to Joe Serraglio for the use of his transfer!)

LINK to Louisiana Story and Five Portraits

Thomson - Suite from The River; Luening - Prelude, Two Symphonic Interludes

Thomson's other famous film score is for another Pare Lorentz documentary, The River, from 1937. It was this score that particularly influenced Copland, who called it "a lesson in how to treat Americana." The river here is the Mississippi and the sponsor of the film was the New Deal's Works Progress Administration. The opening theme of the "The Old South" is perhaps the composer's most familiar music.

Walter Hendl, Dean Dixon

The performance here is a good one, by the Vienna Symphony and the American conductor Walter Hendl.

Otto Luening

This early American Recording Society LP also contains works by the American composer Otto Luening, who became known for his tape and electronic works but in earlier times wrote in an accessible style that produced the Prelude on a Hymn Tune by William Billings and Two Symphonic Interludes. Here, the unidentified orchestra is conducted by the American Dean Dixon. Again, the performances are good.

LINK to The River and music by Otto Luening

Music by Walter Piston and Herbert Elwell

The composer Walter Piston has appeared here a number of times:

Howard Hanson's recording of the Symphony No. 3 is here, along with works by Wallingford Riegger, Alan Hovhaness and Henry Cowell.

The Incredible Flutist, Piston's most famous score, can be found in two recordings, both by the Boston Pops and Arthur Fiedler:

• The 1954 recording is part of a collection called The Ballet, with works by Meyerbeer, Stravinsky, Ravel and Weber.

• The 1939 recording is here, along with MacDowell's Piano Concerto No. 2 (with soloist Jesús María Sanromá) and Piston's orchestration of the Moonlight Sonata's first movement.

The blog featured Herbert Elwell's music very recently: a recording of his best-known work, the ballet score The Happy Hypocrite. That same score also appeared in suite form by the Cleveland Pops Orchestra and Louis Lane. The latter post also includes a private recording of Elwell's Blue Symphony.

New Francescatti Transfer, Plus a Seasonal Bonus

Here is a new transfer of a recording presented on this blog several years ago. I did the recording on request - forgetting about my earlier effort.

Well, this transfer is better, so it's worth a listen for those interested.

The three principal artists on the record all have been featured here several times before - violinist Zino Francescatti and conductors Dimitri Mitropoulos and Eugene Ormandy. The program includes the music of Édouard Lalo and Henri Vieuxtemps.

Zino Francescatti

These are among the finest Francescatti recordings I know. He is entirely in his element in the music of the Frenchman Lalo and the Belgian Vieuxtemps. His gorgeous tone is projected confidently and his control is absolute. Columbia's vivid recordings place him upfront, providing an exceptional sense of his sweet tone and forthright approach - although the sound in the Vieuxtemps is a shade too bright for my taste.

Francescatti performs Vieuxtemps's Concerto No. 4 with the support of the Philadelphia Orchestra under Ormandy. As far as I can tell, the recording, which dates from April 1957, was mono only, and has not been reissued. This concerto is not often played nowadays, which is a shame. It's a fine work.

Francescatti and Eugene Ormandy

The violinist is supported by the New York Philharmonic under Mitropoulos in Lalo's Symphonie Espagnole, also recorded in April 1957. As was common 60 years ago, Francescatti omits the central Intermezzo movement of the five-part suite. This is the mono incarnation of a performance that later was issued in stereo in tandem with the Walton concerto.

The download includes a review of the Vieuxtemps from High Fidelity and a round-up review of Lalo recordings from Stereo Review.

Bonus - A Miracle on Cricket Avenue

David Federman has provided another welcome compilation, the third in his "Cozy Covid Christmas" series. This one, called "Miracle on Cricket Avenue," is a typically wide-ranging exploration of 20th century seasonal music. The 27-selection playlist contains everything from Fats Waller to the Miracles to a Rimsky-Korsakov overture. David's notes are in the download. See the comments for a link.

More from Philadelphia, with Ormandy and Stokowski Conducting, Plus Reups

Many people said they enjoyed therecent upload of mono recordings from Philadelphia led by Eugene Ormandy. So here is a new selection, with the notable bonus of two pieces led by Ormandy's predecessor in Philadelphia, Leopold Stokowski.

The source for these materials is the unprepossessing LP you see above, issued by RCA Victor's budget subsidiary Camden in the mid-1950s and ascribed to the spurious "Warwick Symphony Orchestra" for reasons known only to the RCA marketing wizards of the time. The "Warwick" is the Philadelphia Orchestra, I assure you.

One side of the program is devoted to the warhorse that inspired hundreds of B-movie soundtracks, Liszt's "Les Preludes." The other contains contemporary American music associated with the orchestra's home city, all in first recordings - works by Samuel Barber, Gian Carlo Menotti and Harl McDonald.

I also am reuploading two additional works by Harl McDonald and one by Max Brand, also from Philadelphia, that appeared here a decade ago. These have been remastered, and in one case newly transferred.

Liszt - Les Preludes

This 1937 recording was Ormandy's first shot at "Les Preludes"; he was to return to it in 1946 for the Columbia label. It is a straightforward reading, beautifully played by the orchestra. As with all these pieces, the recording quality is quite good. The 1950s transfer and pressing are much better than the cheap-looking cover would lead you to expect.

Barber - Essay for Orchestra, Op. 12

Samuel Barber and Eugene Ormandy

Samuel Barber was one of the twin wunderkinder who had been in residence at Philadelphia's Curtis Institute in the 1920s and who achieved fame shortly thereafter. The other was Gian Carlo Menotti, who we will encounter in a moment.

Barber's initial brush with fame was for his 1931 work, the brilliant "School for Scandal Overture," introduced by the Philadelphia Orchestra and Alexander Smallens. By 1938 he had been taken up by Arturo Toscanini, who premiered both the Adagio for Strings and the Essay for Orchestra, Op. 12 on the same NBC Orchestra program. On this disc we hear the Essay, usually called the "First Essay" these days, in Ormandy's 1940 recording, the first of any Barber composition. 

The conductor was to return to the composer's music just a few times in the recording studio, setting down the Adagio and the "Toccata Festiva" in the stereo era.

Menotti - Amelia Goes to the Ball Overture

Eugene Ormandy, Gian Carlo Menotti, Efrem Zimbalist

Menotti composed his first opera, Amelia Goes to the Ball, to his own libretto, written as Amelia al Ballo in his native Italian tongue. The work acquired its English name and translation before its 1937 premiere at Curtis, which was conducted by Fritz Reiner. 

The Ormandy recording of the overture dates from 1939, its first recording and apparently the first of any of Menotti's orchestral works. As with Barber, Ormandy was not often to return to Menotti's compositions on record; the only other example I have found is an excerpt from the ballet Sebastian.

Works by Harl McDonald

Harl McDonald and Eugene Ormandy

The composer Harl McDonald had close ties to both Philadelphia and its orchestra. A professor at the University of Pennsylvania, he also served on the orchestra's board and later as its manager. McDonald was a well-regarded composer whose work was recorded not just by Ormandy and Stokowski, but by Serge Koussevitzky of the rival Boston clan.

The three works here are apportioned out two to Stokowski and one to Ormandy. Stokowski chose "The Legend of the Arkansas Traveler" and the "Rhumba" movement from McDonald's Symphony No. 4. 

Leopold Stokowski in 1940

"Arkansas Traveler" was and is a familiar quasi-folk lick that dates back as least as far as 1847. McDonald's portentous opening could hardly be farther away from the familiar down-home squawk of Eck Robertson's famous 1922 fiddle recording. But soon enough the composer settles into a witty digression on the tune at hand, aided by concertmaster Alexander Hilsberg's masterful playing. Stokowski's approach is perfectly judged in this 1940 recording.

McDonald's "Rhumba" was presumably inspired by the dance that had become increasingly popular throughout the 1930s. The composer was a talented orchestrator, and his skills are shown to great effect in this superb 1935 rendering by Stokowski and the orchestra.

Ormandy is hardly less successful in his 1938 recording of a "Cakewalk" that forms the Scherzo movement of McDonald's Symphony No. 4. His orchestra could not be better in this piece, which again takes its cue from a popular dance form.

Reuploads

Today's reuploads also come from Philadelphia, involving Harl McDonald conducting his own work and Ormandy leading a piece by the little-known Max Brand. These come from two Columbia 10-inch LPs, both of which include the same recording of McDonald's Children's Symphony. The headers below take you to the original posts.

Music of McDonald and Brand

This 1950 10-inch LP couples McDonald's Children's Symphony with "The Legend of the One-Hoss Shay" by the little-remembered German-American composer Max Brand. The Philadelphia Orchestra is led by McDonald in his piece and by Ormandy in Brand's composition.

I wasn't crazy about the McDonald symphony either of the times I posted it. It's pleasant enough and very well presented, but when you put it up against such remarkable children's works as Britten's "Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra," you are matching skill against genius.

Brand's piece has something to do with a poem by Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. That aside, it's an enjoyable work.

McDonald's "Builders of America" (and Children's Symphony, Again)

Columbia decided to record McDonald's cantata "Builders of America" in 1953, using the 1950 recording of the Children's Symphony as a disc mate.

The "Builders of America" is a sort of lesser "Lincoln Portrait," profiling both that President and George Washington. Edward Shenton, a well-known illustrator, provided the text, which is plain awful in parts. But the music is good, and narrator Claude Rains is fine. McDonald conducted the Columbia Chamber Orchestra, which was almost certainly composed of Philadelphia Orchestra members.

Ormandy Conducts Romantic Favorites

For one of the greatest conductors of the 20th century, it's amazing how many of Eugene Ormandy's mono recordings have not been re-released, at least as far as I have been able to determine. Today's post includes several of those elusive items, all dating from near mid-20th century.

The program encompasses two 10-inch LPs and an EP, all on Columbia Records.

 

Sibelius and Rachmaninoff

 

The first LP couples Sibelius' "Finlandia" and "The Swan of Tuonela" with Lucien Cailliet's effective orchestrations of three Rachmaninoff piano preludes, including the composer's greatest hit, the Prelude in C-sharp minor (Bum - bum - BUMM. Da - da - da. Bum - bum - BUMM).

 

John Minsker

The Rachmaninoff works are in turns grandiloquent (the C-sharp minor), tranquil (the G major) and dramatic (the G minor). Cailliet had been a Philadelphia clarinetist who wrote arrangements both for Leopold Stokowski and Ormandy. 

 

Sibelius' "Finlandia" was a favorite of Ormandy, who recorded it six times, twice with chorus. The "Swan of Tuonela" is beautifully done here, with an eloquent and elegant English horn solo by the eminent John Minsker.

 

Suppé and Weber

The second 10-inch LP couples Franz von Suppé's famous and much abused overture to the operetta Poet and Peasant with the overture to Carl Maria von Weber's opera Der Freischütz.

 

The Poet and Peasant is just fine, but I will take issue with the performance of the Freischütz overture, a favorite of mine, which barely hints at the dramatic or supernatural elements of the opera.

 

The Weber overture is the earliest recording among all these items, dating from January 1946 and first issued on 78. The Suppé work comes from a April 1950 session. It too was issued first on 78, then about a year later with the Weber as one of the first issues in Columbia's 10-inch AL series. These early AL discs contained barely more music than the 7-inch EPs that soon would gain favor. The first AL releases all were contained in generic covers with the fussy design shown above. The download includes an article on the series.

 

Strauss and Tchaikovsky

 

On the EP, we have the Waltz Suite from Richard Strauss' opera Der Rosenkavalier, coupled with another famous waltz, drawn from Tchaikovsky's Serenade for Strings. These works are all in Ormandy's wheelhouse. He and the superb Philadelphians do well by them. The EP has a bonus of a wonderful Jim Flora cover depicting the "Presentation of the Rose" from Rosenkavalier. The knight does appear to be sniffing the flower, rather than presenting it to the bored Sophie. (You will need to click on the image to see what I am talking about.)

Ormandy recorded music from Der Rosenkavalier seven times; he chose this waltz suite three times, once with the Minneapolis Symphony in 1935, then with the Philadelphia ensemble in 1941 and 1952. This is the latter version.

 

The Rosenkavalier waltzes also came out on an all-Strauss 12-inch LP a few years later, coupled with Don Juan, Till Eulenspiegel and the Love Scene from Feuersnot. Missing no formats or coupling alternatives, Columbia at one time packaged the Rosenkavalier and Eulenspiegel recordings on a 10-inch disc. It featured Jim Flora artwork that was apparently designed as a companion to the EP cover shown above. I don't have the Strauss LP, but I did scrounge up the cover, which you can see at right. It shows Till Eulenspiegel engaged in his "merry pranks," which seem to be taking place at Watts Towers.

 

The Tchaikovsky waltz is extracted from one of Ormandy's complete recordings of the Serenade, which come from 1946, 1952 and 1960. Discographer Michael Gray claims that the 1952 version remains unissued, so this is apparently the 1946 edition.

The complete Serenade for Strings was coupled on an early Columbia LP with John Barbirolli's New York recording of the Theme and Variations from Tchaikovsky's Suite No. 3. 

 

Bonus Item on Buster's Swinging Singles

 

Full disclosure - the Strauss-Tchaikovsky EP is a new transfer of a disc I featured on my other blog many years ago. But there also is something new on that blog to go along with this post - the 1946 Ormandy/Philadelphia recording of Glinka's Ruslan and Ludmila Overture. I've contrasted it with a competing version from the Boston Pops and Arthur Fiedler, dating from 1939 - which I prefer, but make your own decision!

Bartok from Sándor and Ormandy, Plus Miaskovsky

Not long ago, I featured György Sándor's sublime rendition of Rachmaninoff's Second Piano Concerto, mentioning that at the time of recording in early 1946, the pianist was about to premiere the Third Piano Concerto of the recently deceased Béla Bartók.

Both the premiere and this subsequent recording were with with the Philadelphia Orchestra and Eugene Ormandy. Columbia issued the Bartók as a 78 set (M-674) that year, and then transferred it to the new LP format in 1949. There, it was coupled with the Ormandy recording of the Symphony No. 21 of the then-living Russian composer Nikolai Miaskovsky (today usually transliterated as Myaskovsky), set down in 1947.

Sándor and Bartók

Sándor was a Bartók pupil and was closely associated with that master. He would record the Third Concerto two more times, first with the young Michael Gielen and a Vienna orchestra in 1959, and then with Adám Fischer and the Hungarian State Orchestra in 1990. As a bonus to the Philadelphia recording, I've transferred the Vienna rendition and included it in the download. Originally on the Vox label, it is an early stereo effort, with Sándor crowded over to the right of the sound stage. My transfer is from a later Turnabout pressing.

Both Bartók performances are quite good. As might be expected, the Philadelphians have more tonal allure than the Vienna band, but the playing on both is alert and Sándor is impressive, as always.

Miaskovsky

Don't skip the Miaskovsky symphony, which is well worth getting to know and wonderfully handled by Ormandy and his troops. The Chicago Symphony and Frederick Stock commissioned the work, which dates from 1940, but did not record it, to my knowledge. The first recording was by Nathan Rachlin (aka Natan Rahklin) with the USSR State Symphony Orchestra in 1941.

Bartók 78 set cover

Both the Bartók 78 set and the subsequent LP have covers by Alex Steinweiss. The LP art has fun with stereotypes, as that artist often did. I'm not sure what he is depicting on the 78 cover. A piano hammer? An avocado? Perhaps someone more perceptive than I am can decipher it.

LINK to 2026 remastered version

Francescatti in Lalo and Vieuxtemps

Here is the second installment in my series devoted to the French violinist Zino Francescatti. Reader Alan Cooper suggested this particular recording, noting that Columbia and its successor companies have never offered a CD reissue of the violinist's traversal of the Vieuxtemps Concerto No. 4.

I am happy to oblige Alan, because the Vieuxtemps performance is superb. It displays Francescatti's spectacular technique, which is all the more remarkable for seeming so nonchalant. The fine support here is by the Philadelphia Orchestra and Eugene Ormandy. The sessions were in the Broadwood Hotel in April 1957.

Zino Francescatti and Eugene Ormandy

That's not to say that the coupling, Lalo's Symphonie Espagnole, is any less impressive in this performance with the New York Philharmonic and Dimitri Mitropoulos, dating from April 1957 and Columbia's 30th Street Studio. Here, Francescatti chooses the truncated version of the work that was then the norm, omitting the central Intermezzo. This was his second recording of the Lalo work; the first was in 1946 with André Cluytens and a Parisian orchestra.

My transfer is from the original mono pressing, which has excellent sound. The Lalo was later issued in stereo, as a coupling for the Walton concerto, but I don't have that LP. To my perhaps deficient knowledge, the Vieuxtemps has never seen a stereo release.

Szell, Ormandy, Böhm and Maag Conduct Mozart and Haydn

Two early LPs for you today showing mid-20th century approaches to Mozart and Haydn from leading conductors and orchestras.

Ormandy attempts to poke a cellist in the eye

The Columbia album has an April 1947 edition of Mozart's Symphony No. 39 from the Cleveland Orchestra, early in George Szell's tenure with that ensemble.

It is backed by a recording of Haydn's Symphony No. 88 set down by the Philadelphia Orchestra and Eugene Ormandy in December of the same year.

Also on offer is a London LP with two additional Mozart symphonies. First is No. 36 with Karl Böhm leading the Vienna Philharmonic. I enjoyed this rendition, which is from September 1950, but Lionel Salter in The Gramophone certainly did not, as you will see in an appended review.

Young Peter Maag

The other side of the LP has the Suisse Romande Orchestra under Peter Maag performing Symphony No. 29, in what was the Swiss conductor's first recording - at least the first to have been released. The taping is from October 1950. I believe this was during a time when Maag was Ernst Ansermet's assistant in Geneva.

Brahms Second Concerto with Serkin, Ormandy

1945 Life Magazine ad - click to enlarge

I just transferred this recording, and enjoyed the results so much that I am rush releasing it, as it were, for your enjoyment.

"It" in this case is the Brahms piano concerto no. 2 with the great Rudolf Serkin. The work was something of a specialty of the pianist: he recorded it at least four times - three times with the present accomplices, the Philadelphia Orchestra and Eugene Ormandy.

This particular edition is the first, recorded in the Academy of Music on March 15, 1945. It was followed by 1956 and 1960 efforts, and a 1966 go-around with George Szell and the Cleveland Orchestra.

Original LP cover

The 1945 recording first came out on 78s, followed by this LP, which I believe was among the initial 100 issued by Columbia in 1948, with the generic "tombstone" cover used for the first classical releases. Later the record was sold with one of the better Alex Steinweiss covers (below).

I own two pressings of the recording, with distinctly different sound. This transfer is from the first pressing, which, while not really dry sounding, is distinctly less resonant and glamorous sounding than a later version, which was "enhanced" with reverb. It's fascinating how much different Serkin sounds when he has been aided by the engineer. Reverb is very much of a universal phenomenon these days, which may be why one contemporary orchestral recording sounds pretty much like another. I would prefer to have Serkin and the Philadelphians served without condiments, and that's what we have here.

Serkin in 1943

Serkin is a favorite of mine, although he is very different from some of the other pianists who have appeared here. He was considered both a romantic and classicist. He was not known as a natural virtuoso but he is capable of remarkable feats of pianism. His sound could be both honeyed and very gritty. All that can be heard here. But what comes through most of all is his complete command of both the music and the instrument, and his total involvement.

The sound here is just to my taste, although there is some slight wobble here and there due to a less-than-ideally flat pressing. The orchestral backing is very fine. I want to be sure to mention the superb cello solo in the slow movement, which presumably is by then-principal Samuel Mayes.

Ormandy Conducts the Complete Albéniz Iberia

Albéniz's Iberia is usually heard complete in its original form for piano, or in the selection of five pieces orchestrated by Enrique Fernández Arbós. However, the remaining items were later orchestrated by conductor-composer Carlos Surinach, and are themselves quite worthwhile.

I believe this recording was the first of the complete orchestrated Iberia, and it is exceptionally good. This is one of those Philadelphia/Ormandy records that appeared in the mono era never to be seen or heard again. Too bad, because it is beautifully played and brightly recorded - and the music is so attractive.

This comes to us courtesy of Joe Serraglio, who has graced us with a number of Philadelphia recordings already. It's a fine transfer; my contributions were slight rebalancing and tracking. The recordings were made in early 1956 in the Academy of Music.

My thanks to Joe - you will thank him, too, when you listen.

Honegger from Philadelphia

I have had very little time to prepare posts for several weeks, so I am most grateful to my friend Joe Serraglio for this notable contribution. It is the 1952 recording of Arthur Honegger's dramatic oratorio Jeanne d'Arc au Bûcher from the Philadelphia Orchestra and Eugene Ormandy with Vera Zorina in the title role.

The oratorio is on texts by Paul Claudel, much of which is declaimed by Zorina and Raymond Gerome. For that reason, Joe's inclusion of the complete libretto is particularly welcome.

The recording of this 1935 work was made by American Columbia in the Academy of Music in November 1952. Joe's transfer is from the 1953 Philips pressing.

Below we have Ormandy during the recording session with Gerome and Zorina, who incidentally was the wife of Columbia president Goddard Lieberson and made occasional appearances in dramatic roles on record. She also can be heard in works by Stravinsky, Debussy, Hindemith, Milhaud and Walton. Zorina started off as a ballerina, but I first remember her emerging from a reflecting pool during the course of the Ritz Brothers movie vehicle, Goldwyn Follies, which also featured Adolf Menjou, Kenny Baker, Edgar Bergen and a score by the Gershwin brothers. (Or did I dream that?)

Thanks to Joe once again for his generosity!

Schuman and Kirchner

Here by fervent request from David is Schuman's Credendum, together with Leon Kirchner's piano concerto - all courtesy of our friend Rich, a most knowledgeable collector. And because Rich is so informed, I think I'll let him provide the commentary, along with the transfer and scan:

"Here is the long awaited Credendum. I must say it's been a while since I got the record out and listened closely to it. While I admire the recent recording by the Albany Symphony under David Alan Miller, the Ormandy really does harken back to a time when music was played to the hilt, for all the intensity it was worth, and with all due regard to the current generation of highly accomplished musicians, this is the Philadelphia Orchestra, with very special characteristics and qualities.

"I've also included the Kirchner Piano Concerto on the other side. Not because people have been clamoring for it, but because it was part of the release, and if it weren't included, some people might be disappointed. To be perfectly, honest, I never much cared for it, sounds like Schoenberg wannabe to me. Actually, the concise and succinct Music for Cello, recorded by Yo-Yo Ma, strikes me as a much better piece. It is after all, a lifetime away in maturity.

"Here are the details. Separate folders in MediaFire for the Schuman and the Kirchner. The Schuman contains three mp3 files for each of the movements, and a jpeg for the album cover. The Kirchner contains three mp3 files for each of the movements.

William Schuman: Credendum
I. Declaration
II. Chorale
III. Finale
Eugene Ormandy, The Philadelphia Orchestra

Leon Kirchner: Piano Concerto
I. Allegro
II. Adagio
III. Rondo
Leon Kirchner, Piano
Dimitri Mitropoulos,
Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra of New York

Source: Columbia ML 5185 mono

Thanks Rich! The only thing I have to add is that the Kirchner was recorded in February 1956 in Columbia's 30th Street studio, and the Schuman was taped the next month in the Academy of Music.

NEW LINK

More Virgil Thomson in Philadelphia

I feel fortunate to follow up last week's post of rare Virgil Thomson with more Thomson from Philadelphia, again courtesy of Joe Serraglio.

This is if anything even more worthwhile, with some of Thomson's most successful scores. The Three Pictures are simply superb - I suggest you read the composer's note for a lucid discussion of both his intent and his technique. On the latter topic, Thomson writes, "The value of the procedure lies, of course, not in its ingenuity but in whatever suggestive power it may be found to have." In the case of these works, that power is considerable.

The William Blake songs are just as successful, if in one case controversial. One of the songs here is a setting of Blake's The Little Black Boy, intended as a plea for racial equality, but at times interpreted as itself racist. With hindsight, it is easy to understand why - Blake's poetry contrasts the boy's black face and white soul, for example. These recordings have been reissued twice - in both cases without this song. Accounts differ about whether this was with the consent or against the wishes of Thomson. I certainly hope I don't offend anyone by posting the full set. I am sure, though, that everyone will agree that the music is exceptional - both simple and sophisticated, in Thomson's usual manner - while Mack Harrell's singing is faultless. The songs were written for him and it shows.

The Pictures were recorded in February 1954 with the composer conducting, and the songs in November 1952 with Eugene Ormandy on the podium - both in the Academy of Music.

Again, the transfer and scans are by Joe - I was on the clean-up detail. Thanks again, Joe!

Virgil Thomson in Philadelphia

I am bringing this file LP to you courtesy of my friend Joe Serraglio. I asked Joe if I could present it here because it is an important and somewhat rare record, and because I wanted to feature Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra.

The first side of this record contains music from Virgil Thomson's score for Louisiana Story, a 1948 film by Robert Flaherty. The filmmaker was famous for documentaries, but this was a fictional treatment of a story involving an oil crew and a young Cajun boy. The film, funded by Standard Oil, was so successful in using the documentary style that it is still mistakenly called a documentary today.

Thomson himself had experience with Pare Lorentz's documentaries in the 1930s, and this music is in a somewhat similar style. It won the Pulitzer Prize for Thomson in 1949. The Philadelphians recorded both the soundtrack to the film and this suite, which uses an augmented instrumentation. The sessions for this recording were in May 1949 in the Academy of Music. In addition to the music captured here, Thomson also prepared a set of Acadian Songs and Dances from the film. I will be presenting these pieces at a later date in the the 1952 Little Orchestra Society/Thomas Scherman recording.

On the other side of the LP at hand, Thomson conducts the orchestra in five of the many "portraits" he composed of friends and associates for diverse instrumental forces. This set was recorded in May 1945 and originally issued on 78.

Joe has shared this recording elsewhere, so for those of you who have seen it before, the only difference here is that I have re-equalized Joe's excellent transfer a bit, and cleaned up the covers.

Thanks again to Joe!

LINK to February 2026 remastering

Schumann with Ormandy

My friend Larry Austin has posted an very early recording of Schumann's Symphony No. 4 that is worthy of note. It's available on his most interesting blog, Vinyl Fatigue. On this performance, Eugene Ormandy directs not the Philadelphia Orchestra but his previous band, the Minneapolis Symphony.

In his post, Larry suggests, "To fill out a CD the first and wonderful (mono) recording of the Schumann First Symphony by Munch and the Boston Symphony is a very nice fit. That performance is available here at Buster's Big 10-Inch Record."

I suspect that this nice referral was in part an inducement to get me to listen to an Ormandy record. There are hundreds of them, almost all of which I have been ignoring for the past 40 years, as Larry knows. He believes that this ignoring amounts to ignorance on my part - and after having listened, I have to say this Schumann Fourth is a fine performance, as Larry suggested.

To give both Larry and his favorite conductor their due, I will be posting one or more early Ormandy performances myself in the relatively near future.

My pace of posting has been slow lately - I have been out of town a good part of the past several weeks. Fortunately, friends such as Larry have come to the rescue. Coming up are contributions from anonymousremains - a UK-only Johnnie Ray LP - and Will Friedwald - the complete Mel Torme at the Crescendo. Thanks guys!

First Recordings of Roy Harris

I so much enjoyed the previous post of Roy Harris' music that I wanted to follow it with this LP of two premiere recordings of his symphonies. It couples a then-new recording of Harris' seventh symphony with a reissue of the composer's Symphony 1933.

Performing the seventh symphony is the Philadelphia Orchestra under Eugene Ormandy, who conducted the first performances. The sessions were in October 1955 in the Academy of Music.

The Symphony 1933 (which is sometimes called Harris' first) was a Boston Symphony performance under Serge Koussevitzky, who commissioned the work. This was a February 1934 recording in Carnegie Hall, made shortly after the first performance.

Both works display the muscular approach that Harris brought to his symphonies. The Philadelphia performance manages to sound refined, nonetheless, and the sound is well balanced without being especially vivid. In transferring the earlier work, Columbia has troweled on the reverb (as customary). This has the effect of making the timpani in the first movement sound strangely prominent and makes the atmosphere woolly. The earlier performance must have been all that Harris could have hoped for, although in truth the orchestra sounds a little uncomfortable with the meter changes in the Allegro.

The 1934 recording was thought to be the first recording of an American symphony when this LP came out, but I am not sure if this is still considered to be the case.

LINK - new remastered in ambient stereo, March 2025

Harl McDonald and Max Brand

When I came upon this record recently, I had high hopes for the Harl McDonald composition, based on other pieces by him in my collection.

Unfortunately, McDonald's Children's Symphony isn't very good. His idea was to teach kids how symphonies are put together by using familiar tunes, but he forgot to make the piece interesting.

On the flip side of the record is a composition by Max Brand - could it be the writer of Western novels?

Max Brand

Well, no. This is a different Brand - a German composer resident in the US for several decades after fleeing the Nazis. His music is actually more attractive than McDonald's. It's a piece of program music based on a poem, "The Wonderful One-Hoss Shay," by Oliver Wendell Holmes the elder. I've read an explanation of the poem, which has some theological meaning that I couldn't explain here even if I were interested in doing so, which I'm not. This again was a children's piece. I don't know what it says about my intellect if I can't explain the poetic basis of children's music, but it can't be good.

Maybe I am just in a bad mood. But you know how it is when a record doesn't fulfill your expectations. On the bright side, the Philadelphia Orchestra performances are excellent, particularly in the Brand item, conduced by Eugene Ormandy. And I don't believe (although I am not certain) that this record has been re-released.

By the way, McDonald was the manager of the Philly band for many years. The download includes a brief New York Times review.