I was tempted to express surprise that a month and a half have gone by since my previous post. But, given that I teach 16 to 19 year olds, and this was the half term leading up to exams, things have been somewhat hectic.

On Saturday May 8th, we went to see “The Gift of Music: An evening with Julie Andrews” at the O2 arena here in London. It was a wonderful event, with the first half devoted to the music of Rodgers & Hammerstein, and the second half to a musical version of “Simeon’s Gift”, one of the children’s books which Dame Julie has written with her daughter. As Dame Julie acknowledges, at the age of 74, and after a disastrously botched throat operation more than a decade ago, she can no longer sing as she used to. So most of the evening’s songs were performed by a quintet of Broadway stars, including the wonderful Jubilant Sykes (who sang on Marin Alsop’s 2009 Naxos recording of Bernstein’s Mass). Dame Julie introduced parts of songs, sang parts of various songs, and got two songs entirely to herself (though with vocal lines adapted for her reduced range): My Funny Valentine and Cock-eyed optimist. Particularly nice was the sequence from “Cinderella” – as expected she sang the fairy godmother’s part in “Impossible – It’s possible!” There has been much written about disappointed fans wanting their money back, and leaving at the interval. It disappoints me to think that some people went to this performance expecting, presumably, to hear the voice that was immortalised on film more than forty years ago. If you went with your expectations tempered appropriately, then there was such a lot to enjoy. The quality of Dame Julie’s singing, despite the years and the operation is testament to the hard work she has put in to recover sufficient voice to sing as well as she did. There are numerous clips on youtube (just search for “Julie Andrews O2”.)

This hasn’t really been about 78s though. So to get back to the theme, in the run up to this concert I took the opportunity to remaster the various recordings in my collection by Lilian Stiles-Allen, one of the original sixteen singers in Vaughan Williams’s Serenade to Music, and Dame Julie’s vocal teacher. These will be on my site within the next few days. I also have two of the 78s Julie Andrews recorded as a child, and these will be uploaded soon as well.

Once I’ve sorted out a few issues with uploading to Mediafire, my site update will be completed. This will also include Hamilton Harty’s recordings of Schubert’s Rosamunde music (including both overtures), Henry Wood’s electrical recordings of the Unfinished Symphony, from 1926 and 1933, the English winners of Columbia’s Schubert competition (Merrick’s Two Movements in Symphonic Form, a completion of the Unfinished Symphony, and John St. Anthony Johnson’s Pax Vobiscum) conducted by Stanford Robinson. There’s also a late acoustic orchestral selection from Lilac Time, with Schubert’s music arranged by Clutsam, with George W Byng conducting the Mayfair Orchestra.

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I acquired another copy of the Columbia recording of the Jupiter Symphony conducted by Dan Godfrey, and have therefore produced a new restoration of this wonderful performance. There is a substantial overlap between sides 2 and 3 of the first movement, so I’ve included both an edited version of the movement as per the score, and a version including everything that Godfrey recorded.

The Lener Quartet’s Columbia recording of Eine kleine Nachtmusik is described on the record labels simply as Quartet in G major No.19 (Serenata). It’s fascinating to hear a chamber version of this work from the 1920s.

From a little later, still on Columbia, Hamilton Harty conducted four of the six movements of the Divertimento in D K334, in a performance full of his characteristic dynamism.

There is a group of three sides of excerpts from Don Giovanni, sung in English. From a 1924 HMV record, the Welsh tenor Tudor Davies sings Don Ottavio’s arias “On her contentment” (Dalla sua pace) and “To her I love” (Il mio tesoro). They are enjoyable performances, and Davies characteristically shows off his ringing high notes by ending the arias up an octave. He does however have an occasional catch to his voice. As is typical of these acoustic recordings, the music is substantially rescored, often with additional sustained notes in the woodwind. Il mio tesoro is closer to the original scoring. The other recording is from a single-sided Zonophone, recorded in 1909, of “Give me thy hand, Oh fairest” (La ci darem la mano), sung by Peter Dawson and Eleanor Jones-Hudson (in her frequent guise of “Alvena Yarrow”. The scoring is close to the original, though with the reinforced bass one expects at this period.

I’ve also transferred the contents of a French Mode Disques LP: “Petite Musique de Nuit; Marche Turque; Concerti No.2 et 3 pour piano et orchestre.” On the first side Jean Witold conducts “Ensemble Instrumental Sinfonia” in Eine kleine Nachtmusik, Pauline Aubert plays the Rondo alla turca from the A major piano sonata K331 on harpsichord. The second side contains the Piano Concertos K207 Nos.2 and 3, where Mozart composed accompaniments to piano sonatas by JC Bach. These are played by Robert Veyron-Lacroix, with Roland Douatte conducting the Collegium Musicum de Paris. These recordings (together with K207 No.1) were first issued in 1957, and the Witold recording on the first side was reviewed unfavourably in Gramophone the same year. I’ve not yet established a date for the Aubert recording. The back of the LP sleeve contains brief notes in French, followed by a rather incoherent English translation:

When in Salzburg, Mozart will be submitted to many musical tendances for his so short life. Among his travels, he met in London Jean Chrétien Bach, and got a so great wonder for him that he will  please to orchestrate his London mentor’s sonates and he composed concertos for pianos. Here are these creations.
In fact Mozart changed nothing in Jean Chrétien Bach’s text, he just added on orchestral accompaniment written in 3 parts for fiddles and violoncello.
“La petite musique”, just ended in Wien, August 10, 1787 when Mozart was 31 years old, shows in its four parts the pleasant, youthful and brilliant sade of the “Master” when he created “Divertimenti” for the fests of the Mirabel Palace in his native town.
So, and in spite of some brief periods when “his heaven was a little bit darker”, you can find  here a quite light opus.
But when with all these characteristics, we always know nothing about the first intended purpose of this “serenade” he wrote for the exclusive stringed orchestra, in form of a quatuor, with cellos in harmony. Maybe it was written for the pleasure of walkers in the Prater in Wien.
In this particular case, we could also imagine this piece interpreted in the Palais Royal gardens by musicians with powdered wigs.
“La marche turque” is the final rondo of this sonate in la, composed by Mozart, during his second trip to Paris, as crual as it is possible because  of his  desillusions, of his  mother’s death.
For ending this so important sonate, you find a kind offarce just as Mozart will know so exactly tell them in his lyrics. You can met again with the mischievous teenager who knew how to relate thousands of fancies in his letters.

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In other musical news, I purchased the Historic Masters repressing of Francesco Tamagno’s 10” recordings. These were an absolute joy to listen to, his voice ringing out clearly more than a century after the recordings were made.

I’ve also had the pleasure of the final instalment of Marston’s Conchita Supervia edition. There’s very much a Spanish focus on the recordings included, apart from some Lehar in French. Even greater joy than listening to Tamagno. In addition, the package included the latest Lagniappe disc, a bonus to subscribers. This time it was a selection of recordings by Paul Payan. This wonderful French bass displayed great flexibility and variety of colour. There were times when his timbre reminded me of Ezio Pinza.

I’ve been working through the EMI Classics 10CD Stokowski box. Of course, it includes some less familiar works, which make a great impression, but it’s when you get to the more familiar stuff that Stokowski’s choices can be frustrating. There are tweaks to the orchestration of Holst’s Planets, and his Carmina Burana cuts out middle verses of many parts of the score, and plays around with tempos and pauses outrageously. There are some tender and affecting parts, but as a whole it was disappointing.

I’ve also enjoyed Reginald Goodall’s EMI recording of Parsifal, though I think I prefer my Parsifals a little brisker than his.

There are still piles of 78s, LPs and CDs which I haven’t listened to. Among those that reached my turntable today were another National Savings promotional record, recorded just a few days before VE Day (when the outcome of the war in Europe was pretty much known) and paying tribute to all of the British armed forces and volunteers who contributed to the war effort. It’s a fascinating snapshot, with solos from baritones Thorpe Bates and Walter Saull. Joseph Batten conducts the London Symphony Orchestra. I hope to get this transferred soon. I’ve also just listened to Marie Novello’s recording of Liszt’s 2nd Hungarian Rhapsody, somewhat abridged on two sides of a 10” Winner disc. It’s an unusual performance – it isn’t the hackneyed barnstorming approach, and is perhaps the most rhapsodic version of the rhapsody I’ve heard. I’ve also listened to the violinist Daniel Melsa (on Broadcast Twelve), Stanley Chapple conducting Brahms and Elgar (again Broadcast Twelve), Virgilio Ranzato in two violin solos (Pathé), and assorted other things that may make it to my site soon. But my half-term holiday has just finished, so it’s back to work next week, with less time for transferring recordings.

The National Savings record is probably the next item on my list for restoration, though, for its unusualness.

Damian

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Damian