damians78s Blog » Delius

Website updated

damians78s — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 12:29:14 +0000

Earlier in the week I completed the latest update to my website, with a typically mixed bag of recordings.

The first is an unusual recording by the wonderful British baritone Dennis Noble, and is not listed in the discography of Noble which appeared in The Record Collector in 2004. The record label is a private EMI pressing made to promote the National Savings scheme. The songs on one side are a “Silver Lining Medley”, and on the other “Look for the Silver Lining.” These were presumably chosen to tie in with the film “Look for the Silver Lining”, a 1949 biopic of Marilyn Miller. In the medley, Noble sings two songs, and C Wright (a very English tenor crooner) sings another. A fourth is assigned to the chorus. The second side has Noble singing with the chorus. Both sides are introduced by actor Norman Shelley (“Hello everyone! Are you a national saver?”).

Around the same time, Eugene Goossens was conductor of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, and can be heard in Delius’s The Walk to the Paradise Garden.

Some decades before, a Russian conductor made recordings in the US – Vassily Andreyev took his Balalaika Orchestra on tour there in 1911. One of the sides he made cropped up as a filler side for Landon Ronald’s abridged recording of Schubert’s Unfinished Symphony. The recordings this time are from a Victrola 78.

An altogether different sound comes from an early single-side Zonophone of Fucik’s “Entry of the Gladiators”, recorded a little before it acquired its circus connotations. The “Zonophone Military Band” credited on the label is actually the Band of H.M. Colstream Guards, conducted by John Mackenzie-Rogan.

Maintaining the Czech theme, Dvorak’s New World Symphony receives a compelling performance from Jascha Horenstein on a Vox LP. The tempi are occasionally slower than one might expect, but the conductor’s attention to detail makes for a highly satisfying account.

And finally, Dean Dixon makes a long overdue appearance on my site. He claimed he could divide his career into three phases, where he was respectively “the black conductor Dean Dixon”, “the American conductor Dean Dixon”, and then after success in Europe, simply “the conductor Dean Dixon.” He recorded extensively in Europe, through to the 1970s, and indeed I have more recordings by him than can appear on my site, as many are still in copyright. The three LPs I’ve uploaded this time include Schumann’s 3rd and 4th Symphonies, Schubert’s 4th and 5th Symphonies, and Schubert’s Rosamunde music. All were recorded in the 1950s.

Delius, Puccini and Prokofiev

damians78s — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 13:01:47 +0000

I’m working on a bunch of early Delius recordings – I had to buy a few Delius scores today to help me manage the side joins (the copy of “In a Summer Garden” used to belong to Sir Charles Groves”). No such assistance with Eugene Goossens’s acoustic recording with the Royal Albert Hall Orchestra of “Selection from La Tosca” arranged by Emile Tavane from Puccini’s opera. It’s going to take a bit of effort with the score of the opera to identify a number of the selections, and to check if they’re at the same pitch as in the original score or transposed to suit the arrangement better. It certainly seems that the recording doesn’t quite fit to standard pitch when played at 78rpm, and it possibly changes pitch slightly through each side.

The new issue of BBC Music Magazine arrived today – the cover CD includes a recording of the UK premiere of Prokofiev’s 2nd Violin Concerto, with Robert Soetens, for whom it was written, as soloist. The conductor is Henry Wood, and the performance was in 1936, just a year after the work was premiered. I haven’t had a chance to listen to it yet, but I’m looking forward to it.

Pop, Jigs, Choirs and Delius

damians78s — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 12:46:07 +0000

As well as the recordings by the likes of Landon Ronald, Percy Pitt, Dan Godfrey and so on who regular visitors to my site will know, I also collect a wide range of other recordings which make it on site from time to time. Among newer recordings to my collection which I’ve just digitised is a 1958 pop 78 of two tracks sung by Peter Miles. He’s probably an unfamiliar name to most people. But as a Doctor Who fan, I warmly remember his acting performances in “The Silurians”, and most famously as Nyder in “Genesis of the Daleks.” (I’ve yet to see his contribution to “Invasion of the Dinosaurs.”) He shows off a fine falsetto, and I hope to make the two sides available on my site before too long. I’ve also just listened to a Regal 10? record of the Silver Stars Band (conducted by Ketèlbey, though the label does not declare this) of a selection of Irish Jigs, recorded in 1920. It’s rather fun. And then there’s a 12? Columbia of the Choir of St. George’s Chapel Windsor under Dr. Edmund Fellowes, performing Stanford’s Magnificat in G, and Walmisley’s Magnificat in D minor. Both are sadly lacking their associated Nunc dimittises (what is the plural of “Nunc dimittis”?) The performances are strange to modern ears, especially the diction. It’s what one comes to expect on choral and operatic recordings in English from this period, and helps reveal changes in performance practice over the years.

Waiting to reach the turntable is a selection of early Delius recordings, including the first recordings of Brigg Fair and On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring, both with Eugene Goossens III conducting the Royal Albert Hall Orchestra. There are also late 1920s Delius recordings with Geoffrey Toye conducting (including another Brigg Fair) and the Cello Sonata with Beatrice Harrison and Harold Craxton.