Memphis 1954

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I've been indolent lately, so rather than bringing you some music, I am providing the next best thing: a photo of a record store!

I will admit that you have to be a record nerd to like this kind of thing. I have been such a kook my entire life; I often dream of record stores, and I wish I had the records I have found in those dreams.

The photo above comes from an unknown Memphis record store in 1954, as shot by Ernest C. Withers, a talented photojournalist who chronicled life in the city during those changing times. (See this Flashbak article for more on him and the recent book of his photos, Revolution in Black and White: Photographs of the Civil Rights Era.)

The store in the photo appears to be a lively place, complete with a couple of men who are either touting records (and probably playing them) through a portable PA system. The gentleman at right holds the EP version of Stan Kenton's LP, Sketches on Standards. 

To their right is a Columbia record stand that appears to be filled with everything but Columbia's product. I spy Clef, Capitol, RCA Victor, and Grand Award, with a strong emphasis on the music of Charlie Parker and Erroll Garner.

In the upper center of the photo is a display for the Magnificent Obsession soundtrack, which has appeared on this blog. Over to the left we have the Can-Can original cast LP next to a display of the Munsel-Peerce-Merrill-Pinza Lucia di Lammermoor highlights record.

On the right in the foreground is a small news stand with the major black-oriented magazines of the day plus a newspaper that I believe is the Tri-State Defender. Tucked behind the periodicals is a stand-up pushing Bing Crosby's Musical Autobiography box set, which another display above and slightly to the left insists is the "most important record album ever released." I would have voted for Weasels Ripped My Flesh, but then again I own three copies of the Bing set (two LP versions and the EP box) and only one of the Zappa.

I'd also like to draw your attention to the promo poster below the record counter, which tells us about baseball immortal Willie Mays' sole venture into the musical realm: "Say Hey" (his catchphrase) as recorded with the Treniers and Quincy Jones' orchestra. Happily, 67 years later Mays and Jones are still with us.

But my favorite display is the set of streamers advertising the Webcor line of phonographs. It depicts my own first record player, the "126 Midge," which the manufacturer proclaimed "the world's smallest portable fono" (opting for a fancy continental spelling of "phono"). I was the world's smallest record collector, so it was a perfect match!

Finally, note that on the wall behind the counter are racks of 78s, which the clerk could play for customers on demand. She appears to be doing so for the fellow on her left. This demo must have created quite a racket with the Stan Kenton spiel going on simultaneously, but that's one of the things that made record stores great.

Back soon with more music.

Early Schubert and Mendelssohn from Louis Lane, Plus a Summer Bonus

This post continues my traversal through the recording of George Szell's predecessors and assistants in Cleveland. Recently we have heard from Nikolai Sokoloff, Artur Rodziński and Erich Leinsdorf, and earlier from Robert Shaw and Louis Lane. We return to the latter today with one of his best discs, combining the first symphonies of those Romantic prodigies, Felix Mendelssohn and Franz Schubert.

The recordings come from a 1966 session in Severance Hall, when Lane was the Associate Conductor of the Cleveland Orchestra. He would become Resident Conductor in 1970, and later held conducting positions at the Dallas and Atlanta Symphonies.

US cover

This being the Cleveland Orchestra at the full extent of its powers, the performances are notable for their sheen and sophistication. Lane does not try anything tricky with the scores, not that they would benefit from such an approach. These are truly youth symphonies. Mendelssohn wrote his when he was 15; it was premiered at his sister's 19th birthday party and had its first public performances by the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra in 1827. The work shows an astonishing mastery for someone so young. The wonder is that it is not played more often.

For the symphony's 1829 London premiere, the composer reworked the Scherzo from his equally remarkable Octet of 1826 and substituted it for the Menuetto movement in the original score. Lane recorded both the Menuetto and Scherzo for his LP.

Schubert's first symphony dates from 1813, when the composer was 16. It, too, is not often heard, although it has been recorded any number of times, often in complete sets of Schubert's symphonies. The first major label recording was, I believe, led by Sir Thomas Beecham in 1953. That composer's suave way with the work has long been a favorite of mine, but Lane is not less persuasive.

UK cover

My transfer comes from the US and UK issues. As often happened, they had different covers. The 17rh century landscape (The Avenue at Middlehams by Meindert Hobbema) on the British release may have been more appropriate than the US' cardboard terrarium.

The two issues did have one thing in common beside the music - terrible pressings. I had to edit pieces and parts from the two records into one final, nearly blemish-free transfer. The sound is per usual from Severance Hall and the Columbia engineers - clear and a little too bright. Good enough to appreciate these fine performances from a much underrated conductor. Previously he has been heard here in film music, American composers, and a program of flute works, where he led the accompaniment for Maurice Sharp, the orchestra's principal.

A Summer Bonus

Our friend David Federman has sent along one of his welcome compilations, this one themed to the season - "Pinnacles of Summers Past." As usual, he has provided a generous selection of the best recordings of past decades - 32 items in all, including such artists as David Allyn ("I'm Old Fashioned"), and my own favorite summer song, "The Things We Did Last Summer," here in Jo Stafford's rendition. He ends with Dave Brubeck's "Summer Song" as performed by the composer and Carmen McRae. David's notes are in the download.

Leinsdorf Special - Mozart, Schubert, Rachmaninoff and the Strausses

Erich Leinsdorf's early career is less remembered than his Boston Symphony tenure and his later spell as guest conductor at major orchestras. On this blog, I've looked at several of his neglected first recordings, all dating from 1946, near the end of his abbreviated Cleveland Orchestra residency. I also presented a Philadelphia disc where he accompanies pianist Ania Dorfmann.

In this post, I'll add a bit to the list of his Cleveland recordings available on this blog, while moving on to explore his 1952-54 discs with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra.

The appropriate links are at the end of each section. Note (July 2024): these have now been remastered in ambient stereo.

Music of the Strauss Family

Leinsdorf 's Cleveland recordings all were made from February 22-25, 1946, when his successor (George Szell) had already been appointed. Even so, those discs are full of interest, ranging from his own suite from Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande to Schumann's First Symphony and Rimsky-Korsakov's Antar.

Today we take up some of the shorter works explored in that series of sessions. These include a selection of music from the Strauss family: Johann Strauss, Sr.'s "Radetzky March," Strauss, Jr.'s "Thunder and Lightning Polka" and "Perpetuum Mobile," Joseph Strauss' "Music of the Spheres" waltz and Eduard's "Bahn Frei!" The latter is here titled the "Race Track Polka," and is presented in an arrangement by Peter Bodge that I believe was written for the Boston Pops.

This music is well suited to Leinsdorf's skills and personality. While his readings will not remind you of the approach of the Austrian Willy Boskovsky, their spirit and precision are delightful.

The "Music of the Spheres" waltz has appeared on the blog before, but I also included it here to keep the set together. These transfers all come from a Cleveland Orchestra promotional LP issued in the 1970s.

LINK to music of the Strauss family

Rachmaninoff - Symphonic Dances

Leinsdorf was the principal conductor of the Rochester Philharmonic from 1947 to 1955. His first recording with that ensemble was an excerpt from Wagner's Siegfried with Eileen Farrell and Set Svanholm. That came in 1949, but per A Classical Discography it wasn't until 1952 that there was a follow-up.

The second disc was one of unusual interest - the first recording of Rachmaninoff's Symphonic Dances. This late composition was written for the Philadelphia Orchestra, and premiered by that ensemble under Eugene Ormandy in 1941. Ormandy, however, reputedly did not care for the piece and didn't record it until 1960.

Responding to Leinsdorf's LP, critics were sharply divided about the work but not the performance. The New York Times found the composition to be "tired sounding, without any highlights to capture the mind" while The New Records said it "immediately gains the attention of the listener and holds it until the last measure." Today, many consider it one of Rachmaninoff's best works.

The reviews agreed that the Rochester performance was a fine one: well-played and tautly conducted, as was Leinsdorf's norm at this point in his career. It is an impressive achievement - Rochester had a very accomplished orchestra - and it still sounds well.

The LP came out on Columbia's full-price label, but all of Leinsdorf's subsequent Rochester recordings for the company were issued in budget lines.

LINK to Rachmaninoff Symphonic Dances

Schubert - Symphony No. 8; Mozart - Symphony No. 40

Leinsdorf's next session in Rochester was in April 1953, where he taped three of the great works of the symphonic canon: Schubert's "Unfinished" Symphony, Mozart Symphony No. 40 and Beethoven's Symphony No. 3 (the latter not included here).

The first two works were coupled on Columbia's relatively new Entré budget series. As with the Rachmaninoff recording above, Leinsdorf's reading was "alert, rhythmically alive, musically faithful [and] tonally satisfactory," per the American Record Guide, which added that "the Rochester Orchestra is just below the first rank and really far better than the most of the European orchestras we regularly encounter on LP recordings these days." It's hard to disagree. C.G. Burke in High Fidelity, while noting that Leinsdorf had been demoted to the low-price Entré label, added, "Nothing so exalted can be bought for so little as Columbia RL 3070."

This transfer comes from a circa 1957 budget reissue on Columbia's Harmony label. The label identifies the ensemble as the "Rochester Orchestra," but as far as I know it has always been called the Rochester Philharmonic.

LINK to Schubert Symphony No. 8 and Mozart Symphony No. 40

Mozart - Symphonies No. 41 and 35

Perhaps heartened by the response to the Schubert-Mozart pairing above, Leinsdorf programmed two additional Mozart symphonies for his March 1954 recording session in Rochester. Although the performances, to my ears, have the identical approach to the record above - forthright, emphatic and detailed - the critics were not as impressed.

Burke, while noting the conductor's "clear-eyed directness," insisted that, "Most of us prefer more perfume, and more deviations in this breeze" (whatever that may mean). To me, it is hard to not be impressed by Leinsdorf and the orchestra's passion and precision.

This is another recording issued initially on Entré, but transferred from a subsequent release on the Harmony label.

The Rochester recordings all were remastered from lossless needle-drops found on Internet Archive. The sound both from Rochester and Cleveland is quite good. The downloads include scans, photos and reviews.

LINK to Mozart Symphonies No. 41 and 35