 |
| Charles Ives |
I am not sure which record of his music was made first, but it may well be the initial selection under consideration today - a 78 dating back to 1934 issued by the New Music Quarterly.
The conductor was Nicolas Slonimsky, best known these dates as a musicologist and writer. The composer possibly provided subvention for the disc.
Slonimsky conducted the Pan American Orchestra in Ives' "Barn Dance" and "In the Night," No. 3 of the composer's Set of Pieces (aka Set for Theater Orchestra).
 |
| Carl Ruggles |
 |
| Nicolas Slonimsky, Werner Janssen |
Janssen's disc has been dated to 1949, and is a fill up to a 78 set of Henry F. Gilbert's Dance in the Place Congo (not included here). The conductor presents Ives' "The Housatonic at Stockbridge," one of the Three Places in New England. It was made with the Janssen Symphony, a group that Janssen conducted in Los Angeles in the 1940s.
LINK to early Ives and Ruggles on 78
13 comments:
Great
Dave from Ardmore thanks you from the bottom of the heart for these restorations. It must be noted that Ruggles, a notorious anti-Semite, hated Slonimsky and was taken to take by others for his disdain. Lou Harrison even broke off their friendship because of Ruggles' hatred. This was after he had published a glorious monograph on the composer, which he kelpt out of print until persuaded to include it in an anthology of his writings shortly before his death. One last piece of trivia: It appears Anton Webern conducted a performance of "Sun Treader" in Vienna around 1934. Ruggle is, for me, an American Alban Berg.
Dave - Yes, Ruggles was a difficult character, to be sure.
Dave from Ardmore wishes to inform you that Sony Legacy has just reissued every important recording of Ives’ music issued by Columbia and RCA during the 1960s and 1970s—the years of his greatest resurgence. Ormandy released at least three album on RCA. Now amnesia has set in at Kimmel Center.
Dave - Yeah, Ives hasn't been celebrated at all this year in the country of his birth.
I knew the delightful Nicolas Slonimsky quite well. The last time I saw him was when he was about a year from his death, still vigourously enthusiastic and full of spirit; I give him a copy of his autobiography to autograph for me and though we hadn't talked for at least 15 years, he did it with a flourish, remembering my name & spelling it exactly without prompting!
Back around 1973 I spent some considerable time with him when he came to the SF bay area to meet with Vladimir Pleshakov at his music school in Palo Alto. Nicolas and I did about 4 hours or so of audio interviews which I edited down to about 2, which was broadcast in a documentary I did for a local Mountain View FM station and later supplied by me to the Pacifica Radio network. I also transferred some of the old 10" Columbia-pressed 78s that he had conducted in 1934 which, if memory serves, were also in the broadcast (perhaps at least in part.)
What a CHARACTER! He had, I recall, a tendency toward committing "Spoonerisms" which added to the amusement of his remarks. Years later he was actually a guest on "The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson" and demonstrated his cute little trick of playing a Chopin piece with an apple in one hand.
I cannot possibly relate all the little "secret stories" he confided of his years (in the 1920s) as Serge Koussevitzky's 'musical secretary', except to sum up that Koussy was not a very good score reader, so most modern pieces had to be re-barred by NS for him--their version of Le Sacre became somewhat famous and was also used by Lenny Bernstein, as it made much more sense, ON THE MUSIC SHEETS, of the complex rhythms. (One thing that never made it into his Baker's Biographical Dictionary but was confided to me: Koussevitzky wanted to have a doublebass concerto to perform but was not competent to write one...so he had GLAZUNOV do it for him, secretly. He suggested the "big theme" from the New World Symphony and Alexander duly wrote it as the opening motif (the one set to the words "From the New World at last, great songs will be heard" by Sigmund Spaeth in one of his "music appreciation" books--the opening of the finale.) So the concerto beings with an almost rote version of the tune, plus a few tiny changes to disguise it very slightly.)
Nicolas was VERY scrupulous when it came to writing the bios of musicians, and he would NEVER have put this into print! (I was a callow, ambitious youth at the time, studying with Lou Harrison. Nicolas congratulated me when he was speaking of some then ultra-modern pieces. He momentarily faltered when trying to recover from memory the title of a daring new "space opera", and I finished he sentence with this: 'Oh, you must mean Aniara by Blomdahl, right?", to which he replied, with great delight, "Why, youngk man, you must know EFFREETING!" in his charming Russo-Euro accent. An unforgettable genius, raconteur, wit, and polymath!
Best,
Steve Waldee (ah, Buster, if you have ways of contacting me again, perhaps via my wife Regina Roper, can you send me an email? I probably do not have the old address but RR has a Facebook, etc.)
Hi Steve - Good to hear from you! I LOVE the anecdotes above, particularly the one about the Koussevitzky-Glazunov Double Bass Concerto. Remarkable. What wonderful memories. I'll see if I can locate the email.
Thanks. Incidentally: I have the Werner Janssen Victor 78 of the School for Scandal Overture, in much better, richer sound than one that was posted on usenet years ago. I'd like to get that to you.
Srw
Steve - I have a gmail address for you under the 8H moniker. Is that still valid?
Not valid; but substitute for the first part, before the ampersand, "reginacelestial.website".
BTW: Buster, another "private" anecdote I thought of, but not from Slonimsky. Years ago, my friend the late conductor George Cleve, pupil of Pierre Monteux, told me of an experience he had with the great conductor when he was in his teens and being mentored by the gentleman. Monteux, his wife, and Cleve were checking into an eastern hotel for a concert. The bell-hop was much taken by the conductor and came to the conclusion that he was a famous musician or public figure, but couldn't remember exactly who he was; and asked, "Pardon me, sir, but you surely are a famous person! I thought at first you might be Professor Steinmetz...but now I think you're, maybe, Howard Hanson?"
Monteux (a modest individual in the extreme) replied, sadly, shaking his head, "Non, non, ma cherie--I am not a famoose pairson. Not even 'oward 'anson!"
Srw
Post a Comment