Classical

International Symphonic Orchestra - Scheherazade

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.

intl-symphonic-orchestra-scheherezade

Label: Gala GLP 349

1958 1950s Covers

Like Blue - André Previn David Rose

Like Blue – André Previn David Rose

Sleeve Notes:

HOLLYWOOD, a land of fabulous success stories, can point to none more fabulous than that of Andre Previn. Young in years, a preponderance of experience has gained him recognition as one of America’s outstanding concert pianists, an established ding artist and one of the screen’s foremost musical composers and conductors at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, where he has been employed since 1945. He is currently musical director for two of M-G-M’s most important pictures — Bells Are Ringing and The Subterraneans, both produced by Arthur Freed.

Previn’s talent has been channelled into all facets of the musical world from arranger to composer-conductor and music director. In fourteen years, he has composed and scored thirty pictures. He has been nominated for an Academy Award five times, and won the Oscar for Gigi. In 1958, he also received the Screen Composers’ Association Award for his original ballet in Invitation To The Dance. Truly a year of achievement, he received the Berlin Film Festival Award for the best original score in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s Bad Day At Black Rock, and the Downbeat Poll in two categories: Best Motion Picture Composer and Best Motion Picture Arranger in 1958. In 1959, Samuel Goldwyn chose Previn to score Porgy And Bess.

Previn’s composing encompasses both jazz and classical music. He has written piano solo works, chamber music and in 1958 completed his first symphony. He has also originated a great deal of material in the popular field. He began his recording career in 1945 and has many records to his credit. These run the gamut from jazz versions of Broadway shows, such as My Fair Lady, Pal Joey, etc., to the classics. In 1959, with David Rose, he won a Grammy Award for their recording of LIKE YOUNG. Previn has presented concerts, as pianist and conductor, in New York, Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco and for seven years in succession with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra in the Hollywood Bowl. He has appeared for recitals or presented chamber music in most of the major cities in the United States and Europe, and is famous for his jazz concerts throughout the United States.

Previn was born in Berlin, where his father was a piano teacher. The elder Previn discovered that his young son, at the age of four, had rare musical abilities. When he was six, Andre began to study music with his father extensively. In the 1930’s, just in time to miss the horror that followed, the family left Berlin. Andre’s older brother, Steve, had preceded the family to the United States, and taken a job in the motion picture studios of Hollywood. As a result, the rest of the Previns followed him there. The father resumed his teaching of the piano, and Andre was enrolled in Beverly Hills High School.

In May, 1950, he was inducted into the Armed Services. Two years later, upon being honourably discharged, he returned immediately to his film work, his recordings and his concert tours.

King-size in talent and heart is a brief but apt description of conductor-composer-arranger David Rose — one of the top-ranking music personalities in the world today. His name is synonymous with the finest in both classical and popular music presentation in the recording, film, radio, television and concert fields. His versatility and high standards in musical achievements have made him world-renowned.

In any given month, David Rose will compose and direct an outstanding score for an important screen musical, fly to some major city throughout the world to guest-conduct a famed symphony orchestra or compose and record a new and delightful musical number to bring pleasure to the public.

He started with M-G-M Records when it was organised in 1946. During this time, he has consistently been on the top list of record sellers for the company. His records are a must for the record collections of all music lovers. His popular compositions include Holiday For Strings, Our Waltz, Dance Of The Spanish Onion and One Love — now rated as standards.

On U.S. television, he has achieved recognition for his outstanding music direction of the Red Skelton Show, Fred Astaire Show, Bob Hope Show, Jack Benny Show, Dean Martin Show, Ziv-TV Productions and ” Bonanza “. Rose won an Emmy Award for his outstanding music direction of the Astaire Show. He also won the Grammy Award in 1959 for his recording of LIKE YOUNG which he did with Andre Previn. Also in 1959, he scored the UI motion picture, Operation Petticoat; and in 1960, M-G-M’s Please Don’t Eat The Daisies.

As a guest conductor, Rose has led symphony orchestras in major cities throughout the world. He has appeared with the Chicago, Milwaukee, Portland, San Francisco and Hollywood Bowl orchestras among many in America. He has also conducted orchestras in Copenhagen, London, Paris, Berlin, Rome and other metropolitan centres. He has been honoured by the BBC by a special David Rose Tribute Show featuring many of his compositions.

Unlikely though it seems, Rose would have really preferred to have become a railway engineer. He has turned his early desire into a rather large hobby, having one of the most complete and detailed collections of miniature live steam engines. His miniature track encircles his one-acre Sherman Oaks estate. He has built or bought three engines, and has a complete shop for repairs and construction of parts.

Though born in London, he was brought to Chicago by his parents while still a small child. Rose’s musical talent at the piano brought him acclaim when in high school. His remarkable keyboard dexterity opened doors at NBC, Chicago. He became network pianist and arranger there. Then, he joined the Ted Fio Rito Orchestra. In 1938 he came to Hollywood and was associated with the Mutual Broadcasting System. He started to compose, conduct and write scores for motion pictures. During World War II, he served four years with the U.S. Air Force, and when honourably discharged he returned to Hollywood to resume his professional career.

Like Blue - André Previn David Rose

Label: MGM CS 6003

1960 1960s Covers

Eugene Ormondy conducts the Philadelphia Orchestra - Orchestral Spectacular

Eugene Ormondy conducts the Philadelphia Orchestra – Orchestral Spectacular

Sleeve Notes:

The eight selections performed here represent out-standing peaks of musical achievement in which the composers pull out all the stops and use the combined resources of that formidable body known as the full orchestra to underscore or actually convey a dramatic scene. Melodic suggestion and paraphrase, the infinite varieties of tonal colour, the sweep and interplay of instrumental contours, the soloist or special ensemble against the backdrop of the larger group—these are some of the devices employed. In these pieces however they have been employed so well, so brilliantly, that the selections have assumed a role and validity of their own. They are in fact among the most stunning examples of musical imagination—no less enduring for the music lover for their sonic grandeur, and no less appealing to the sound enthusiast for their solid musical content.

What I call the “total performance” approach of Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra—in which maestro and players combine to translate the sonic fabric as well as the musical content of a piece—is eminently suited to recreating these eight masterworks. Producer Thomas Frost and the CBS engineers have spared no effort to produce a recording which, to the ears of one not familiar with these works, will probably come as a revelation—to the listener already familiar with them as a rediscovery.

First comes the Sabre Dance from the suite Gayaneh by the contemporary Russian composer Aram Khacha-turian. Sinewy and bubbling with vigour, it is—like the other dances in this ballet—based on Armenian folk themes, treated and orchestrated in a distinct and characteristic style, and exemplifying a dazzling tour de force for the symphony orchestra.

The Ride Of The Valkyries, which opens Act III of Wagner’s Die Walkare, depicts the ascent of Wotan’s warrior maidens as they carry slain heroes across their steeds through a gathering storm to their mountain meeting place. The awesome,, pageantry of this scene is echoed in brilliant brass and percussive effects.

The Dance Of The Tumblers is a particularly light-hearted excerpt from Rimsky-Korsakov’s otherwise sad opera The Snow Maiden. The pace set by the tumblers—somewhat slow but nonetheless vigorous—creates large fireworks that burn long but go off with a bang!

In the Bacchanale, which occurs in the last act of the opera Samson and Delilah, Saint-Saens unleashes a torrent of rhythmic episodes that conveys a blend of orgiastic revelry and pagan ritual celebrated by the Philistines. The dance’precedes the savage climax when Samson, his strength restored, topples the pillars and sends everything crashing down.

The Comedians is probably the best-known work in this country of another contemporary Russian composer Dmitri Kabalevsky. The Comedians’ Galop played here is the second of ten numbers comprising the suite. The distinctly modern orchestration assigns the main theme to the xylophone, with a lively interplay of woodwinds and brass.

Wagner’s Prelude To Act III from Lohengrin sparkles with the glint of gold and a kind of stately exuberance. The heroic main theme, carried by the brass, is inter-spersed with a more sedate—almost solemn—motif.

From its slow, deliberate beginning In The Hall Of The Mountain King carries the listener through a series of intensified dynamics, faster tempos, and increasingly complex orchestration to its spectacular finish.

The Sorcerers Apprentice by Paul Dukas is as popular today as it proved to be at its first performance in Paris in 1897.
NORMAN EISENBERG

Eugene Ormondy conducts the Philadelphia Orchestra - Orchestral Spectacular

Label: CBS 62503

1964 1960s Covers

Kismet

Kismet

Sleeve notes:

London’s Stoll Theatre has gone. A giant block of offices stands on its site. A small theatre is hidden inside it. But the memories of great nights at the Stoll linger on. On April 20, 1955, the curtain of the Stoll rose on one of the greatest first nights of all – Kismet. The audience knew the music was based on themes by Borodin. They knew the story had been written before the first World War. But they still gasped with surprise at the lavishness of the costumes, the exotic dancing of the slave girls, the words that made Borodin’s music live anew as a segment of The Arabian Nights was spread on the stage, colourful, vigorous, vital. Princess Margaret went twice in six nights. The Queen and Prince Philip went. All London – if they could get tickets – went. The story of the beggar-poet whose daughter married a king captivated Britain as it had already captivated America. Here, on this record, is the music that set the world singing, first on the stage, then as a film. It is music that does not need a linking narrative. It tells its own story of love and violence beneath the hot sun and cool moonlight of a fairy-tale land.

Kismet

Label: World Record Club TP 68

1961 1960s Covers

Philadelphia Orchestra - Ravel Bolero (10 inch disc)

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.

Philadelphia Orchestra - Ravel Bolero (10 inch disc)

Label: Philips SBR 6201

1956 1950s Covers

Ralph Vaughan Williams - Sir Adrian Boult - Fantasia On 'Greensleeves

Ralph Vaughan Williams – Sir Adrian Boult – Fantasia On ‘Greensleeves

Sleeve Notes:

There are probably few more familiar tunes than the English traditional melody “Greensleeves.” From 1580 at least – when it was first mentioned in a registry of ballads printed in London – to the present day, it has been used to bear a hundred or more different texts. (The familiar lines, “Alas, my love, you do me wrong, to cast me off discourteously,” seem to have been first printed in 1584.) Shakespeare knew the song, mentioning the title twice in his “Merry Wives of Windsor.” It was one of these references which prompted Ralph Vaughan Williams to use the tune in his opera “Sir John in Love,” which, in turn, was based on Shakespeare’s “Merry Wives.” (Mrs. Ford. pointing out the discrepancy between Sir John Falstaff’s words and deeds, complains “They do no more adhere and keep place together than the Hundredth Psalm to the tune of Green Sleeves.”)

The concert version here was adapted In 1934 by Ralph Greaves for string orchestra, harp and flute(s). The “English Folk Song Suite” is actually a set of three pieces formally entitled -English Folk Songs.” originally written for military band. Gordon Jacobs one of Vaughan Williams students, rearranged the ten-minute score for symphony orchestra in 1924. Vaughan Williams borrowed his basic themes from the notebooks compiled in Somerset by the great English folk song collector, Cecil Sharp, an old friend and colleague. The first section uses the sometimes bawdy “Seventeen Come Sunday”; the second “My Bonny Boy.” The last movement, titled only “Folk Songs from Somerset.,” is actually based on two songs, “Blow away the Morning Dew,” and the rowdy “Whistle, Daughter, Whistle.” (Significantly, in those pre-World War I days, Sharp could not publish the full texts of three of the four. -Whistle, Daughter, Whistle,” for example, contains this maiden’s lament, “But if I had a young man, how happy I would be, For I am tired and oh,so wearied of my virginity.”)

One wonders if Vaughan Williams chose to set these songs for military band knowing full well that the men in the ranks would surely know one or more of the bawdy texts. That would be one way to guarantee the popularity of the piece.

Thomas Tallis (ca. 1505-1585) was Gentleman of the Royal Chapel under Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary I and the first Elizabeth. In 1567 he wrote eight tunes for the Metrical Psalter of Matthew Parker, then the Archbishop of Canterbury. Each of the melodies was cast in a different church mode: the third, provided Vaughan Williams with the material upon which the fantasia was based. (That tune was in the Phrygian mode, a “scale” from E to E played only on the piano’s white keys, which gives the music its archaic, moving quality.)

Vaughan Williams scored the work for a string quartet and two string orchestras, each of which is divided to play antiphonally.

THE ARTIST The conducting genius of Sir Adrian Boult first attracted wide attention when he conducted some of the Royal Philharmonic Society’s concerts during the season 1918-1919. His career since then has spanned five decades and as many continents culminating in honors few English musicians have known.

Sir Adrian has held many of the major musical posts in Great Britain: Conductor-in Chief of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, for many years Conductor-in Chief of the B.B.C. Orchestra of the Birmingham Festival Choral Society and the City of Birmingham Orchestra, and Musical Director of the B.B.C. He toured throughout Europe and the United States, both with the B.B.C. Orchestra and as a guest conductor, conducted at the Salzburg Festival, and directed the musical programs attendant upon the coronation of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth II. Sir Adrian was knighted in 1937 in recognition of his contribution to the musical life of Great Britain.

Coincidental to this album, Sir Adrian earned the consideration of being Vaughan Williams’ greatest interpreter.

Ralph Vaughan Williams - Sir Adrian Boult - Fantasia On 'Greensleeves

Label: Westminster Gold WGS-8111
Art Direction: Peter Whorf
Design: Martin Donald/See Hear! & How!
Photography: Fred Poore

1970 1970s Covers

Camerata Academica of the Salzburg Mozarteum - Mozart Piano Concertos

Camerata Academica of the Salzburg Mozarteum – Mozart Piano Concertos

Sleeve Notes:

The Concerto in G major, K. 453. written by Mozart in 1784, takes a place of importance among the master’s piano concertos. Behind the marvellous thematic complexity of the first movement one discerns a strange emotional unrest. The opening of the C major Andante displays the thematic resemblance with the second subject of the Allegro, which only fore-shadows the full weight of aesthetic experience a sensitive listener will discover in the course of this movement where the key shifts incessantly and iridescent qualities are turned into a great flow of melodious, almost passionate emotion.

This heartfelt instrumental conversation symbolizes the intimate character of the concerto, which is equally noticeable in the close dovetailing of soli and tutti. In she Allegro finale, which displays most exquisite variations of a simple, song-like theme, the woodwinds frequently play the role of independent partners.

Mozart completed the C major Concerto K. 467 in February 1785. It is of a type that has been termed “Militarkonzert”, and certainly the march rhythms of the Allegro maestoso theme strongly accentuated in bar 7 by the wind instruments impart a somewhat military air. The simple melody of the second subject is joined in the development section by a new theme introduced by the soloist. The latter’s part is no longer treated like a dialogue, but “integrated” in symphonic manner. It is understandable that Mozart did not write symphonies for the first few years of his life in Vienna.

These concertos are symphonic in the best sense of the word according to Alfred Einstein, who accurately describes the F major Andante as “an ideal aria, freed from any considerations of the human voice”. A rondo finale (Allegro vivace assai) of delicate humour, scintillating and ingeniously contrived, concludes the work. Our recording brings a musical accomplishment that has enraptured countless visitors of concerts given by the Camerata Academica of the Salzburg Mozarteum under the direction of Géza Anda. Here an old tradition is being revived by which the soloist holds at the same time the capacity of conductor, assuring a maxi-mum of unity in the musical concept of the performance.

By such virtues Géza Anda and his musicians interpret Mozart’s celestial music in a most convincing and lively fashion through the rare beauty and integrity of their performance. Géza Anda received his training at the Franz Liszt Academy in his native city of Budapest, there winning the much coveted Franz Liszt Prize. His career began with a concert in Budapest with orchestra under Mengelberg. His great success on that occasion led to him receiving an invitation to Germany, where one of his first appearances was with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra under Furtwangler. Concert tours of Holland and France followed.

Géza Anda has lived in Switzerland since 1942. Since the end of the war he has appeared in every important town of the continent. He plays regularly at the Salzburg and Lucerne Festivals, and has received fervent ovations at the Edinburgh, Vienna and Berlin Festivals, and particularly on his tours of the USA. Among the younger generation of pianists Anda is one of the most striking personalities; his playing is outstanding by virtue of its clarity and musicality.

Camerata Academica of the Salzburg Mozarteum - Mozart Piano Concertos

Label: Deutsche Grammophon 138783

1984 1980s Covers