Mr Will Glahe
(has absolutely nothing to do with this post ... ... and ...?)
Antal Dorati
Dorati was a Hungarian, later American, conductor/composer, having written several pieces; three operas before he was 14 years of age, being tutored in writing by Zoltan Kodaly and Bela Bartok in piano. It is, therefore, no surprise when his own work is compared to that of these two composers. Sadly, none of his compositions are performed for us on any of the six Phase 4s on which Antal has his name.
These are:
Peter and the Wolf/The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra - Prokofiev/Britten - Sean Connery (PFS 4104)
Strauss Waltzes (PFS 4117)
Symphony No.9 (From The New World) - Dvořák (PFS 4128)
Prokofiev: Lieutenant Kije/Kodaly: Hary Janos (PFS 4355)
Carmina Burana - Carl Orff, Norma Burrowes, Louis Devos, John Shirley-Quirk (PFS 4368)
La Boutique Fantasque - Suite Rossiniana - Rossini/Respighi (PFS 4407)
Have either of 'Peter and the Wolf' or 'The Young Person's Guide...' ever been released on LP without the other being inextricably attached? I wondered aloud ... Anyway, this record appears to be the same as old TWO friend, SPA 520. It even shares some of the back cover text with this LP.
'ere! And annover fing! Did you know that Dvořák married wife Anna only after being turned down by her sister, Josefina?
Now then, in Benediktbeuren in the Bavarian region of Germany, there is a Benedictine Monastery, Beuren being the name of the monastery. The Latin for Beuren is 'Burana' and for 'songs' is 'Carmina', so, where am I going, here? No prizes for guessing that I refer to Orff's Carmina Burana or, if you like, Songs of Beuren! Oh go on, then. Take a couple of Black Jacks from the jar.
At the beginning of the 19th century, more than a thousand song lyrics and poems that were written some six decades previously, were discovered in Beuren. Carl Orff chose 24 from this vast collection and set them to music.
Carmina Burana is set in three parts:
'Primo Vere' (In Early Spring), where we are presented with the vitality of youth and energetic dancing
'In Taberna' (In the Pub), puts one in mind of drunken feasting and debauchery
and finally, 'Cour d’Amours' (Court of Love). Sounds like just another weekend to me!
Charles Munch
Originally Charles Münch, he was born in Strasbourg in the Alsace region just on the French side of the boundary with Germany, to Alsatian parents. At the start of the First World War, when Charles was about 24, he enlisted in the German army. At the and of the war, after being wounded and gassed, he decided that he'd had enough of being German and became a naturalised French citizen, thus dispensing with the umlaut over the 'u'.
Prior to the outbreak of war, Munch was studying the violin and he returned to this at the end of hostilities, training in Berlin, rising to become Professor of violin and concert master of the Gewandhaus Orchestra. In 1933, he was obliged to leave Germany unless he became a citizen of that country. This, he refused to do, moving to Paris where, within five years, he had been, amongst other appointments, the conductor of the Orchestra de la Société Philharmonique, Professor of the Orchestra de la Société Philharmonique and musical director of the Orchestre de la Société des Concerts du Conservatoire de Paris.
He retained this posts through the German occupation of France during the Second World War. His sympathies now with the French Resistance, he refused to perform anything by German composers.
At the end of the war, Charles Munch moved on to the US where he became the lead conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, holding this position for 13 years prior to returning home to France, where he was invited to conduct the Orchestre de Paris which was the first orchestra to have full-time musicians.
Mrs Munch, nee Maury, was the grand-daughter of the founder of the Nestlé company.
Charles Munch crops on three Phase 4s:
Gaîté Parisienne (PFS 4096),
Carmen & L'Arlésienne Suites (PFS 4127) and
Fountains Of Rome / Pines Of Rome (PFS 4131).
Ballet Gaîté Parisienne (Parisian Gaiety) was not written by Offenbach but was danced to his music. It was not until 1938 that Gaîté Parisienne came to be, 58 years after Offenbach's passing, when French composer, Manuel Rosenthal, had a bit of a rummage through Jacques Offenbach's back catalogue of operettas and plundered a bunch of music from such as Orpheus in the Underworld and Le Voyage dans la Lune along with Tales of Hoffmann which was his best-known opera, to put together a feast of gaiety which is all wrapped up on PFS 4096.
Incidentally, Jacques Offenbach should really have been called Jakob Eberst. Eberst was his father's family name but he decided to use the name of the town of his birth after moving away from it to take up work in Cologne and so our man simply inherited it.
Carlos Paita
Argentinian Carlos Paita was another conductor and he takes control of various orchestras, also over five Phase 4s, plus a double LP, OPFS 5-6 The Verdi Requiem. The Phase 4 propers are:
A Wagner Festival (PFS 4158)
Great Concert Overtures (PFS 4297)
Beethoven Eroica Symphony (PFS 4367)
Rossini Overtures (PFS 4386)
Mahler Symphony No. 1 in D (PFS 4402)
It was Wagner, really, who introduced the concept of the leitmotif. If not for him, the word may not exist as it was coined by Hans von Wolzogen, a scholar of Wagner. A definition of the word 'leitmotif' goes something like this: A recurrent theme that runs throughout a piece of music that is associated with a character or situation. This makes it particularly useful in opera and Wagner began using them in his early work, The Flying Dutchman, the overture of which features on (PFS 4158). Here you will be able to hear the opening turbulence of the storm-at-sea leitmotif performed by bassoons and horns along with the waves of violins and also the violas and cellos which tell us of the approaching storm.
Now, if you have trouble determining the leitmotifs in his piece, try something a little easier. Think of the ♫der dum, der dum♫ of the film Jaws. You always knew when the lead character was in the locality because his signature der dum started playing. This is a classic use of a musical leitmotif.
Still, back to the plot; Carlos Paita came to the attention of the listening public via his recordings, in particular, his Phase 4 output. Paita was feted around the record buying world but in France, his Wagner Festival won the Grand Prix du Disque of the Academie Charles Gros. Fame for Carlos but also fame for Decca and the Phase 4 recording system.
It was Decca producer Tony D'Amato who discovered Paita during a concert in Brussels. All of the above records were produced by D'Amato.
Uri Segal
Israeli Uriel Segal conducts Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 5 E flat major Opus 73 also known as the "Emperor" on PFS 4291 and also crops up on Illana Vered Plays Mozart (PFS 4340)
It seems that the ‘Emperor’ was so nick-named by a London publisher friend of Beethoven’s, Johann Cramer, who also played piano and composed. He quite likely decided on this appellation due to the composer’s dedication of the concerto to Archduke Rudolph of Vienna. Not actually an Emperor but he was the son of one and brother of another. This dedication would have been no surprise to anyone at the time because Rudolph received several such dedications as it was the Archduke who kept Beethoven’s finances solvent. He was also the composer’s student and friend.
Lorin Maazel
At age 5 Lorin Maazel began learning the violin. At age 7 he began learning conducting. At age 11 he was conducting! Arturo Toscanini invited him on stage to conduct the NBC Symphony, that is the National Broadcasting Company Symphony, which was formed specifically for Toscanini to present performances for broadcast around the world.
As well as conducting, Maazel also composed, though, predictably, none of his works are heard here on his three Phase 4 LPs. These are:
Richard Strauss/Tchaikovsky, Death & Transfiguration (Op. 24)/Francesca Da Rimini - Fantasia After Dante, Op. 32 (PFS 4227)
Mussorgsky, Ravel/Prokofiev, Pictures at an Exhibition/Piano Concerto No. 3 (PFS 4255)
Chopin, Piano Concerto No. 1 - Piano Sonata In B Flat Minor (PFS 4311)
You may remember from the TWO posts that it is Maurice Ravel's orchestration of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition that is the most well-known version. It was originally written for solo piano, and it is still performed in this way, but Ravel was encouraged to orchestrate it and did very well financially out of it, too.
Edward Downes
Ted Thomas Downes had the usual professional life of early prominence and achievement but it is the end of his life for which, sadly, he is possibly best known.
At age 85, he had been suffering deafness and a worsening blindness, becoming completely dependent on his wife, Lady Joan, after a hip replacement. When she was diagnosed with metastasised pancreatic cancer, and given a short time to live, they decided on a trip to Switzerland for an assisted suicide at the Dignitas Clinic.
Edward appears on just one LP here:
Liszt – Piano Concertos No. 1 In E Flat / Piano Concerto No. 2 In A (PFS 4252)
Hans Vonk
Dutchman Hans Vonk has his finger in four LP pies in our collection plus at least one other on which he conducts the second side. This latter one is Illiana Vered Plays Rachmaninoff (PFS 4327) - Andrew Davis taking Side 1. Vonk's other records are:
Schubert – Symphony No. 9 "The Great C Major" (PFS 4335)
Mendelssohn – Italian Symphony - A Midsummer Night's Dream (PFS 4359)
Tchaikovsky – Romeo And Juliet/Capriccio Italien/Waltz: Eugene Onegin (PFS 4388)
Mozart – Overture: The Marriage Of Figaro / Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, K.525 / Symphony No.41, In C Major; 'Jupiter', K.55 (PFS 4425)
Now, if you're wondering who this cad Eugene Onegin, who has gate-crashed his tune 'Waltz' into the above Tchaikovsky gig, is, reelaax. This is simply the title of another piece from the main man based on the life of Pushkin, the nineteenth century Russian poet and novelist. The work generally considered to be Pushkin's masterpiece is Yevgeny Onegin, a novel in verse, which was the first work to depict his country's contemporary society - the way that social and environmental issues of the time affected the way of life. Eugene is the more western pronunciation of Yevgeny.
Erich Leinsdorf
Erich Landauer changed his name officially to Leinsdorf when aged 22 years. He also changed his nationality from Austrian to American, too. In common with just about everyone else in our discussions, Leinsdorf achieved much in his early years beginning with his first lesson in music at age five.
November 22nd 1963 turned out to be a troubling day in the life of Erich - not, however, as troubling as in that of President Kennedy (John F). Sadly, it was the day of John F's assassination! And didn't it go and happen just as Erich Leinsdorf was due to begin poking his baton towards the Boston Symphony Orchestra! Well, he was obliged to announce the news to the audience but not before he asked the librarian at the BSO, William Shisler, to rustle up some copies of the scores for the funeral march from Beethoven's third symphony, the Eroica, and distribute them to the orchestra waiting patiently at their music stands. Because the performers would not have had access to the wireless, they would have known nothing of the events in the outside world and Shisler had to tell them as he distributed the scores. Leinsdorf made the announcement to the gasps of the audience, told them of the change in programme and began the Beethoven piece, rather more slowly than it was originally intended. These people would have had no trouble remembering what they were doing at the time of Kennedy's death.
This poignant moment is not remembered here and doesn't feature on any of Erich Leinsdorf's four Phase 4 records. They are:
Wagner/Strauss – Overture And Venusberg Music From Tannhäuser/Suite From Der Rosenkavalie (PFS 4187)
Petrushka (PFS 4207)
Mahler – Symphony No.1 In D Major (PFS 4232)
Stravinsky – The Rite Of Spring (PFS 4307)
Incidentally, Leinsdorf succeeded our new friend, Charles Munch, at the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1962.
Miklós Rózsa
Whilst Hungarian, Miklós Rózsa did conduct, it was his own compositions that he presented - he is known as a composer of great film music. His interest in music began with that of the Palóc, (say Palowtz) Hungarian gypsies from an area close to his home, whose music he 'collected' in a notebook. These notes would have been formative in his early compositions, particularly as he was keen to write with his local environment and heritage in mind.
Rózsa was performing violin, viola and piano in public and composing when he was eight. He was already well into the musical life but his father insisted that he forget all of this silly nonsense and get stuck into regular education. Another Dad Fail! Whilst at high school he was elected president of the Franz Liszt Society with which he won top spot for a piece of his own called 'Hungarian Twilight'.
Later, his work was conducted by such as Charles Munch, Leonard Bernstein and TWO friend Georg Solti.
At age 27, his career path was decided - his friend Arthur Honegger wrote the music for the film, Les Miserables, and he came away from watching it most impressed. His first commission was for music of an Hungarian hue for a ballet but during the production run, the tunes came to the attention of film director, Jacques Feyder in London, who invited Miklós to write for his upcoming movie, Knight without Armour - this work won our man much kudos and he was asked to write more for the London Films organisation.
Miklós Rózsa married Margaret Finlason, ex-secretary to TWO star, Gracie Fields. He continued writing concerti etc. but it was his film scores that he went on to win awards with including for Ben Hur in 1959 at age 52, which is in our collection.
Ben Hur (PFS 4394)
Quo Vadis (PFS 4430)
Khachaturian
Aram Ilyich Khachaturian's main claim to fame is two of his three ballets, namely, Gayane and Spartacus from which come, respectively, 'Dance with Sabres' or the 'Sabre Dance' and the theme tune to TV's The Onedin Line which is the Adagio from the latter and which was also used as the melody of a song sung by Andy Williams called 'Journey's End'.
Khatchaturian's two Phase 4s are:
Prokofiev & Khachaturian (PFS 4349) which features Gayane and
Ballets Suites From Spartacus & Masquerade (PFS 4434)
Khatchaturian was a 20th Century composer.
Satie
According to composer, Erik Satie's sister, Olga, he was never easy to understand, in fact, she continued, 'he doesn't seem to have been quite normal', and this would seem to have been borne out in the titles to some of his pieces . Titles such as Three Pear-shaped Pieces of which there were seven! Waltz of the Chocolate Almonds and Things Seen from the Right and Left without Spectacles. These latter two, along with, for example, La Belle Excentrique, are the frenetic work of a frenetic mind. Also, the score for his ballet Parade features parts for whistles and typewriters! But then, when you consider the gentle, contemplative, Sunday morning feel of his Gymnopedies, you feel like asking the real Erik Satie to stand up!
Twentieth Century composer Satie's only record in our collection has him coupled with friend and fellow Frenchman Darius Milhaud. He does, however have his Gymnopedies I & II opening up a Various Artist LP, as well.
Erik Satie And His Friend Darius Milhaud (PFS 4286) and
The Impressionists (PFS 4224)
PFS 4286 contains La Belle Excentrique and with his contribution to PFS 4224 you have the opportunity to check out the extremes of his range. Darius Milhaud's Saudades do Brasil takes up the whole of Side B of the former LP and this is probably his most popular set. A suite of dances. Milhaud and Satie sit together quite well as they both have their musical idiosyncrasies. Milhaud's particular bag was polytonality and if you were to have asked him 'Why?', he would quite likely have answered 'Why not?' as he did one time, stirring himself from a comfy armchair, on behalf of a student at a composer's forum workshop in reply to another student who was quizzing him on the piece of music that he had just played. Having said his piece, which could be taken as his philosophy on life, Milhaud simply sat back down, nice and comfy.
Polytonality in music is the use of more than one key at the same time.
What's a key in music?
Well, a key is the bunch of notes that make up the main melody of a piece. Now, this isn't absolutely true for every case but, if a piece starts with the note of G, your piece of music is probably in the key of G. Because you start with G, the following notes and chords that make up your melody would normally be associated with G - you know, they would be the ones that make a nice tune with G. They have the right sort of pitch, you know, the right ... tone.
So what about polytonality, then?
Oh, what about Polly Toe... Ooh, yes, I see ... well, 'poly' means 'many' so if we have more than one tone going on at one time we have a case of polytonality. Geddit? Often, the tones (the pitches of the melodies), if there are more than one of them, sound a little discordant but pleasantly so if in the hands of someone like Darius Milhaud.
Are there any popular examples of polytonality?
Hmm ... well, how about the Star Wars theme ... and the Jaws theme, too, since we are talking John Williams here. I reckon it's quite easy to hear two melodies with their distinctive tones. Technically, a piece of music featuring two tones could be called bitonal but poly fits just as well. Also, if you are familiar with Captain Beefheart's music, you would not be surprised to know that he uses polytonality from time to time, too. Jazz is an obvious genre employing polytonality. Two members of a jazz band playing at the same time would normally = polytonality as jazz players, whilst being very aware of where they are in a piece (probably), do appear to fly in their own direction regardless of the 'melody' being perpetrated by the other player. It turns out that jazz pianist, Dave Brubeck was tutored by Darius Milhaud in composition and, naturally, polytonality cropped up. Being a piano player, he could play one key with one hand and another with the other. Another career sorted! So you see, piano players can, and probably should, be left to do it on their own! (Thanks to pianist/subscriber Ian A for the nod to include a bit about D Brubeck in this section. Ian says that he tried 'playing a C chord with the left hand, followed immediately by an F# chord with the right hand, and then changed to playing the C with the right hand and F# with the left. I would swear they were different chords.) other than C and F#, I assume he means ... whatever - proof, if proof were needed, that piano players should probably be left to do it ... etc. etc.
No more questions, your Honour.
Goodo!
Erich Gruenberg
Violinist Erich Gruenberg was born in Vienna but at age 22 he came to England and liked it so much that four years later he became a British citizen in 1950. He had played with just about every orchestra worldwide that by the mid-1960s he was ready for a change from classical and ended up, like so many other classical Phase 4 artists, playing on the Beatles' Sgt Pepper album. Not many were asked, however, to play wearing a gorilla paw on their bow hand. Gruenberg, as lead violinist on 'A Day in the Life', She's Leaving Home' and 'Within You Without You', was.
Erich Gruenberg seems to feature on just two Phase 4 LP:
Erich Gruenberg Plays Fritz Kreisler (PFS 4423) and
Rimsky-Korsakov – Scheherazade (PFS 4062)
On PFS 4062, Erich is credited with playing the violin solo only ...
... though I assume that he was in on the whole record. He certainly was on the other LP!
Fritz Kreisler
Violin virtuoso, Fritz Kreisler also composed music, and track A1 on PFS 4423 was one of the first to be published. 'Liebeslied' (Love's Sorrow) is accompanied by 'Leibesfreud' (Love's Joy) and the third tune that was published alongside these two is here, also. 'Schon Rosemary' (Lovely Rosemary) so it begins to look as though the stimulus to write was triggered by affairs of the heart, doesn't it?
In amongst Kreisler's tunes on this record are Erich Gruenberg's interpretations of Fritz's arrangements of more established composers; Vivaldi, Falla, Granados and Albeniz.
Think how proud Fritz K would have been when his first pieces of music were published. Think, then, what a blow it would have been when all of his work was attributed to composer, Joseph Lanner. eventually he had these works published under his own name but around this time, he wrote quite a few pieces which he, himself, attributed to other composers; people such as Louis Couperin and Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf. Why he did this does not seem to be established. He was running out of new music at one point and so knocked up this bunch of short pieces that he thought were reminiscent of days gone by but the reason for doing so seems to be a subject for speculation.
Some time later, Fritz Kreisler suffered a fractured skull after losing a tussle with a moving truck. The truck was delivering eggs so I imagine he whole scene got a bit yucky (note how I resist the temptation to insert a slew of egg puns here - impressed?). He recovered OK, after a week of coma, to live another 21 mischievous years.
Ivan Davis
Honourable mention goes to pianist, Ivan Davis. Ivan's biography is loaded with the usual list of professional achievements from beginning piano studies with his aunt at age 12 through to winning first prize at young persons' competitions to receiving frequent, lifelong platitudes of his great virtuosity. He appears four times in the Phase 4 collection:
Tchaikovsky – Piano Concerto No. 1 In B Flat Minor (PFS 4196)
Rachmaninoff – Piano Concerto No. 2 In C Minor (PFS 4214)
Liszt – Piano Concertos No. 1 In E Flat / Piano Concerto No. 2 In A (PFS 4252)
Chopin – Piano (PFS 4262)
Josef Sakonov
Virtuoso violinist, Josef Sakonov has one Phase 4 to his name:
Great Violin Encores (PFS 4265)
Josef was an orchestra leader but he also arranged players for recording sessions and he was one of the founders of the National Symphonic Orchestra. He was also involved with Mantovani's orchestra as well as another Phase 4 hero, Fred Hartley's Quintet. He played on Marianne Faithfull's 'Is This What I Get for Loving You' along with The Beatles' 'Yesterday'. 'Eleanor Rigby' and 'All You Need is Love' amongst others. Sakonov also contributed to film soundtracks, too - films such as The Pink Panther Strikes Again, The Boys from Brazil and Jesus of Nazareth.
So, what nationality would you say Josef Sakonov was? Well, he was British - his real name being, apparently, Sidney Sax! So there you go! This explains the eight piece, Sidney Sax and the Harlequins as well as the Sidney Sax Strings which were both gathered together for use on the BBC's Light Programme back in the day.
George Gershwin
Jacob Gershvin lived a relatively short life, passing on at age 39. He is usually lumped in with classical composers but his music has hints of pop and jazz as well. At age 11, he began playing the piano at home ... but it wasn't supposed to go that way. An upright piano was purchased more for older brother Ira to learn on but George proved to be something of a virtuoso at it. When he was about 18, he produced his first song that was published: 'When You Want ’Em You Can’t Get ’Em (When You’ve Got ’Em You Don’t Want ’Em)', two minutes of jaunty piano which would have you bobbing your head in time with it - oh yes, even you! It was a couple of years later that he achieved real celebrity when his song 'Swanee' was sung by Al Jolson in the musical, Sinbad. This tune shifted a million copies of the sheet music and twice as many records. George Gershwin has four Phase 4s:
Rhapsody In Blue/An American In Paris - Stanley Black (PFS 4098)
Porgy & Bess - Robert Farnon (PFS 4109)
The Glory That Was Gershwin - Frank Chacksfield (PFS 4287)
Gershwin - Arthur Fiedler, The Boston Pops Orchestra (PFS 4438)
Rhapsody in Blue was apparently knocked up in a hurry as it was required for a show that was to take place in a short time hence. Mind you, George was only reminded of this commitment when he read an announcement for the show in the newspaper where it stated that there would be a major new composition from Gershwin. At showtime, the piece was still not quite finished and fully scored so the solo piano section midway through had to be improvised on the spot with the conductor of the orchestra looking out for a nod from GG to tell him when he felt like finishing that bit and was ready to move onto the next. Still, our man's star was shining brightly at that time and, of course, it received world-wide rapturous acclaim.
Brother Ira produced most of the lyrics for George's songs thar required 'em, developing a humorous style that included witty slang and word puns.
George Gershwin's demise came quite rapidly curtesy of a brain tumour, leaving Ira to mop up very many unfinished pieces that had accumulated. He published stuff that was publishable and threw in some words where it looked appropriate before publishing the rest
In all, G Gershwin wrote ten orchestral works of which, Rhapsody in Blue was the first; two pieces for solo piano, two operas, one of which is Porgy and Bess and there was one London musical. There were 18 Broadway musicals and five films for which he wrote the scores.
Victor Herbert
Composer Victor August Herbert always said that he was born in Dublin - that was what his Mum told him, anyway. Little Vic was born out of wedlock, you see, and this
was all part of a ruse to distract attention from the fact. Well, I say out of wedlock - Mum was actually in wedlock at the time which heightened the need for some circumspection. Didn't matter - Mr Herbert left her and Victor anyway but it was too late - the story stuck. He was actually born in Guernsey!
Mother Frances' name from a previous marriage was Muspratt - a fine name. I'm not being disparaging about this splendid name but really, her maiden name was Lover. Now which one would you prefer? Probably only married Mr Herbert to get a new monicker ...
Modern musicmakers owe Herbert a whole bunch of praise as he was the one that instigated the establishment of the concept of the royalty. Victor Herbert has one record in our collection:
Operetta Spectacular - The Music Of Victor Herbert - Camarata (PFS 4354).
Anatole Fistoulari
In 1942, Ukrainian conductor Anatole Fistoulari married the daughter of Gustav Mahler, Anna, whom he met in England where he stayed for the rest of his life. You see, he was touring Paris and Europe when the Second World War began and he joined the French army. Following the fall to Germany, Anatole Fistoulari escaped to England where he bumped into Ms Mahler who had got away, herself, to London from Austria.
He became a British citizen in 1948 at aged about 41. Tchaikovsky was an important composer for Anatole - at age seven he found himself conducting his Pathetique, the 6th Symphony, and Tchaikovsky provides the music for two of Fistoulari's three Phase 4 LPs..
Tchaikovsky – Fourth Symphony In F Minor, Opus 36 (PFS 4225)
Tchaikovsky – Swan Lake Highlights (PFS 4375)
Brahms - Ilana Vered – Piano Concerto No. 2 In B Flat Major, Op. 83 (PFS 4428)
Jean Fournet
Jean Fournet was a French conductor and flautist whose first engagement to conduct professionally came at around age 23. He crops up on two Phase 4 records:
A Debussy Prom - Iberia: Images Pour Orchestre No. 2 - Prelude A L'Apres-Midi D'un Faune - Nocturnes (PFS 4317)
Ruggiero Ricci Plays The Tchaikovsky & Mendelssohn Violin Concertos (PFS 4345)
Ruggiero Ricci (originally named Woodrow Wilson Rich by Italian parents who emigrated to California during the First World War. He was born in 1918, the time of 28th US President Woodrow Wilson. Incidentally, Ruggiero's younger brother was named after the first US Pres. George Washington and his sister was called Emma!) . Ricci was a maestro of the violin, making his first public performance at age 10 and his debut orchestral performance a year later. And you can decide if you could have played the piece at that age because it was Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto In E Minor, Op. 64 which takes up side 2 of PFS 4345 above.
Václav Neumann
Czech conductor Václav Neumann has just one LP in our collection:
Dvořák – Slavonic Dances (PFS 4396)
Neumann was a founding member of the Smetana Quartet, playing violin and, later, viola before having the chance to chase his real ambition of conducting. Václav was playing viola in the Czech Philharmonic, the conductor of which was Rafael Kubelik, but who had become ill and could not perform one time. Up stepped Neumann. Even better - Kubelik emigrated later on and Václav Neumann was drafted in permanently.
They Also Served
Here follows a list of those classical composer contributors to our story that were discussed in the TWO blog. So, in order of appearance:
Respighi (PFS 4024, 4131, 4407,)
Tchaikovsky (PFS 4024, 4083, 4126, 4129, 4140, 4161, 4181, 4189, 4196, 4225, 4227, 4265, 4345, 4351, 4352, 4362, 4375, 4388, 4395)
Verdi (PFS 4024, 4107, 4323, 4401)
Rimsky Korsakov (PFS 4062, 4177, 4333)
Mussorgsky (PFS 4095, 4181, 4255, 4323)
Debussy (PFS 4095, 4220, 4224, 4317)
Offenbach (PFS 4096)
Gilbert & Sullivan (PFS 4097)
Prokofiev (PFS 4102, 4255, 4349)
Britten (PFS 4104)
Handel (PFS 4113, 4295, 4325)
Puccini (PFS 4115, 4323, 4389, 4437)
Wagner (PFS 4116, 4158, 4187, 4205, 4297, 4323)
Strauss (PFS 4117, 4187)
Vivaldi (PFS 4124, 4423)
Bizet (PFS 4127, 4198, 4204, 4323, 4348)
Dvorak (PFS 4128, 4245. 4333, 4351, 4396)
Stravinsky (PFS 4139, 4189, 4207, 4307, 4362)
Rachmaninoff (PFS 4150, 4214, 4327, 4351)
Berlioz (PFS 4160, 4297)
Sibelius (PFS 4169, 4378)
Liszt (PFS 4169, 4252)
Ketelby (PFS 4170)
Beethoven (PFS 4183. 4188, 4197, 4291, 4297, 4341, 4342, 4367, 4433)
Holst (PFS 4184)
Borodin (PFS 4189, 4209)
Schubert (PFS 4197, 4325, 4335, 4351)
Richard Strauss (PFS 4202, 4215, 4227)
Grieg (PFS 4206, 4352)
Ravel (PFS 4220, 4224, 4226, 4255)
Faure (PFS 4224)
Mahler (PFS 4232, 4402)
von Suppe (PFS 4236)
Johann Strauss (PFS 4240, 4353)
Smetana (PFS 4245)
Bach (PFS 4261, 4278, 4325)
Chopin (PFS 4262, 4311, 4313, 4351)
Did you ever start something that you really wished you hadn't?
Massenet (PFS 4265)
How many composers are there anyway?
Sarasate (PFS 4265)
Korngold (PFS 4265)
Monti (PFS 4265)
And who's Monti when he's at home?
Brahms (PFS 4297, 4305)
Mozart (PFS 4299, 4314, 4325, 4338, 4425)
Weber (PFS 4323)
Leoncavallo (PFS 4323)
Gounod (PFS 4323)
Albinoni (PFS 4325)
Gluck (PFS 4325)
Purcell (PFS 4325)
Paganini (PFS 4327)
Now, I'm not surprised to find Gluck at this end of the list but blimey! Elgar and Mendelsohn are joining the party a bit late, aren't they?
Elgar (PFS 4338, 4351)
Mendelssohn (PFS 4345, 4359)
Khachaturian (PFS 4348, 4434)
Byrd (PFS 4351)
Clarke (PFS 4351)
Herbert (PFS 4354)
Delibes (PFS 4358)
Orff (PFS 4368)
Rossini (PFS 4386, 4407)
Falla (PFS 4423)
Albeniz (PFS 4423)
Just one more to go ... I can do this!
Granados (PFS 4423)
He shoots! HE SCORES! (note to self - never, under any circumstances, embark on something as time-consuming as this AGAIN!)
Now, I would just like to tidy up a question that I left hanging above. Vittorio Monti was an Italian composer famous as a one hit wonder. Whilst he wrote plenty of pieces, it is his Csárdás that people will recognise above all of his other work. You can find this violin tune on:
Gypsy! - Werner Müller And His Orchestra (PFS 4105) and
Great Violin Encores - Josef Sakonov (PFS 4265)
And that is who Monti was whether he was home or not!
Well, I've come to my usual amount of words and I find that there are still a handful of composers to introduce so you will find these in the next post.
Until then ....
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References available on request
Regarding the LP cover images, they are photographs of the records in my own collection and are taken by my own hand (which explains the slight wonkiness of some of them). All images should, however, be considered the property of Decca.
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