1960s

Anneliese Rothenberger - Successes - another beautiful album cover from Cover Heaven

Anneliese Rothenberger – Successes

Sleeve Notes:

Anneliese Rothenberger, who endeared herself to thousands who watched Eric Robinson’s BBC TV programme “Music for You”, has in a very few years established herself as an international artiste with a wide repertoire ranging from operetta to Richard Strauss.

SIDE ONE Bands 1-4 with FFB ORCHESTRA conducted by WERNER SCHMIDT-BOELKE (© 1960) Band 5 with ORCHESTRA OF THE GERMAN OPERA, BERLIN, conducted by HANS ZANOTELLI (®1963) Band 1 – Klange der Heimat (Czardas) (from ‘Die Fledermaus’ Act 2) (Meilhac and HaMvy arr. Haffner and Genee – Johann Strauss II) Rosalinde, masquerading at a fancy-dress party as a Hungarian countess and challenged as to her identity, ‘proves’ it by singing in a convincing idiom of her supposed homeland. Band 2 – In heimlichen Dimmer der silbernen Ampel (from ‘Eva’ Act 1) ( Whiner and Bodansky – Lehcir) Before a mirror Eva, a young factory worker with whom the owner has fallen in love, recalls her mother’s remembered beauty and hopes that her own cap be compared to it. Band 3—Im chambre separee (from DWopernball’) (Leon and Waldberg – Heuberier) with HELGA HILDEBRAND, soprano At a ball at the Paris Opera a pair of young lovers agree to forsake the dance-floor for the seclusion of a chimbre separee’ (or private box), where over a tete-a-tete supper they .may find better entertainment. Band 4 – Leise erklingen die Glocken vom Campanile (Barcarolle) (Softly chime the bells’, from Balkanliebe) (Kahr, Hardt- Warden – Kattnigg) A romantic song with a quiet choral backing and restrained bell effects. Band 5—Martern aller Arten (Die Entfiihrung aus dem Serail’ Act 2) (Stephanie—Mozart) Constanze, a captive in Pasha Selim’s harem, responds to his threats of torture with defiance and scorn, skilfully alternating her resistance with a plea for mercy to the potentate whose compassion Providence will surely repay. Martern aller Arten / mogen meiner warten, / len verlache Qual und Pein. / Nichts, soll mich erschattern, / nur dann ward’ ich zittern, / wenn ich untreu konnte sein. / Nur dann, usw. / Lass dich bewegen, verschone mich, / des Himmels Segen belohne dich ! usw. / Doch dich riihrt kein Flehen. / Stand-haft, sollst du sehen, / duld ich jede Pein und Not. / Ordne nur, gebiete, / drohe, strafe, wiite, / zuletzt befreit mich doch der Tod ! / Zuletzt befreit mich, usw. I des Himmels Segen, usw. / Doch dich riihrt, usw. Torture., of all kinds I may await me, / but I will laugh at torment and pain. I Nothing shall shake my resolve, | I would only tremble, | if I were to be unfaithful. | I would only, etc. / Have pity, spare me, | let Heaven’s blessing reward you, etc. | But no entreaties move you. | You shall see constancy, / | endure every pain, every torture. | Order then, command, | threaten, punish, rage, | Death will free me in the end! | Death will free me, etc. | Let Heaven’s blessing, etc. But no entreaties move you, etc.
© Peter Branscombe, 1966

SIDE TWO with ORCHESTRA OF THE GERMAN OPERA, BERLIN conducted by HANS ZANOTELLI (C) 1963) Band 1-0 war’ ich schon mit dir vereint (Fidelio’ Act 1) (Sonnleithner and Treitschke—Beethoven) Marzelline, the head gaoler’s daughter and courted by his assistant Jaquino, has thoughts only for the ‘youth’ they know as Fidelio, who has managed to obtain employment in the prison. O war’ ich schon mit dir vereint, / und diirfte Mann dich nennen ! / Ein Madchen darf ja, was es meint, I zur Halfte nur bekennen. I Doch wenn ich nicht erroten muss, / ob einem warmen Herzenskuss, / wenn nichts uns stort auf Erden— / Die Hoffnung schon erfullt die Brust, / mit unaus-sprechlich siisser Lust; / wie gliicklich will ich werden! Die Hoffnung schon, usw. In Ruhe stiller Hauslichkeit / erwach ich jeden Morgen, / wir griissen uns mit Zartlichkeit, / der Fleiss verscheucht die Sorgen. / Und ist die Arbeit abgetan, / dann schleicht die holde Nacht heran, / dann ruh’n wir von Beschwerden. Die Hoffnung schon ethillt die Brust, usw. O were I now united with you, | and might call you Husband! | What it would mean, a maiden can only half admit. | But when I do not have to blush | at a warm and heartfelt kiss, / when nothing on earth can disturb us – | Hope already, fills my breast | with inexpressibly sweet delight: | how happy I shall be! | Hope already fills, etc. In the peace of quiet domesticity | I shall awake each morning, | we shall greet one another tenderly, | toil will banish care. / And when the work is finished, / then blessed night will creep on, | then we shall rest from our troubles. Hope already fills my breast, etc.
© William Mann, 1962

Band 2—Einst traumte meiner sel’gen Base (Der Freischiitz’ Act 3) (Kind—Weber) Agathe, full of foreboding, is preparing for her wedding to the forester, Max, which can only take place if he is successful in a shooting contest on the morrow. She recounts her dreadful dreams to her cousin Annchen, who gently derides her fears with an anecdote—Annchen: Einst traumte meiner sel’gen Base : / die Kammertiir eroffne sich, / und kreideweiss ward ihre Nase, / denn naher, furchtbar nailer schlich / ein Ungeheuer mit Augen wie Feuer, / mit klirrender Kette, es nahte dem Bette, / in welchem sie schief: / ich meine die Base mit kreidiger Nase, / und stohnte, ach ! so hohl ! / und achzte, ach ! so tief! / Sie kreurte sich, rief, / nach manchem Angst–und Stossgebet : Susanne! Margaret! / Und sie kamen mit Licht, / und—denke nur—und— / erschrick mir nur nicht— / und—graust mir doch ! Und / der Geist war : Nero, der Kettenhund ! Du zurnest mir? / Doch kannst du wahnen, / ich fiihle nicht mit dir? / Nur ziemen einer Braut nicht Tranen. Triibe Augen, Liebchen, taugen / einem holden Brautchen nicht, usw. / dass durch Blicke sie erquicke, / und begluckte, und bestricke, / alles um sich her entziicke, / das ist ihre schonste Pflicht. Lass in &len Mauern, / Biisserinnen trauern, / dir winkt ros’ger Hoffnung Licht ! / Schon entziindet sind die Kerzen / zum Verein getreuer Herzen, | schon entzfindet sind die Kerzen, / dir winkt ros’ger Hoffnung Licht! | Holde Freundin, sage nicht! usw. My defunct aunt once dreamt / the door of her room flew open, / and her nose turned chalky white, | for nearer, frighteningly nearer, crept / a monster with eyes of fire. / With rattling chain it approached the bed / on which she lay asleep: | I mean my aunt with chalky-white nose, / and groaned, oh! so hollowly / and moaned, oh! so deeply! | She crossed herself and called, | in dreadful anguish—and quickly said her prayers: Susan! Margaret! | and they came with a light, | and—just think—and— I don’t shriek— | and don’t shudder! And I the ghost turned out to be—Nero, the watchdog! Are you angry with me? Can you really imagine | I don’t feel for you? | Only —a bride in tears isn’t right. Dejected looks, dearest, don’t suit I a lovely bride at all, etc. | for through her glances she must refresh | and delight and captivate |and enchant all around her, I that is her loveliest duty. Within cloistered walls / let penitents mourn, I Hope’s rosy light beckons you! | The candles are already lit | for the union of true hearts. | The candles are already lit. | Hope’s rosy light beckons you! / Sweet friend, do not worry! etc. Peggie Cochrane, 1960 Band 3—Tutte le feste al tempio (Rigoletto’ Act 2) (Piave— Verdi) Gilda tells her father, the hunchbacked jester Rigoletto, the circumstances of her abduction by his master, the Duke. Although distraught and dis-honoured, Gilda is hopelessly infatuated by her seducer. Tutte le feste al tempio mentre pregava Iddio, bello e fatale un giovine offriasi al guardo mio … se i labbri nostri tacquero, dagl’occhi it cor parlo. Furtivo fra le tenebre I sol ieri a me giungeva . . . / sono studente povero, / commosso mi diceva, / e con ardente palpito / amor mi protesto. / Parti .. . it mio core aprivasi a speme piu gradita, / quando improvvisi apparvero / color the m’han rapita, / e a forza qui m’addussero / nell’ansia piu crudel. Each holy day, at church, as I was saying my prayers, a handsome, striking youth came there, where I could see hitn. If our lips kept silent, our eyes spoke what our hearts were feeling. Only last night, for the first time | he secretly came to see me. / “I am a student, I am poor,” | he said with feeling. | Then, passionately, | he told me of his love. | He went away—my heart had opened | to a brighter hope, | when suddenly there appeared | the band who abducted me; | they brought me here by force. | I suffered the cruellest torment.
© Capitol Records Inc.

Band 4—Saper vorreste (‘Un Ballo in Maschera’ Act 3) (Somma—Verdi) The final scene takes place at a masked ball in the Governor’s residence where the conspirators have planned to murder him. Renato, his secretary, recognises Oscar the page by his perky manner and tries to prise from him the secret of his master’s disguise. The boy teasingly admits that he knows the answer, but will not tell.

Oscar. Saper vorreste / di che si veste, / quando 1’6 cosa / ch’ei vuol nascosa. / Oscar lo sa / ma nol dirk / tra la la ecc. / Oscar lo sa, ecc. Pieno d’amor / mi balza it cor, / ma pur discreto / serba it segreto. / Nol rapira / grado o belts, / tra la la ecc. / Oscar lo sa, / ma nol dirk / tra la la ecc. You’d like to know / what he’s wearing, | when that’s the thing / he wants kept dark. | Oscar knows, | but he’s not going to tell, | tra la la etc. / Full of love, my heart leaps wildly, / but ever discreet / keeps the secret. | Neither rank nor beauty I will discover it, | tra la la etc. / Oscar knows, | but he won’t tell, | tra la la etc.

Band 5—Volta la terrea fronte alle stelle (Un Ballo in Maschera’ Act 1) (Somma— Verdi) In the first act the Governor seeks Oscar’s views concerning Ulrica, a Negro sorceress whom the Chief JuStice wishes to banish. Oscar describes her arts, at the same time vigorously defending her. Volta la terrea fronte alle stelle! / come sfavilla la sua pupilla, / quando alle belle it fin predice / mesto o felice dei Toro amor, mesto, / felice dei Toro amor. / Ah. e con Lucifero d’accordo ognor! ecc. Chi la profetica sua gonna afferra, / o passi ‘| mare, vol’ alla guerra, / le sue vicende soavi, amare, / da questa apprende nel dubbio cor. / Ah 6 con Lucifero d’accordo ognor ! ecc. When she turns her dusky brow to the stars, | how her eyes flash like lightning | as she foretells the course of their loves | to the belles of the town, be it happy or sad, | be it happy or sad. | With Lucifer himself she has a pact! etc. Whoever touches her prophetic gown, | whether he plans to cross the sea or go off to war, | his future, his fortunes, be they bitter or sweet, | his doubting heart will learn from her. | Ah! with Lucifer himself she has made a pact! etc. © Capitol Records Inc.

Band 6—E strano ! e strano ! . . . Ah, fors’e lui . . . Follie! follie! .. . Sempre libera (La Traviata’ Act 1) (Piave—Verdi) The courtesan Violetta, touched by the declaration of love lately made to her by Alfredo, reflects on her longing to be truly the object of genuine love — but realises that it is folly for her to pretend to be otherwise than she is. In the background Alfredo can be heard singing beneath Violetta’s balcony of his love. E strano! e strano! In core scolpito ho quegli accenti! Saria per me sventura un serio amore? Che risolvi, o turbata anima mia? Null’uomo ancora t’accendeva— I 0 gioia ch’io non conobbi, esser amata amando ! E sdegnarla poss’io / per l’aride follie del viver mio? Ah, fors’e lui che (‘anima / solinga ne’ tumulti / godea sovente pingere / de’ suoi colori occulti! / Lui che modesto e vigile / all’egre soglie accese, / e nuova febbre accese, / destandomi all’amor. / A quell’amor ch’e palpito / dell’universo intero, / misterioso, altero, / croce e delizia al cor! Follie! follie! Dcliro vano e questo! Povera donna, sola, abbandonata in questo popoloso deserto che appellano Parigi. Che spero or piu? Che far degg’io! Gioire! di volutta ne’ vortici perir! Ah!— Sempre libera degg’io / folleggiare di gioia in gioia, / vo’ che scorra it viver mio / pei sentiri del piacer. / Nasca it giorno, oil giorno muoia, / sempre lieta ne’ ritrovi / a diletti sempre nuovi / dee volar it mio pensier. Alfredo: Amor, amor e palpito / Dell’universo intero — / Violetta: Amore. / Alfredo: Misterioso, altero, / croce e delizia al cor. / Violetta: Follie! follie! Ah si! Gioir! gioir! Alfredo: Amor e palpito, usw. Violetta: Ah! ah! il pensier! Il mio pensier. How strange! how strange! His words are burned upon my heart! Would a real love be a tragedy for me? What decisions are you taking, o my soul? No man has ever made me fall in love. O joy which I have never known—loving, to be loved! And can I scorn it for the arid nonsense of my present life? Ah, perhaps he is the one / whom my soul / lonely in the tumult, loved | to imagine in secrecy! | Watchful though I never knew, | he came here while I lay sick, / awakening a new fever, / the fever of love. | Of love which is the very breath I of the universe itself— |mysterious and noble, I both cross and ecstasy of the heart! Folly! all is folly! This is made delirium! A poor woman, alone, lost in this crowded desert which is known to men as Paris. What can I hope for? What should I do? Die in the whirlpool of earthly pleasures! Forever free, I must pass | madly from joy to joy, my life’s course shall be | forever in the paths of pleasure. | Whether it be dawn or dusk, / I must always live I gaily in the world’s gay places, | ever seeking new joys. Alfredo: Love is the very breath of the universe itself — 1 Violetta : Love. 1 Alfredo : Mysterious and noble, I both cross and ecstasy of the heart. Violetta : Folly! folly! Ah yes, from joy to joy, Alfredo : Love is the very breath, etc. Violetta : Ah! ah! new joys ever seeking.
© Capitol Records Inc.

Anneliese Rothenberger - Successes - another beautiful album cover from Cover Heaven

Label: HMV SXLP 30099

1966 1960s Covers

Ray Conniff and His Orchestra and Chorus - Concert With Conniff Vol. 1 - 7inch E.P. another beautiful vinyl record cover from Cover Heaven

Ray Conniff and His Orchestra and Chorus – Concert With Conniff Vol. 1

A rare 7 inch E.P. (Extended Play) record from 1960. During the sixties E.P.s were a common release format and artists like The Beatles and The Rolling Stones released several during their early careers. They were always accompanied by a picture sleeve, usually glossy which made them a collectible item. This Ray Conniff E.P. features four tracks: An Improvisation On “Liebestraum”, You Are My Heart`s Delight, An Improvisation On “None But The Lonely Heart” and I`ll See You Again

Ray Conniff and His Orchestra and Chorus - Concert With Conniff Vol. 1 - 7inch E.P. another beautiful vinyl record cover from Cover Heaven

Label: Philips SBBE 9009

1960 1960s Covers

Verdi - Un Ballo In Maschera - another beautiful record cover from Cover Heaven

Verdi – Un Ballo In Maschera

Sleeve Notes:

Had Marietta Piccolomini been available to sing the part of Cordelia, it is quite possible that the opera Verdi composed in 1857 for the San Carlo in Naples would have been King Lear. In that case, what eventually became known as Un Ballo in Maschera would have been missing from the composer’s catalog. However, the San Carlo management could not come to terms with Piccolomini, and the suggestion of a substitute prompted Verdi to the scornful response: “It is one of my customs to which I should adhere even if Malibran herself returned to the world not to have my singers imposed on me.”

Of the alternate subjects that presented themselves, Verdi’s preference eventually devolved upon the one Eugene Scribe had converted into a libretto titled Gustave III, ou Le Bal masque for Daniel Auber 25 years before. The whole of it passed from the repertory of the Paris Opera after a mere 41 performances, but according to custom the most favored part – the fatal bal masque itself – was retained for performance at mixed bills and galas. One of the more than 70 such occasions was January 14, 1858.

The random date may seem of no relation to the main theme of this discourse, but it is fatalistically relevant to both its subject and its object. The particular gala commanded the presence of Emperor Napoleon III and Empress Eugenie. En route to the theater the royal party was set upon by Felice Orsini, an Italian revolutionary, and his followers. The bombs they exploded were meant for Napoleon, but in the carnage that killed several of his subordinates, the Emperor escaped with only shrapnel holes in his hat. Undaunted, he continued to the gala, accompanied by Eugenie in her bloodspattered garments. The part of the bill devoted to portions of Masaniello, William Tell and Mary Stuart – all, Vincent Godefroy reminds us in “Music Review,” dealing with “regicide or rebellion” – went on as scheduled. Understandably, the bal masque and its depiction of Gustav III’s assassination at the Stockholm Opera in March 1792 was curtailed.

The coincidence of operatic subject matter and its real-life counterpart on the same night may seem a once-in-a-lifetime rarity, but the Verdi files show that it was on this very day that he arrived in Naples bearing the score of his new work, of which the climax was an assassination at an opera performance. There already had been strong objections by what historians describe as the “Bourbon censors” to a prose résumé of the libretto. Verdi had acceded to some of them, including the elimination of either Sweden or Norway as locale, while the work was in progress. But the gravest decision of the censor had been kept from him by the San Carlo management for fear he might abandon the whole project.

When he was confronted by the changed circumstances – intensified, no doubt, by the news of Orsini’s “outrage” in Paris – Verdi’s anger was directed not only at the censor but also at those who had misled him about the true situation. This called for changes of such magnitude and detail that the libretto “acceptable” to the censor would have falsified, finally and completely, what was contained in the music. After months of court action between Verdi and the management—but directed, really, at the censor – a settlement was contrived. Verdi would return in the fall to stage Simon Boccanegra (in its first version) for the San Carlo, and the management would waive its rights to the new work. The premiere of Un Ballo in Maschera, as it was finally titled in paraphrase of Scribe’s subtitle, took place in the more hospitable surroundings of Rome on February 17, 1859.

If the “climate of the time” may be invoked to clarify the causes that made the original Ballo a classic example of dramatic ambiguity, with its Boston Puritans who live and die operatically, a Creole sorceress and French elegancies amid the austerity of the Massachusetts colonials, the same “climate” must not be excluded from the results that provided its vitality and have kept it, despite all., unconquerably alive. Principal among them was the appeal to Verdi of a subject which he described as “grandiose,” “vast” and even “magnificent.” Scribe’s treatment contained some features he deplored as “conventional” and “insufferable,” but it would be the task of the librettist (Somma) to minimize the worst and maximize the best.

Certainly it could not be argued that the central plot and its consequences were too remote or improbable to engage his emotions. Indeed, the murder of Gustav III was the closest thing to a contemporary historical subject Verdi had yet undertaken. As filtered through the mesh of librettoese, the philandering, tenor-singing Riccardo of Ballo begins as a first cousin, operatically, of the Duke of Mantua in Rigoletto. But the political plot against him, complicated by the passion for revenge his amour evokes in one of his closest followers, provided a new element whose rebellious spirit was close kin to Verdi’s own feelings about monarchy and oppression.

The concurrence of the factual and the fictional has been amply documented in the eruption of Orsini’s plot against Napoleon III, readily calculated to make a nervous censor implacably hostile. But, in other ways too, life in mid-19th-century Europe was much more operatic than most of us can comprehend at this distance. The “secret door” by which Amelia enters Ulrica’s dwelling in Act I, Scene 2, may strike today’s apartment dwellers as typical melodrama, but the browser in Verdi literature cannot fail to note that a turning point in the fortunes of his hero, Cavour, is associated with a sub-rosa sympathizer whom he received by means of a secret passageway.

The easy acceptance of the incredible thus established, it is readily understandable that the crux of Ballo’s appeal to Verdi was the very element that strikes some cynics of today as trite : the infatuation of a king for the wife of his closest associate. What redeems it from triteness is the desperate endeavor of the woman in the case to honor the fidelity she feels she owes her husband, even to the point of finding a magical means of control-ling her emotions. Eventually, it is the unhappy Amelia to whom Verdi’s sympathies go in fullest measure when she is rejected by the man she has attempted not to deceive and becomes the unwitting cause of death for the man she has tried to love wisely, rather than well.

Thus, if the thunder of Ballo is the plot against the king and the impulse for revenge which makes Renato join forces with it, the blood of it is the same heart-pounding identity with human beings – especially female human beings – in distress which made Verdi partial to the dilemma of Violetta, the anguish of Aida and, most beset of all, Desdemona.

In the aggregate, these were values that had aroused Verdi’s musical adrenalin before and would – in some altered form -again. The question for us is : What was there about their occurrence in Ballo that brought his melodic secretions to the point of flow and meaning? To begin with, there was the atmosphere of the Swedish court at the end of the 18th century with its French derivations and its imitations of French customs that caused Verdi to refer to it as a “petit Versailles.” Then there were the gloomy dwelling of Ulrica and her under-world “connections,” the desolation of the campo abbominato which Amelia seeks out at midnight to find a cure for her unhappy condition and, by a relentless dictate of fate, the sinister plotting of the conspirators in which her fate and the fate of the two men in her life become hopelessly intertwined.

Together they account for the singular fact about Ballo: its duality. That is to say, for much of its length it is not one but two operas. Parallel to the strong dramatic line is another, lighter in tone, more ironic in character. Where the happenings are concerned with the court and its king, the mood is jaunty, the colors bright. Where they involve Amelia, Ulrica and the conspiracy, the mood is urgent, the palette somber. At first, they are played off against each other, for sound purposes of theatrical contrast. But as the action unfolds and the drama moves toward its inexorable climax, they become more closely related until, in the final scene, they are in progress concurrently.

IRVING KOL015IN from notes for the complete recording, LSC-6179

Verdi - Un Ballo In Maschera - another beautiful record cover from Cover Heaven

Label: RCA Red Seal SB 6778

1969 1960s Covers

André Kostelanetz Plays The Light Music Of Shostakovich

André Kostelanetz Plays The Light Music Of Shostakovich

Sleeve Notes:

ANDRE KOSTELANETZ PLAYS THE LIGHT MUSIC OF SHOSTAKOVICH
Side 1
GALOP from “MOSCOW, CHEREMUSHKI”, Op. 105 POLKA from “BALLET SUITE NO. 2” BARREL-ORGAN WALTZ from “THE GADFLY”, Op. 97a GALOP from “BALLET SUITE NO. 1” NOCTURNE from the film “THE GADFLY” Op. 97a (Solo cello : Harvey Schapiro) DANCE; OVERTURE-WALTZ; WALTZ FROM ACT III of “MOSCOW, CHEREMUSHKI”, Op. 105
Side 2
FOLK FESTIVAL from “THE GADFLY”, Op. 97a MUSIC BOX WALTZ from “BALLET SUITE NO. 1” GALOP from “THE GADFLY”, Op. 97a DANCE from “BALLET SUITE NO 1” INTRODUCTION from “THE GADFLY”, Op. 97a GALOP from “BALLET SUITE NO. 2”

One of the special joys of music is meeting a classical composer with his long hair down. Quite apart from such geniuses of light music as the Strauss family, Offenbach and Chabrier, the most formidable musical masters, right down to the present day, have seldom been able to resist a rollicking tune or a humorous snatch of melody just for its own sake. Mozart had his Musical Joke; Haydn Wrote a Surprise Symphony; Richard Strauss Was a marvellous orchestra comedian, and the music of Charles Ives is dotted with Outrageous jokes. And, curiously, those , solemn Russians, in their ballets and occasional pieces, have provided us with some of our most delightful melodies and delirious dances.

In his search for appropriate works for his Promenade Concerts at New York’s Philharmonic Hall, André Kostelanetz has uncovered some delectable and hitherto neglected music. One of the most surprising sources for Kostelanetz has been the works of Dimitri Shostakovich. A stormy composer with a turbulent career, Shostakovich has always evidenced a strong satiric vein. But it is surprising to find among the works of this essentially dramatic composer a series of glittering galops, whirl-wind waltzes and perky polkas that are so breezy and delightful.

Mr. Kostelanetz begins this journey into the lighter world of Shostakovich with the colourful, folk-like Galop from the great musical comedy success Moscow, Cheremushki, and it is immediately apparent that Russian musicals are in no way like our own, being more or less a series of variety turns strung together on a slender thread of story. Nevertheless, the music blazes forth with irresistible—and typical—Russian vitality. Next comes a strongly rhythmic and playful Polka from the Ballet Suite No. 2, and then the Barrel-Organ Waltz, a lilting and wistful selection from the film The Gadfly. (If proof is needed of Shostakovich’s versatility, let it be noted that he also composed the score for the recent Soviet film version of Shakespeare’s Hamlet.) A brash and exhilarating Galop from the Ballet Suite No. 1 provides an interval of orchestral virtuosity. Then Harvey Schapiro appears as solo cellist in another piece from The Gadfly, a soulful and melancholy Nocturne that is at once expansive and intimate, archetypically Russian. Mr. Kostelanetz concludes the first half of his programme with three fragments from Moscow, Cheremushki; a satiric Dance, the joyously lighthearted Overture-Waltz and the swirling Waltz from Act III.

This exuberant concert continues with the Folk Festival from The Gadfly, a frisky blending of jaunty tunes, which is followed by another selection from the Ballet Suite No. 1, a Music Box Waltz that is as charming and humorous as its name implies. Then The Gadfly buzzes back with a dashing and gusty Galop.

A rather romantic Dance from the Ballet Suite No. 1 comes next, and consists of two cheerful pizzicato sections surrounding music that seems designed for pirouettes. In a final glimpse of The Gadfly we hear the Introduction, a lovely, brooding, incomparably Russian melody. Then Mr. Kostelanetz concludes his sunny Shostakovich survey with the Galop from Ballet Suite No. 2, a fiery rouser with those irresistible snare-drum effects that are so integral a part of exciting music.

Thus André Kostelanetz brings us to the end of his thesis that Shostakovich can be fun. Like every Kostelanetz programme, it is conducted and played with lively virtuosity and with an eye to orchestral fireworks. This time, his selections are mostly all skyrockets, and André Kostelanetz makes sure that each one lights up the sky.

George Dale

Besides conducting his own superb orchestra, André Kostelanetz has conducted most of the major American orchestras—the New York and Los Angeles Philharmonics, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Chicago, San Francisco, Houston, New Orleans and Minneapolis Symphonies. He has also made frequent tours abroad leading the Royal Philharmonic, the New Philharmonia, the London Symphony, the Paris Conservatoire Orchestra, the Berlin Philharmonic, the Israel Philharmonic, the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, as well as the orchestras of Rome, Stockholm, Tokyo, and South America. He inaugurated the New York Philharmonic’s immensely successful Promenade Concerts at the new Lincoln Center, and has been associated with that orchestra for the past thirteen seasons as conductor of special non-subscription concerts.

André Kostelanetz Plays The Light Music Of Shostakovich

Label: CBS Classics 61220

1969 1960s Covers

George Shearing The Quintet and Woodwind Choir - Deep Velvet - beautiful record covers from Cover Heaven

George Shearing The Quintet and Woodwind Choir – Deep Velvet

Sleeve Notes:

Since George Shearing first turned his talents toward romantic moods a few years ago in such albums as Velvet Carpet and Black Satin, this excellent pianist-arranger has set the standard for music that combines rich melody and orchestration with something a little more subtle, a bit more sophisticated. And though the Shearing sound is often copied, it is never duplicated. It’s unique, and it’s acclaimed for that uniqueness. In this album, the Shearing piano and Quintet are for the first time set against a choir of twelve woodwinds, and the effect is both beautiful and strikingly new — a refreshing caress for the tasteful music that sets the stage for love.

George Shearing The Quintet and Woodwind Choir - Deep Velvet - beautiful record covers from Cover Heaven

Label: Capitol T2143
Biography of George Shearing

1964 1960s Covers

The 50 Guitars of Tommy Garrett - España - Beautiful Record Covers from Cover Heaven

The 50 Guitars of Tommy Garrett – España

Sleeve Notes:

Spain. Or, as the Spanish say, España. Fabled in history and song. Sun-drenched land of wine, mountains, Moorish castles, gipsies, flamenco and the bull-fight. A land whose music accurately reflects its turbulence and hot-blooded emotions. A land where pride, passion, beauty and callousness are mingled and combined like nowhere else in the world. A land which has produced some of the proudest, bravest and most ruthless adventurers and soldiers through the ages.

Men who risked their fives journeying the immense distance to the New World, where they fought and conquered overwhelming odds to wrest fabulous fortunes from the enormous sub-continent which they colonised.

And Spain is the home of the guitar. That evocative, beautiful musical instrument that has been an integral part of popular music of all kinds since the Middle Ages, and which, in its natural, unamplified state, still towers invincibly above all the modem electronic devices and gimmicks which frequently seek to abuse it. As Spain is the home of the guitar, it was both natural and inevitable that Tommy “Snuff” Garrett and his 50 Guitars should pay their respects with an album entitled “España” and including some material with direct antecedence in Portugal, Spain’s neighbour on the Iberian peninsular and kindred coloniser in what is now Latin America.

The 50 Guitars started as an idea of Tommy Garrett, Liberty’s young pop artist-and-repertoire ace. The idea has grown into a colourful series of LPs making musical visits to Latin America, Hawaii and Italy. and winning a large number of enthusiasts in America and other countries of the world Music is a universal language, and the music of the guitar is readily understood and appreciated everywhere. Tommy Garrett has been assembling fifty of the world’s finest exponents of the instrument based in California on increasing occasions to keep pace with the appetite created around the world for LPs by the 50 Guitars, and often the recording sessions are nocturnal ones because this is usually the only way that he can ensure the simultaneous presence of the entire group in view of their many day-time commitments in the film and disc studios of Hollywood and Los Angeles. Many of the guitarists have Latin blood in their veins, and their LPs devoted to Latin music have an extra bonus of verve and colour as a consequence, as this present selection well demonstrates.

Lady of Spain seems more Spanish than many compositions of genuine origin, and it often surprises people when they learn that this perennial standard was actually written by a Welshman, Tolchard Evans. Ernie Freeman’s arrangement opens with some dramatic flamenco chords and the introduction played by Tom Tedesco before castanets herald the pasodoble tempo and the familiar melody. The relaxed beat of the bossa nova affords an appropriately subdued atmosphere for this notable rendition of Quiet Nights Of Quiet Stars (Corcovado) by bossa nova pioneer Antonio Carlos Jobim and Gene Lees. Martial drums and imperious chords usher in Conquest with a haughty flourish suitable for the theme of “Captain From Castile”, and the bossa nova mood returns for another Jobim melody Meditation. La Violetera is a traditional piece which will be easily recognised by tune if not by title, and it is well suited for the massed guitar treatment. The first side closes with a decidedly Hispanic bolero arrangement of a popular Latin American evergreen Adios, Mariquita Linda.

Valencia is another rousing Spanish favourite with exactly the right jaunty lilt for starting the second side, and In A Little Spanish Town, while written by non-Spaniards, is nevertheless in excellent accord with its subject as far as mood and sentiment are concerned. El Relicario brings back the vivid pageantry and dramatic excitement of the bull-ring and its ritual. The tango is as popular in Spain as in Argentina, the country of its birth in its present form, and Leroy Anderson’s example of the blue variety has a cunning trace of cha cha cha woven into this arrangement. Victor Schertzingera Marcheta must have had Spanish blood in her veins to sound as exotically attractive as this when depicted musically in waltz time, and Temptation can be as potent and piquant in Spain as anywhere else in the world, especially when the 50 Guitars are providing the musical background with such a torrid and insistent bolero beat.

Twelve more distinctive tracks from Tommy Garrett’s fifty instrumentalists with solos from Tom Tedesco, and neatly collated under the label of “ESPAÑA”. As before, there are no gimmicks or technical tricks on display. The 50 Guitars rely on nothing more than good material and good instruments played by good musicians, and once again the results reveal that nothing more is needed.

Nigel Hunter

The 50 Guitars of Tommy Garrett - España - Beautiful Record Covers from Cover Heaven

Label: Liberty Records LBL 83014
More about Tommy Garrett

1965 1960s Covers

Billy Vaughn and His Orchestra - La Paloma - beautiful record covers from Cover Heaven

Billy Vaughn and His Orchestra – La Paloma

Sleeve Notes:

If you start throwing around statistics, Billy Vaughn really comes out on top. In addition to his several million-seller albums, one of them ‘Sail Along Silv’ry Moon,’ has by now gone over the three million mark. He’s got awards by the dozen — ‘best selling orchestra’ Most programmed orchestra,’ best studio orchestra’ plus special honors like the Golden Tulip award in Holland, the Gold Cow Bell award in Switzerland. Three Million Sellers from Germany, and similar recognition from Sweden and all over Latin America.
This album is yet another example of Billy Vaughn’s magic, listen to his superb interpretations of such great standards as La Paloma, Brazil, Perfidia and of course the famous Stan Kenton standard ‘The Peanut Vendor.’

Billy Vaughn and His Orchestra - La Paloma - beautiful record covers from Cover Heaven

Label: Contour Records 2870 322

1966 1960s Covers

Felix Mendelssohn and his Hawaiian Serenaders - Serenade to Hawaii - Cover Heaven beautiful record covers

Felix Mendelssohn and his Hawaiian Serenaders – Serenade to Hawaii

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“0 who can . . . wallow naked in December snow By thinking on fantastic summer’s heat?” (Shakespeare: King Richard II)

It may not be possible to feel warm in a British winter by merely thinking of some by-gone summer, but the music of Felix Mendelssohn and his orchestra on record is almost guaranteed to bring a vision of the sun to the most arctic climate. Hawaii! The very name conjures up a picture of waving palms, blue seas and sky and the surf creaming along the golden sand. Even the geography text-books fail to dispel the illusion and the atlas shows Hawaii as a string of islands, between twenty and thirty degrees north of the equator, set somewhere near the centre of the Pacific.

For many years the Hawaiians have been looked upon, quite rightly, as a gay, fun-loving people and music to them is an essential part of their life. Dancing and singing mean much to them and a, great deal of their traditional ceremonies use music as an integral ingredient. “Hula dancers” is a term used to describe young ladies swaying to the sound of dream music, but “hula” in itself means simply “to dance”. Hawaiian hula takes on an infinite variety of forms each described in its title; hula pahu, for example, is a drum dance in which the big drums dominate the rhythm. Felix Mendelssohn’s Sophisticated Hula represents a fusion of island rhythms and Western music. Three Hawaiian towns are saluted here; Hilo and Kalua are situated on the main island of Hawaii while Honolulu, the capital of the islands, is on Oahu.

Films about Hawaii invariably include scenes in which the lei plays a big part and the Felix Mendelssohn orchestra gives its impression of one such lei formed from sweet gardenias. Lei is a Hawaiian word meaning any garland or necklace, although it is a term which tends to be reserved for hoops of flowers nowadays. On a number of tracks extensive use is made of the Hawaiian guitar, a four-stringed instrument with a long neck which helps to give the music its distinctive colouration. The sweet harmonies and graceful, flowing melodies are pleasingly and accurately played by Felix Mendelssohn’s orchestra, for Felix has made a particular study of music from this corner of the world. Parting is such sweet sorrow, and, as the record comes to an end, we remember the traditional Hawaiian farewell “Liliha Lele’o”. There is no simple English translation for this touching phrase but one authority on Hawaii and its peoples has likened it to Horatio’s words at the death of Hamlet: “Good night Sweet Prince, and flights of angels sing thee to thy rest”.

The music of Hawaii is even more enchanting in Hawaii. Fly the B.O.A.C. Pacific Jet Bridge – Stopover en route in Honolulu at no extra fare. London – New York – San Francisco – Tokyo – Hong Kong by BOAC ROLLS-ROYCE 707 -Aristocrat of the Skies.

Felix Mendelssohn and his Hawaiian Serenaders - Serenade to Hawaii - Cover Heaven beautiful record covers

Label: Encore! ENC 142

1963 1960s Covers