From the Back Room: Bloch and Herbert

No sooner had I posted Buster's Back Room, where I listed some of the many projects I had completed but never offered on this blog, than a few people asked for this record.

It's a good one - from 1952 and the American Recording Society, it includes two relatively neglected works: Ernest Bloch's Trois Poèmes Juifs and Victor Herbert's Cello Concerto No. 2.

Walter Hendl

The works are split between two conductors: Walter Hendl, an American who at the time was the music director of the Dallas Symphony, and Max Schoenherr, an Austrian whose recorded works tended to be on the lighter side, such as operetta. Both were accomplished musicians.

Max Schoenherr

The record did attract some notable critical acclaim. John Briggs of the New York Times led his column about recent recordings with these thoughts: "The American Recording Society, aided by a grant from the Alice M. Ditson Fund of Columbia University, is continuing to turn up unusual and interesting works over-looked in the rush of ordinary commercial recording.

"Such a piece is the Victor Herbert Cello Concerto, newly available on records as performed by Bernard Greenhouse and the American Recording Society Orchestra, Max Schoenherr conducting.

Victor Herbert

"The concerto is a workable piece, designed for practical performance, affording the soloist ample opportunity to display his virtuosity. It is by no means a trivial work. The composer of Naughty Marietta and The Red Mill was also first 'cellist of the Philharmonic-Symphony and for some years conductor of the Pittsburgh Symphony. His concerto is the work of a musician trained in the thoroughgoing nineteenth-century German school, writing for an instrument which he knows at first hand. Herbert’s manipulation of the orchestra is easy, fluent and unforced."

Bernard Greenhouse

Cellist Bernard Greenhouse, who was then a solo artist, would help found the famed Beaux Arts Trio in 1955, with pianist Menahem Pressler and violinist Daniel Guilet.

Ernest Bloch

Bloch's superb Trois Poèmes Juifs also received praise from the Times and the Saturday Review. The Times: "On the same recording is heard a fine performance of Ernest Bloch's sensitive and moving Trois Poèmes Juifs, played by the American Recording Society Orchestra under the direction of Walter Hendl." The Saturday Review added that the piece was "beautifully formulated" and "well-performed," and that Hendl directed with "eloquent effect."

The Bloch may be the sole recording of the work: A Classical Discography does not list another. Herbert's two Cello Concertos have each been recorded a few times.

Both of these performances are listed as being by the "American Recording Society Orchestra," which generally turned out to be a European ensemble. A Classical Discography lists the Herbert as being recorded by the Vienna Symphony, but does not have an ID for the orchestra heard in the Bloch composition.

The recording of the concerto was tubby (I've addressed that characteristic), although the cello was and is well caught. The Bloch is nicely done.

LINK

Gordon MacRae in Victor Herbert Operettas - Plus a Bonus LP

My posts of pop operettas starring Gordon MacRae have been surprisingly popular. (They are The New Moon and Vagabond King, Student Prince and Merry Widow, and Desert Song and Roberta). So let's complete the set (and fill a request) with this disc combining The Red Mill and Naughty Marietta, two enduring Victor Herbert favorites.

As before, these are pop versions of the operettas, such as audiences might have heard from MacRae's weekly Railroad Hour on radio. Most of the song selections are quite brief, allowing more of the numbers to be included on each side of a 12-inch LP (or separately on 10-inch albums).

My transfer comes from a 12-inch disc, although I believe I have at least Naughty Marietta in yet another format - a double EP.

This post also includes a bonus - a 10-inch LP of selections from Naughty Marietta and Herbert's 1905 operetta Mlle. Modiste, from the RCA "Show Time" Series of the early 1950s, featuring Doretta Morrow.

The Red Mill

Still from the 1906 production

The operetta was a precursor of the American musical comedy, generally with slight but amusing stage business stitching together the singing. The Red Mill is a good example; Wikipedia describes it well: "The farcical story concerns two American vaudevillians who wreak havoc at an inn in the Netherlands, interfering with two marriages; but all ends well." To make sure you can place the opera, Capitol is sure to show you on the LP cover a red mill and the delightful Lucille Norman in a Dutch bonnet.

The photo of Norman and MacRae that inspired the cover art

Henry Blossom wrote the book and lyrics for the operetta, which opened on Broadway in 1906. The main attraction is Herbert's endless supply of melodies, including "The Isle of Our Dreams," "Moonbeams," "Because You're You" and "In Old New York.

The arranger and conductor for The Red Mill was Carmen Dragon, making his only appearance in this series. He was a Capitol mainstay for many years - as was George Greeley, who filled the same roles for Naughty Marietta. Neither use Herbert's own charts, even though the composer was famed for his orchestrations. For those, you can look to several more modern recordings.

Carmen Dragon and George Greeley

MacRae and Norman both sing well, although MacRae had a tendency to let his vocal line go slack during this period, a problem that never afflicted Norman. Capitol enlisted Los Angeles contralto Katherine Hilgenberg to sing "'Neath the Southern Moon."

From the 1906 production

These Capitol recordings date from 1954, and were the last in a series that began in 1950.

Naughty Marietta

Victor Herbert

Naughty Marietta, which graced Broadway in 1910, is Victor Herbert's most famous operetta and possibly his greatest achievement. Featuring an intricate - if unlikely - story by Rida Johnson Young, it takes place in the New Orleans of 1780, and involves pirates, slaves, disguises, a scheming politician and of course naughty Marietta.

Marguerite Piazza and Katherine Hilgenberg

Capitol decided to cast the title role with Marguerite Piazza, a talented singer with the required temperament but who also had a tendency to be squally and whose diction was not the clearest. She does match well with MacRae, however. Los Angeles contralto Katherine Hilgenberg joined the cast for "'Neath the Southern Moon," a good performance.

No matter who sings, Herbert's melodic profusion wins out. This particular work include both my own favorite Herbert melody ("I'm Falling in Love with Someone") and his most parodied piece ("Ah! Sweet Mystery of Life"). Capitol saved them both for the grand close of this quick and pleasant spin through Herbert's most enduring legacy. It and its disc mate are very well recorded, with the impact enhanced by ambient stereo.

Film still with Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald

Unlike The Red Mill, I found no stills from the first production of Naughty Marietta, so we'll have to make do with a publicity photo from the famous 1935 film, with Jeanette MacDonald as Marietta and Nelson Eddy as the hero, Captain Richard Warrington.

The download includes a few additional stills from the original production of The Red Mill, plus a brief review of Naughty Marietta from The Gramophone. W.A. Chislett liked the production, but complained of McRae's diction: "I do not like 'comrade' pronounced with a short 'a'." OK then.

Bonus - Songs from Mlle. Modiste and Naughty Marietta

In the early 1950s, RCA Victor marketed a set of EPs and 10-inch LPs with excerpts from popular musicals, which it called the "Show Time" Series. For one of the entries, the label reached back to the early 1900s for Naughty Marietta and another Victor Herbert score, that of Mlle. Modiste.

These materials (and all the "Show Time" Series entries) have appeared on the blog once before, but this is a new ambient stereo mastering based on the Internet Archive's 10-inch LP, rather than the EPs I presented years ago.

Felix Knight and Doretta Morrow

The leading lights of these Herbert operettas were Doretta Morrow and Felix Knight, both veterans of stage and film productions. Morrow introduced many famous songs as an original cast member of Where's Charley ("My Darling, My Darling"), The King and I ("I Have Dreamed" and "We Kiss in Shadow") and Kismet ("Baubles, Bangles and Beads"). Knight was a regular in the operetta and musical recordings of this era, having taken part in productions of The Merry Widow, The Desert Song, The Red Mill, Can-Can, Kiss Me Kate and others. 

Edward Roecker

Radio and stage vocalist Edward Roecker joined the cast for Mlle. Modiste's "I Want What I Want When I Want It." Leading the orchestra for this LP was Broadway veteran Jay Blackton.

The "Show Time" presentations were even more abbreviated than the Capitol series - four songs from each of the two shows on a 10-inch LP. But the selections here are appropriate, and the performances and sound are excellent. Morrow in particular is an exciting performer. RCA sensibly leads Mlle. Modiste with her gorgeous performance of "Kiss Me Again," one of Herbert's best songs.

Risë Stevens Sings Victor Herbert

Mezzo-soprano Risë Stevens, still with us today, managed to be popular not only on the operatic stage, but also in the more popular arts, appearing in films and on radio relatively soon after her 1938 Metropolitan Opera debut. She was often on television during its early years as well.

Stevens was a fine artist, but she also had a great manager. She appears in all types of ads, especially in the 1940s - for two different brands of cigarettes, for hand cream, for an airline, and even for a motor oil. She was a Columbia Records contractee during that time, and Columbia gave her a strong promotional push through full-page color ads in the popular magazines. Columbia at that time was running major ad campaigns for classical records in such periodicals as Life. (An example of one of these ads is at the bottom of this post.)

Billboard ad from 1950

In 1950, Stevens left Columbia to join RCA Victor. The attraction was producer Manie Sachs, who had left Columbia to join Victor, taking several artists with him, also including Ezio Pinza. To mark the occasion, RCA took out the peculiar ad at left, showing Stevens looking disconsolate at the move to RCA, and not nearly as glamorous as she appeared in her Columbia ads.

Fortunately, the artistic results were much brighter than the advertising. The first fruits of the RCA contract were contained in this 1950 LP of "Victor Herbert favorites". Stevens was in prime voice, sounding secure throughout her range and fully involved in these choice operetta items from the 1890s and early years of the 20th century.

Frank Black, long-time music director for NBC radio, conducts the anonymous orchestra. The sound is quite good.

Detail from a 1940s Columbia Records ad