1950s Archives - Page 4 of 7

December 5, 2020December 5, 2020

Philadelphia Orchestra – Rimsky-Korsakov – Scheherazade – Symphonic Suite/Capriccio Espagnol

Sleeve Notes:

Once upon a time there was a mighty Sultan named Sharyar who had many wives, with all of whom he had apparently become thoroughly disillusioned. Realizing the faithlessness of women in general, he sought a practical solution to the problem of the cuckold by simply executing each bride after the nuptial night.

But he did not reckon with the beautiful new Sultana Scheherazade, who successfully postponed her own execution for a thousand and one nights by stringing together ancient Arabic and Indian tales and always maintaining suspense. Indeed, so well did the Sultana tell her tales that her husband finally relented in his resolve and spared her life altogether. For this, the children of all nations have long been grateful!

The Arabian Nights In their present form are Moslem in spirit and primarily Persian in inheritance, although little is actually known of their precise origin. They were first translated from the Arabic by Antoine Galland in 1704-17 and have since gone through innumerable editions and translations in almost every known language. The most famous of the stories are those of All Baba, Sinbad the Sailor, and Aladdin.

When Rimsky-Korsakov wrote his symphonic suite Scheherazade in the summer of 1888, he originally based the four movements of this work on several unrelated stories of the Arabian Nights, stringing them together (as did Scheherazade when she originally told the tales) with recurrent thematic material. They were: ” The Sea and Sinbad’s Ship “, II ” The Story of the Kalendar Prince “, Ill ” The young Prince and Princess “, and IV ” The Festival at Bagh-dad; The Sea; The ship goes to pieces on a rock surmounted by a bronze warrior; and Conclusion “. At the time of the first performance of this symphonic suite under the composer’s direction in 1889 at St. Petersburg, these titles were published. Although they are still associated with the work today, the composer later withdrew them, and instead he proposed to label the parts: I Prelude, II Ballade, Ill Adagio and IV Finale. But he abandoned even this with the later comment that, ” In composing Scheherazade I meant these hints to direct but slightly the hearer’s fancy on the path which my own fancy had travelled, and to leave more minute and particular conceptions to the will and mood of each listener. All I had desired was that the hearer, if he liked my piece as symphonic music, should carry away the impression that it is beyond doubt an Oriental narrative of some numerous and varied fairy-tale wonders, and not merely four pieces played one after the other and composed on the basis of themes common to all the four movements. Why then, if that be the case, does my suite bear the name, precisely, of Scheherazade? Because this name and the sub-title (After the ” Thousand and One Nights”) connotes in every-body’s mind the East and fairy-tale wonders; besides, certain details of the musical exposition hint at the fact that all of these are various tales of some one person (who happens to be Scheherazade) entertaining therewith her stern husband.”

In the music, the ” stern ” Sultan is represented by a thunderous motif, always with full orchestra, while the narrator, Scheherazade, is delineated by a delicate, rambling, cadenza-like theme for violin solo—appearing at frequent intervals throughout the work and introducing, in particular, the first and fourth movements. The suite represents the pinnacle of Rimsky-Korsakov’s great and unusual genius for orchestration. Its instrumentation includes: two flutes and piccolo, two oboes and cor anglais, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones and tuba, timpani, snare drum, bass drum, cymbals, tambourine, triangle, tamtam, harp and strings.

The Capriccio Espagnol dates from 1887, and received its first performance at St. Petersburg with the composer conducting. The title page of the score shows a dedication to the orchestra responsible for the premiere, the members being very enthusiastic about the new work at the first rehearsal. Each of the five sections was separately applauded, much to the com-poser’s delight.

Rimsky-Korsakov’s description of the music as ” glittering with dazzling orchestral colour ” is apt enough, and in the hands of virtuoso musicians such as the amazing Philadelphians under their gifted conductor, Eugene Ormandy, it proves itself one of the most exciting pieces for the orchestra. It is a wonderful demonstration of Rimsky-Korsakov’s skill in instrumental writing.

The Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Eugene Ormandy

Label: Philips GBL 5555

1956 1950s Covers

October 21, 2020October 21, 2020

Billy Randolph and The High-Hatters – The Roaring Twenties

Sleeve Notes:

“The Roaring Twenties” . . . the most hysterical and frantic era of American life came right after the stern and cruel years of World War I. The crisis was over . . . we had won . . . and instead of rebuilding the country and the economy . . . America went on a 10 year binge.

The whole pattern of the times was that of a gigantic playground, reaching its aesthetic peak in 1929. Spurred on by Prohibition – the last gasp of the dying order — Americans went on a 10 year “bat”. Sex was rediscovered, and the nation reacted between the rhythms of the “Charleston” and the “Black Bottom”.

In between bouts it staggered to the window to cheer Al Capone, Charles A. Lindbergh, Peaches Browning, Gertrude Ederle, Herbert Hoover’ and Aimee Semple McPherson.

Americans in the thousands surged into the cabarets . . . and from there to the speakeasies, joints and dives. The legitimate theatre and even the all-powerful vaudevalle (sic), watched the patrons pass them by for headier entertainment. But the legit theatre soon sensed the trend and spiced up its offerings . . . however, vaudeville was soon almost devoured by what had been, up to now, a laughable medium . . . the motion pictures.

Radio came into its own . . . and had it not been for the “talking pictures” . . radio might have forced Hollywood off its pinnacle.

This was the mad era of American life. Prices started to climb upwards and upwards. And in the early 20’s many started to get their feet wet in the stock market. There were some who warned of over-inflation . . . but the brakes were off and nobody wanted to listen. Between 1924 and 1927 Americans were dazzled to learn that the crop of millionaires had increased from only 75 to 293. Show business was bulging at the seams. There were 21,897 theatres, museums and concert halls; 190 circuses, and 8,876 other types of exhibition. A 1925 issue of The Saturday Evening Post carried 249 pages of ads that cost $1,400,000. William Jennings Byran lectured in Florida on the advantages of buying land . . . and for an encore, Gilda Gray did her shimmy dance.

The bubble began to burst in 1926, and collapsed with a roar in September of that year when a hurricane roared out of the Caribbean to swamp the Miami boom area.

March 24, 1928 marked the beginning of the “Bull Market” on Wall Street which swirled the nation to the top of its financial razzle-dazzle. Everybody from bootblack to steeplejack plunged into the market for a nip at the Golden Apple. But in October of 1929 . . . the entire facade fell with a crashing sound that was heard around world. The grey skies over Wall Street seemed light compared to the ashen faces of those who saw their entire life go roaring by.

The financial bankruptcy of 1929 was the logical follow-up to an era that began in 1919 with a spiritual bankruptcy.

The feminine fashions of the 20’s seem to be recreating themselves in the late 1950’s . . but with the hope that the fashions don’t foreshadow the same financial deluge.

But what of the music of this frantic and frentic era? The songs were those of the flapper… the one with the stockings rolled “below” the knee. The hip-flask… and long cigarette-holder (for women had just started to smoke in public). The songs of the era were bright and slightly fragile. The melodies that depicted wild life on the campuses of America. The songs from the smoke-filled cabarets of the major cities. The spots where for a price, the most beautiful dancer in the show would bathe in a bowl of champagne… for the exotic enjoyment of the elite. An era running full-speed towards destruction. Not knowing it. But laughing and singing as they went. An era that is represented many times over in other ages past.

So this… the music of the roaring 20’s. Gay! Light-hearted! Not subtle! Just music for a good time… and never mind about tomorrow. Typical of the Roaring 20’s.

Label: Crown Records 5070
Cover Assembly: HOSCO ARTS

1958 1950s Covers

September 25, 2020September 25, 2020

Morton Gould and His Orchestra – Blues in the Night

Sleeve Notes:

SIDE 1 Band 1 — Arlen BLUES IN THE NIGHT (from “Blues in the Night”) Band 2 —De Sylva BIRTH OF THE BLUES (from “George White’s Scandals of 1926”) Band 3 —Ellington SOLITUDE Band 4 — Lane OLD DEVIL MOON (from “Finian’s Rainbow”) Band 5 — Griselle NOCTURNE (from “Two American Sketches”) Band 6 —Braham LIMEHOUSE BLUES (from “Andre Chariot’s Revue”)

SIDE 2 Band I —Ellington MOOD INDIGO Band 2 —Handy ST. LOUIS BLUES Band 3 — Ellington SOPHISTICATED LADY Band 4 — Gould BIG CITY BLUES Band 5 —Hudson MOONGLOW Band 6—De Rose DEEP PURPLE (Arranged by Morton Gould)

You, too, can create a blues theme. Perhaps you already have. It can happen most any time after dark, when you suffer an attack of nostalgia. This is not classical nostalgia, which is Heimweh, but Authentic Nostalgia, which involves a ponderable quota of self-pity. It is likely to be engendered by thoughts of an affront from someone who should have treated .you better. It needn’t be that personal, of course, but it is more fun to make up a blues theme about the some-one who didn’t understand ( or, more poignantly, certainly did! ) than about discomforts, even though they be financial. You may find words for your blues theme, but we’re talkin’ tunes now.

When you’re suffering from Authentic Nostalgia, a blues theme can be an agreeable palliative. You hum it or sing it or whistle it in musical contemplation of your sentimental malaise. You keep on giving it voice or vent, in an apparently definitive set of tones, but if you taped your first venture in self-expression and your second, you might be astonished to notice the changes in the theme. Perform it for a listener who might, in turn, sing or play it, and there would be further variations on your scrap of melody. As it passes from hand to hand, or, as some have remarked, from mouth to foot, it continues to have a somewhat amorphous design. As Morton Gould observes, a blues theme is “not set.” It is, he believes, the kick-off for improvisation, and almost everyone who deals with it is in some degree an improviser. The “not set” nature of a blues theme is obvious in its uncertainty about its tonality, which usually is ambivalent, not being convinced that it is all major or all minor — or that this makes much difference. When the little theme grows up to be a composition, it is likely to come to a major conclusion. It’s a not too rigid tradition of blues compositions, and has no special implication concerning the major-minor dichotomy of blues themes.

The basic materials of the dozen settings collected here as BLUES IN THE NIGHT are not simply blues themes and they don’t contain anything made from the home kit for blues manufacture. They are blues compositions, in which musicians of gifts and skills have developed blues themes or suggestions of blues atmosphere into successful songs and instrumental works. The initial blues elements have indicated to Mr. Gould the treatments that you hear in these presentations, but the entire composition is involved in the orchestral fantasy that ensues. Some of them are not officially blues, but all have within them an emotion that finds voice in melodié bleue. Six of them were originally instrumental music; two began as unaffiliated songs, two were from revues, one was from a film, and one was from a musical play. It may be pertinent to observe that one of the works, the Nocturne, is from Thomas Griselle’s Two American Sketches (the other sketch was a march) , which won the first prize of $10,000 in a Victor Talking Machine Company competition in 1928.

Let us revert, for a moment, to the subject at hand. Most blues concern a personal unhappiness. And to expand a well-esteemed cliché, this unhappiness becomes more agree-able when it is shared. When this sorrow is converted into the writing of one of our leading American composers, and then translated to a large orchestra, your sorrow is shared by so many people that the whole transaction has become eminently attractive.

The fantasies, which, Mr. Gould remarks, develop from the periphery of the blues, are improvisatory in feeling but written down on score paper as precisely as if they were a four-movement symphony in G-flat minor, in which key none of these is — or many symphonies, for that matter.

Even the electronic devices and techniques are part of the scores which Mr. Gould has prepared. This then, is an amalgamation of individual inspiration and electric wizardry, but the free-jazz factor underlies Mr. Gould’s writing. It does so because many of these men, who are experienced and resourceful in playing the symphonic repertory, are accomplished jazz artists also. They can bring to the performance of music on paper not only the surety of expert symphonic readers and stylists, but the necessary waywardness of the popular improviser. They can “play strict and keep loose,” as the early-nineteenth-century conductors used to say to their bands, if this has been reduced to English correctly. The result is quite personal, both as to Mr. Gould’s settings and interpretations and as to your reaction. Some of the compositions will have special associations, perhaps mnemonic twinges that recall some blues moments of your own. Others will be simply a few minutes of brilliant sound — and is that a misfortune?

What any blues composition — or even wispy blues theme that you became possessor of — says to you is between you and the blues. It doesn’t need to say the same thing every time you hear it, and it may not even sound the same way every time you hear it on the same recording! There are many shadings in BLUES IN THE NIGHT. They won’t seem quite the same to you always, depending on your own mood as you play the record. You know how it is with the blues!
Notes by ROBERT A. SIMON © by Radio Corporation of America, 1957

This Is an RCA Victor “New Orthophonic” High Fidelity Recording.
It is distinguished by these characteristics: 1. Complete frequency range. 2. Ideal dynamic range plus clarity and brilliance. 3. Constant fidelity from outside to inside of record. 4. Improved quiet surfaces.

It is distinguished by these characteristics: 1. Complete frequency range. 2. Ideal dynamic range plus clarity and brilliance. 3. Constant fidelity from outside to inside of record. 4. Improved quiet surfaces.
A blunted or chipped needle can permanently damage your most valuable records. A worn needle will impair the quality of sound reproduction you hear. Make sure your needle is in good condition before you play this record. If in doubt, have it checked by your dealer — or buy a new needle.
LM-2104 Printed in U. S. A.

Label: RCA LM-2104
Morton Gould Biography

1957 1950s Covers

September 5, 2020September 5, 2020

Charlie Ventura Plays HiFi Jazz

Sleeve Notes:

If it’s jazz you’re after—that is, the listening and dancing kind—you’ll go a long way before hearing anything as truly great as this superb Hi-Fidelity recording by Charlie Ventura and his quintet.

Here you have in Ventura a saxophone virtuoso who for many years has been an unparalleled great. His fabulous technique, warm tone, and ability to play with a strong swinging beat have won him the respect and admiration of fans and critics throughout the world.

Ventura is the fourth of thirteen children. As a youngster, when his father was teaching him the hat-making trade, Charlie bought a tenor sax. and spent every spare moment practicing his horn and developing the intricate fingering technique that enables him to rip off difficult tunes and passages at terrific tempos with ease and assurance.
After graduating from South Philadelphia High School in 1935, he spent as much spare time as he- could jamming with jazz men at various Philadelphia clubs.

At one time or another in his varied and colourful career, Charlie has worked with some of the greatest names in contemporary jazz . . . men like Gene Krupa, Roy Eldridge, Dizzy Gillespie, Bill Harris, Buddy DeFranco, Teddy Powell, to mention just a few.

Eventually Ventura formed his own group and their fresh approach to jazz won for them first place in “Down Beat”, “Metronome” and “Orchestra World” polls. Charlie’s imaginative and swinging tenor playing also won for him a Metronome Saxophone Soloist award.

About his music, Ventura says, “Our music is composed, arranged and performed for both the listening and dancing audience, and while using original ideas incorporating ‘new sounds’ into the music, we do not lose the general structure of a melody, line, or rhythm. We follow through with this method on all of our numbers and in this way, we do not alienate the many, who have not yet come to completely accept the rapid change being made in popular music and jazz these days.

Playing tenor, alto, baritone and bass saxophones, Ventura leads

Dave McKenna—Piano Mousey Alexander—Drums Richard Davis—Bass Billy Bean—Guitar

The verve and versatile, the change of mood and mastery of style which he displays on this Gala L.P. has made Ventura one of the unquestioned greats among the great jazz instrumentalists.
This record is a USA TOPS recording

Label: Gala Records GLP 344

1958 1950s Covers

August 13, 2020August 15, 2020

Damn Yankees – An Original Cast Recording

Sleeve Notes:

GWEN VERDON (Lola)
Gwen Verdon’s electrifying performance in Can-Can sent the Broadway critics hurrying off to their thesauri for new adjectives; she was hailed as the greatest Broadway “discovery” since Mary Martin first sang My Heart Belongs to Daddy. Miss Verdon was born in Culver City, California, near the M-G-M studio where her father was an electrician. Her mother, a protegee of Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn, managed a Denishawn school in Culver City. Enrolling there at an early age, Miss Verdon received further ballet training from Ernest Belcher, father of Marge Champion.

She did not pursue a dancing career in earnest, however, until 1948, when, as a columnist and film critic for the Hollywood Reporter, she saw Jack Cole in a night club. Inspired by Cole’s performance, she dusted off her dancing shoes to become his partner and assistant for five years. She has danced on Broadway in Alive and Kicking and Magdalena, returned to the coast to appear in the movies—On the Riviera, David and Bathsheba, Meet Me After the Show and Mississippi Gambler —which Cole choreographed. Then came Damn Yankees on Broadway, assuring her a permanent niche in the gallery of big-time stars.

SYNOPSIS
DAMN YANKEES, which is based on Douglass Wallop’s Book-of-the-Month selection, The Year the Yankees Lost the Pennant, tells the story of a plump and balding, middle-aged real estate salesman in Washington, D. C., who is an avid fan of his home-town ball team. In a rash moment he murmurs that he’d “sell his soul to see the Washing-ton Senators win the pennant from the damn Yankees.” At this moment the Devil appears, in the guise of a personable gentleman called Mr. Applegate, who offers to make a pact with him: in return for his soul, he will transform him into a young and unbeatable ball-player. Tile real estate agent agrees but insists on an “escape clause” whereby at a certain date he will be restored to his former self to rejoin his wife and live out his years normally. The Devil agrees.

The phenomenal young player, now known as Joe Hardy, joins the
Senators, and the team moves right up to second place in the American League. But Applegate has other plans; he is secretly on the side of the Yankees and is plotting to whet the hopes of the Senators and then to wrest the victory away from them at the final hour. When young Hardy learns this, he asks to exercise his option and to be returned to his former status at the side of his faithful wife. But Applegate employs the services of Lola, a ravishingly beautiful witch, to tempt him into staying on the side of the Devil. However, Hardy remains true to the wife he left behind him.

Lola breaks a precedent by falling in love with her victim and aids him in defeating the Devil. For her trouble she is converted again into an ugly old crone. The Washington ball club emerges victorious, and the real estate agent is restored to his wife.

Label: RCA Victor LSO-1021(e)
Cover Photo: Gene Cook

1955 1950s Covers

August 13, 2020September 6, 2020

Conchita Supervia – Sings Carmen

Sleeve Notes:

Operatic history has produced many coloratura sopranos, but very few coloratura mezzo-sopranos. Rossini’s wife, the Spanish Isabella Colbran, was one such singer; and for her remarkable mezzo-soprano voice, with a contralto downward range that at the same time was able to cope with florid passages, he wrote several of his operas. In our day, another Spanish artist was similarly endowed. the vivacious and beautiful Conchita Supervia. The date of Supervia’s birth is still a matter of some conjecture; most authorities now accept it as having been in Barcelona on December 8th, 1895; but the Diccionario enciclopedico de la Musica, published in Barcelona, dates her birth as 1891.

The publicity that was put out at the time of her debut in 1910 claimed her age as being fourteen and a half, which ties up with the 1895 birthdate. Yet in November 1911 she was singing Oktavian in Rosenkavalier, when apparently not quite sixteen; and despite the fact that many Spanish singers have made very early debuts, it seems highly unlikely that anyone so young could have coped with that particular role.

She came from an old Andalusian family and was christened Concepcion Supervia Pascual. She was educated in a convent in her native city, and later at the Conservatory of the Liceo, Barcelona.

Her stage debut took place in Buenos Aires in 1910 in Breton’s opera Los amantes de Teruel and during her first season she was also heard in Stiattesi’s Bianca di Beaulieu; among her fellow artists were the tenor Francisco Villas and the baritone Jose Segura Tallien.

In November 1911 she was chosen to sing the role of Oktavian in the first Italian performance of Der Rosenkavalier at the Teatro Constanzi, Rome, with Hariclea Darclee, the first Tosca, as the Marschallin, Ines Maria Ferraris as Sophie and Pavel Ludikar as Ochs.

In 1912 Supervia appeared at the Teatro Liceo Barcelona as Carmen and Delilah with the tenor Bernardo De Muro. In 1914 she sang Leonora in La Favorita, Mignon, Carmen, Santuzza, and Maddalena in Rigoletto in Havana. Other members of the company included Maria Barrientos, Rosalia Chalia Herrera and Concetto Paterna.

In 1915 Supervia made her American debut with the Chicago Opera as Charlotte in Werther with Lucien Muratore; she was also heard as Mignon and Carmen; in both of these operas she sang opposite the tenor Charles Dalmores.

By the end of the war she was again in Barcelona singing Delilah; and by the early 1920’s she was establishing herself in Italy: Marguerite in the Berlioz Faust at Bergamo, Car-men at Genoa, Mignon at Ferrara.

Then came an invitation’to join the Scala company for the 1924-5 season. The theatre at this time was enjoying one of the most successful periods in its history under Toscanini; and Supervia sang there during each season until 1929. Her first appearance was as Hansel with Ines Maria Ferraris as Gretel and Elvira Casazza as the Witch, conductor Ettore Panizza; she repeated this role in 1926 and 1929. In 1927 and 1928 she sang Oktavian, the first time under Panizza, the second under Strauss himself, who also conducted a revival of Figaro with Supervia as Cherubino, Mercedes Llopart as the Countess, Adelaide Saraceni as Susanna, Stabile as Figaro and Umberto Di Lelio as the Count. This opera was repeated the following season under Gabriele Santini, who also conducted the first Scala performance of Ravel’s L’Heure Espagnole, with Supervia as Concepcion.

It is strange that the Scala never heard her either as Car-men or in the Rossini roles that she made so much her own during the years 1925-35. These included Angelina in Cenerentola, Isabella in L’Italiana in Algeri and Rosina in Il Barbiere (in its original key). She sang these roles under a variety of conductors—Gui, Marinuzzi, Bellezza and Serafin; and with an ensemble of artists whom she virtually insisted should always appear with her in these works : Piesira Giri, Ebe Ticozzi, Dino Borgioli, Nino Ederle, Vincenzo Bettoni, and Carlo Scattola. When these operas were heard in Florence, Turin, Paris and London, it was with these artists; though at Covent Garden Ezio Pinza was also heard as Don Magnifico in Cenerentola.

Supervia’s London debut took place on March 28th, 1930 at the Queen’s Hall; and from thence onwards she was a frequent visitor to our concert halls. A year later she married Mr. Ben Rubenstein, a London business man, and made her home in England. She was invited to appear at Covent Garden as both Carmen and Cenerentola in 1934, but declined to do both roles at the same time, because of the great difference, dramatically and musically, in them. So in 1934 she sang only Cenerentola; in the first part of the 1935 season she repeated this role and added Isabella in L’Italiana, and then, in the latter part of the season, she sang Carmen under Sir Thomas Beecham with Jose Luccioni as Don Jose, Jose Beckmans as Escamillo and Ina Souez (later Joan Cross) as Micaela.

Supervia had sung Carmen in Paris in 1930 with Gaston Micheletti as Jose, Andre Gaudin as Escamillo and Odette Ertaud as Micaela; and she returned to sing it again at the Opera-Comique in 1933. It was during 1930, however, that the extracts on this record were made with her original Paris Jose (Micheletti), Mercedes (Andree Bernadet) and Frasquita (Andree Vavon); the conductor is Gustav Clodz.

After Supervia’s Covent Garden appearances in the summer of 1935, it was announced that she would again sing there during the short autumn season and would tour the British provinces with the Covent Garden company in Cenerentola. For health reasons she had to cancel these appearances.

On March 29th, 1936 she entered a London nursing home to await the birth of her baby. On March 30th, she gave birth to a still-born child and a few hours later she herself died. Fortunately her voice and art have been preserved for all time by the Gramophone, and twenty years after her death we can still enjoy the magic and charm that were Conchita Supervia.

Label: Parlophone Odeon PMA 1024

1956 1950s Covers

August 11, 2020September 8, 2020

Bill Snyder – Music for Holding Hands

Sleeve Notes:

Side One

The Eleventh Hour
My Own True Love
The Girl Next Door
Younger Than Springtime
The Moon Of Manakoora
I’ll Follow My Secret Heart

Side Two

The High And The Mighty
When I Grow To Old To Dream
As Time Goes By
My Dearest
Falling In Love Again
I’ll See You Again

The mood of this album is completely expressed by the title. For anyone who wants the most romantic of mood music, this is it. The titles, as well as the melodies, are redolent with glamour; the songs are those to which lovers have always thrilled; there are tender heart beats in every bar. The spell of this music is accentuated by the subtle piano playing of Bill Snyder.

Bill Snyder was born in Chicago, climbed on a piano stool at the age of three – and has been there ever since. He was six when he made his first recital appearance in Chicago’s Kimball Hall. A scholarship at De Paul University was followed by a degree of Bachelor of Music at the Chicago Conservatory of Music, after which he got his Master’s at the American Conservatory of Music. It was in Chicago that he met Moritz Rosenthal, then the last living pupil of Franz Liszt. Rosenthal heard him and “adopted” Bill as a protege. Snyder’s distinguishing technique thus has a long heritage.

In 1940 he was on the staff of the Columbia Broadcasting System, served with the Air Force for several years and, after his discharge, formed a dance band. In 1952 he joined Brunswick; his records have been popular in Europe as well as in his own country. Besides his own arrangements, Bill Snyder has a long list of original compositions to his credit, ranging from novelty piano solos to serious concertos. His custom-piano, “Oscar,” is one of the few pianos which has a built-in air-conditioned unit that keeps the temperature and humidity equalized. “Oscar” was four years in the making and is insured for $25,000.00.

Label: Brunswick LAT 8108

1956 1950s Covers

August 11, 2020September 6, 2020

International Symphonic Orchestra – Scheherazade

Sleeve Notes:

Scheherazade, by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakoff (1844-1908) is a sea haunted work that has never failed to exercise its magic from the time it was composed, in 1888, to to-day. It is an extraordinarily strong and beautiful composition portraying with dreamy seriousness both the fantasy and realism of the Arabian Nights. It is a symphonic composition in four movements with fairy tale titles.

To the score, Rimsky-Korsakoff appended the following paragraphs:

‘The Sultan of Schahriar. persuaded of the falseness and faithlessness of women, has sworn to put to death each one of his wives after the first night. But the Sultaila Schehcrazade saved her life by interesting him in tales which she told him during one thousand and one nights. Pricked by curiosity the Sultan puts off his wife’s exe-cution from day to day, and at last gave up his bloody plan.”

Notable is the orchestral glow of Scheherazade. The strings arc dethroned from their supremacy in the classical symphony orchestra, but they sing all the more sweetly as solo voices and divided choirs. Woodwind and brass instruments play is much more important role than in the classical orchestra, both as solo instruments and in fascinating, everchanging combinations. Greatly expanded, too, is the role of the percussion instruments, the composer using not only is variety of drums, but pizzicato strings and staccato woodwinds.

The work is in four movements like a symphony, although it hardly follows the symphony-sonata form: As indicated in Rimsky-Korsakoff’s program, the opcn-ing movement depicts The Sea and Sinbad’s Ship. The largo e maestoso opening introduces the Scheherazade theme. The main portion is in a faster allegro non troppo tempo, marked by undulating figures. It presents most of the melodic subject matter of the later movements already.

The second movement describes the Narrative of the Kalender Prince. Again the Scheherazade motive is heard, lento, by violin and harp. After an andantino interlude, the movement concludes with is staccato allegro motto brass motive. The Young Prince and the Young Princess is the subject of the third movement, marked andantino quasi allegretto. There is is particularly graceful violin melody in addition to the Scheherazade motive, which is heard again from the solo violin and the harp.

The concluding movement portrays is Festival at Bagdad, The Sea – The Ship goes to pieces on is Rock Surmounted by is Bronze Warrior. In allegro molto, earlier themes arc repeated and, so to speak, summarized. The festival is pictured by an allegro molto e frenetico passage. The Scheherazade motive returns briefly, followed by is tarantella marked vivo, with the Scheherazade motive repeated softly and tranquilly in conclusion.

Label: Gala GLP 349

1958 1950s Covers

August 11, 2020August 15, 2020

Lou Busch his piano and orchestra – Lazy Rhapsody

Sleeve Notes:

A Grand piano, a full orchestra, and the imaginative talent of Lou Busch create languorous rhapsodies on the themes most treasured, and requested, of any popular musician. The affection and respect Lou Busch holds for these melodies is best stated by the expression he lends to them, both in his articulate piano stylings and romantic orchestrations. And in this album he plays the songs with no gimmicks, no gadgets, and no grand-standing. Played as Lou plays them – with finesse and imagination and melodic emphasis – the tunes have never sounded newer, more listenable, or more rhapsodic.

Lou Busch has played the piano all his life. His training in the rhapsodic style began with the Hal Kemp band, continued with Freddy Martin’s socially styled orchestra. Now, a star in his own right, he’s won top rating as arranger and conductor with records like “Zambesi!’ But it’s as pianist that Lou has learned first-hand what music people want to hear most and how they like it played.

This album is made up of the numbers most often requested of Lou Busch when he’s at the piano. Lou understands their popularity, and makes each in its own way a very special musical occasion.

Lou, in fact, has been responsible for several of these tunes reaching the “hit” category. He created the original dance arrangement of Shangri-la for Freddy Martin and recorded The Very Thought of You with Ray Noble. “Many of these songs,” says Lou, “are dedicated to and identified with the greatest dance bonds in the land. Sunrise Serenade, of course, could belong to no one but Frankie Carle as could Cumana only to Barclay Allen. In a Mist was Bix Biederbecke’s creation. Bix was famous as a trumpeter, but was also an outstanding mood pianist!’

Lou Busch knows these songs just as he knows the pianists with whom they are identified. In a very real sense this album is dedicated to The Pianist, for in it are songs that belong to the distinguished tradition of popular keyboard masters. Lou Busch is certainly an illustrious member of that tradition.

Label: Capitol T1072

1958 1950s Covers

August 9, 2020September 6, 2020

Philadelphia Orchestra – Ravel Bolero (10 inch disc)

Sleeve Notes:

Ravel’s Bolero was commissioned by the dancer Ida Rubenstein, and was originally presented by her in Paris during 1928. In its original form it was a dance pantomime with a Spanish setting, and Ida Rubenstein, portraying an attractive and exotic Spanish dancer, was seen dancing on a table top at a Spanish inn. As the men watched, her dancing became more animated, the excitement rising as they beat out the rhythm with their hands and their heels until the great final crescendo was reached. At this point knives were drawn and the episode finished in a wild and riotous brawl.

The piece caused a sensation at its first performance, and when Toscanini played it for the first time in America, there were scenes of wild enthusiasm in Carnegie Hall. Subsequently Bolero went into the repertoire of every symphony orchestra and shortened, often vulgarised, versions were churned out incessantly by the dance-bands. Hollywood caught the Bolero fever and made a film around the piece – or rather a section of it! This composition has always been a favourite target for the critics, but Ravel was very emphatic in pointing out the limitations of this work, which he realised all too well. He wrote “I am particularly desirous that there should be no misunderstanding about this work. It constitutes an experiment in a very special and limited direction . . . it is a dance of steady movement and absolute uniformity as regards melody, harmony and rhythm, the last incidentally beaten out on the side-drum. The one point of variation is given by the orchestral crescendo .. . I have written a piece lasting 17 minutes and consisting wholly of orchestral tissue without music, of one long very gradual crescendo . . . it is for the listener to take it or leave it.”

La Valse (1920) was also first conceived as a ballet and received its premiere in Paris towards the end of 1920, the choreography being created by Fokine. An earlier performance had taken place in Vienna, where Ravel had played the work as a piano duet: His partner was the Italian pianist and composer, Alfredo Casella, who has told us that Ravel drew some of the material for this “poeme choreographive” from sketches for a tone poem to be called “Wien,” which Ravel had had in mind some three or four years previous. Casella has also stated that the composer drew certain inspiration from a poem which fell into three sections: The Birth of the Waltz – The Waltz – the Apotheosis of the Waltz.

Ravel heads the score with a preface: “At first the scene is dimmed by a kind of whirling mist, through which one discerns, vaguely and intermittingly, the waltzing couples. Little by little, the vapours disperse, the illumination grows brighter, revealing an immense ballroom filled with dancers; the blaze of the chandeliers comes to full splendour. An Imperial Court about 1855:” From a vague and almost intangible opening Ravel works up fragmentary melodies and mere suggestions of musical ideas into a dazzling and colourful kaleidescope of sound. There is, none the less, underlying this superficial brilliance, a bitterness and cynicism which seems to reflect the composer’s view of Imperial Vienna in its decadence.

Label: Philips SBR 6201

1956 1950s Covers