Christmas in March

This past  holiday season while channel surfing on my car radio I heard the last few minutes of some delightful Christmas music. The arrangements on this recording sounded so unique and fresh that I paused at my destination to hear who was responsible for this brief moment of holiday cheer. The recording turned out to be " Christmas in the Country" with the New York Pops conducted by Skitch Henderson. I had once met Henderson at a Philadelphia Singers benefit and I knew that he was a fine musician but never realized what a talented arranger  he was.
Several years ago I received the CD collection of Fritz Blank, Chef and part owner of Deux Cheminees and former board member of the Philadelphia Singers. Included in that collection were at least 50 or 60 Christmas CD'S of various genres. If you include my own collection of 50 or so holiday CD'S it might seem that the inclusion of"  Christmas in the Country" would be superfluous, but this album was so charming that I decided to search for it. I found it recently on Amazon, used for $1.99. The EMI/Angel produced recording quality is also excellent. Look for it........ and a very Merry Un-Christmas! Stay Tuned.

OLD FRIENDS

  This morning I thought I would "Spin some Vinyl" as the DJs of old used to say. The record contained French repertoire with the Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Charles Munch in music I heard Munch conduct in person. The real purpose of today's morning reflections is not so much the music, but the audio equipment that brings it to life. Many years ago, at the dawn of the CD era, I thought I would upgrade my turntable and speakers. I decided on a Shure V15 cartridge, an  Acoustic Research turntable and tone arm and these components have served me well over the years. The speakers I chose were the Dahlquist DQM-7s which were purchased at Bryn Mawr Stereo, but the the ones I fell in love with were the DQM-9s which at $ 1,400 a pair were well beyond my means. Twenty five years have passed since I have heard those speakers but lo and behold a Craig's list ad offered a pair of those DQM-9's for sale at 1/3 the original price and the seller lived only five minutes away in Moorstown. I have since purchased them and they sound great, re-coned , and in wonderful condition. This goes to prove that " All things come to those who wait".     STAY TUNED.

Rubinstein, Heifetz, or God!

When Jascha Heifetz complained to Rubinstein that his name was placed second on the concert program Rubinstein retorted,"If God was playing in the trio, it would be: Rubinstein, God, Heifetz". It has been two months since my last blog, so much singing, and caroling, and shopping for the holidays. Two of my Christmas presents were the Rubinstein-Heifetz collaborations: Beethoven and Schubert trios with Emanuel Feurmann and Brahms and Mendelssohn trios with Piatigorsky and Feurmann. Although the sound is sometimes dim (1940), the performances are electric and well worth having. I have yet to hear the Faure Violin Sonata with those two Bad Boys. Stay Tuned.

The Neglected Bloch

Is Earnest Bloch (1880-1959) one of the 20th century's most underrated composers? I think so, and his music is certainly not played often enough. Although he was born in Geneva Switzerland, he spent a good deal of his life in the United States and took his American citizenship in 1924. Some of his major works include: Schelomo ( Solomon ), a work performed by many of our greatest cellists, Suite Hebraique, Israel Symphony, and his Sacred Service. I was first introduced to Bloch's music through a recording of the Concerto Grosso no.1 for strings and piano with the Chicago Symphony conducted by Rafael Kubelik. The recording we listened to this morning featured the Kristiansand Chamber Orchestra and was recorded in Norway on the INTIM MUSIK label. Yes, I never heard of that label either but the sound is excellent and the recording also features the Concerto Grosso no.2 and another wonderful piece, the Four Temperaments by Paul Hindemith. The performances here are exemplary; look for it on Amazon. We now eagerly await a recording of Bloch's Symphony in E flat conducted by a Bloch specialist Dalia Atlas. I certainly don't expect to hear this piece any time soon in a concert hall. Stay Tuned.

A RARETY FROM KUSSY !

British music is not something you would expect to hear from Serge Koussevitzky but in fact he performed quite a lot of it including the American premiere of William Walton's " Belshazzar's Feast " in 1932. The CD we listened to this morning with our Kona coffee included a 1947 performance of the Vaughn Williams Symphony NO. 5 in D on the Guild Historical label along with the Tchaikovsky " Francesca da Rimini ". Kussy's recorded legacy is no where near as comprehensive as Toscanini's or Stokowski's but what he left us is evergreen. The live performance of the Vaughn Williams 5th shows all the earmarks of this great orchestra; voluptuous strings, beautiful woodwind playing and tight ensemble. The Tchaikovsky, which is paired with it, receives a splendid performance but one that is not quite as exciting as a live 1946 one on a now defunct  AS DISC cd. Good luck trying to find that one.

Falling out of Love

When I was a teenager, the talk of the town, at least in the opera house in Philadelphia, was the tenor Franco Corelli. Franco charmed the women with his dashing good looks and great legs; and impressed almost everyone with his beautiful voice and thrilling high notes. Of course, since his manager was the impresario and wrestling promoter Ray Fabiani, he sang frequently in Philadelphia. I heard Corelli several times in my youth and was certainly primed to like him and like him I did in both La Boheme and with the Met in Turandot, but something has changed over the years: I've fallen out of love with Mr. Corelli's Art. I think the final straw was the re-release of a Met Tosca on Sony with Leontyne Price. Diction is usually indistinct, (and he's Italian) and notes incessantly slid into one another, plus everything is sung forte. In short, everything seemed to be done in the service and comfort of his voice, not in the service of the composer or the role he is playing. I also found his acting rather stiff and he seemed to be thinking "When is my next high note". The Opera Co. of Philadelphia is staging Carmen now so I listened to the Van Karajan recording with Franco and heard that the usual problems were all in place, and his French was-"Mon Deiu". I also listened to a Met broadcast from the 50's with Mario Del Monaco conducted by Dimitri Metropoulos. Del Monaco and Corelli's voices were similar, they were both Spinto or Dramatic tenors but Del Monaco's singing in this performance was more musical and accurate. Yes, he could be be very loud but in this recording he was engaging and dramatic. But of course his legs weren't as nice.

A difficult choice

It's been a few weeks since hurricane Irene made a mess of things, sparing my cd collection but ruining my basement. This morning, while listening to Bruckner, my wife posed an interesting question; " If your collection was in eminent danger, which 10 cd's would you save?" Off the top of my head I thought of a few that would merit consideration, and those would be the ones that I have listened to the most over the years. 1. Korngold's "The Sea Hawk" with Gerheart   2. Rachmaninoff Piano concerto no 2 with William Kapell. 3. Shirley Horn "Here's to Life". 4 Mahler's Symphony no. 2 from the New York Philharmonic set with Zubin Metha conducting. 5. A collection of string music which includes Peter Warlock's Capriol Suite on the Nimbus label. 6. The Pavarotti "Turandot". 7. Scheherazade with Stokowski, a public performance with the Philadelphia Orchestra from 1962. 8. Wagner's "Immolation Scene" with Birget Nilsson , ( and  Stoky) from the Philadelphia Orchestra Centennial set. 9. A Handel collection with my beloved voice teacher Richard Lewis on the Dutten label. 10. My first Beethoven 9th with Bruno Walter from the 50's. Now, having completed my list of ten, I shudder to think what I have left out!