C TNI A AT OR L D GO TCU O YR
IN THIS ISSUE NEWRELEASES RELEASES NEW and Exploring Music: a few (choice) words about each of our new releases.
JÖRG DEMUS PLAYS BACH - OUR MAIN SELECTION..................page 6 EXPLORING MUSIC: FOR THE PLEASURABLE DIVERSION of MUSIC LOVERS by David White (4 MIN READ)
SCRIABIN: SELECTED WORKS FOR PIANO - Dmitri Paperno, piano........................................................................................................page 8 EXPLORING MUSIC: FROM CHOPIN'S ROOTS by David M. Greene (4 MIN READ)
BACH: TWO GENERATIONS (Concerti for Guitar and Chamber Orchestra) - Benjamin Verdery, guitar.....................................page 14 EXPLORING MUSIC: BACH & SON: RE-ARRANGERS by David White (4 MIN READ)
ROMAN TOTENBERG: THE COMPLETE MUSICAL HERITAGE SOCIETY RECORDINGS.......................................................................................page 18 EXPLORING MUSIC: LESSONS FROM MY FATHER by Nina Totenberg (4 MIN READ)
MOZART: THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO, arr. for woodwinds and bass by Johann Nepomuk Wendt.........................................................page 24 EXPLORING MUSIC: FIGARO HAS NUPTUALS by David M. Greene (2 MIN READ)
ESSAY SCRIABIN: INNOVATOR & MYSTIC
by Jeffrey Miller (7 MIN READ).......................................................................page 10
We get letters - well, we got letters. We went into our vaults to prove that even before the internet and social media, people still got upset about things.......page 20 Look for this box on every page to return easily to the Table of Contents
IN THIS ISSUE NOW ON SALE In these sections, our vault doors are open and you'll find many long out of print recordings next to favorites. All titles are downloadable with sound samples and liner notes!
Our tribute to Jörg Demus got us thinking, and exploring. If there's one thing we got covered...it's classical music played on the piano. And we range from the very well known to "who?".................................................................page 12
And we have guitar, too. To celebrate the revival of our debut recording of J.S. and C.P.E. Bach's concertos arranged for guitar, we offer up a healthy list of great music arranged for guitar. Remember, the guitar wasn't even invented until Bach was dead about 50 years...but that didn't stop our favorite guitarists.......................................................................................................page 16
With the inclusion of the charming set of selections of Mozart's operas arranged for woodwinds, we're including some of our fine recordings of the works of Wolfgang Amadeus - mostly NOT arranged, but written by W.A. himself...........................................................................................................................page 26
IN THE streaming SPOTLIGHT
G IN AM RE ST
IN THIS ISSUE
Over 400 Musical and Jazz Heritage Society recordings are available at your favorite streaming services. Here's a few worthwhile recent releases. We've got links to help you find it instantly! We’ve revived classic essays and interviews from our past issues of the Review to celebrate their release - many of these releases are now available to our members for the first time since they were issued! ...stream our releases at these services and many more services around the world
A CONVERSATION WITH MORTON GOULD As an accompaniment to the reissue of "Morton Gould: Chamber Music", we present an autobiographical essay by Morton Gould from 1987's Musical Heritage Review 385 (9 MIN READ)......................................................................................page 28
A STRIKING TRIBUTE - MANHATTAN JAZZ A reissue of a Jazz Heritage Society classic - Dick Hyman and Ruby Braff's "Manhattan Jazz'. We revive an appreciation of one of America's most unique and talented musicians and musical historians (3 MIN READ).............................................page 31
THE ART OF DICK HYMAN/INTIMATE JAZZ Jazz Heritage Society features no fewer than 15 Dick Hyman solo and small group recordings - and some of our best small group jazz recordings are now available to stream.......page 32
JACQUELYN HELIN INTERVIEWS VIRGIL THOMSON Another reissue of an MHS classic. Pianist Jacquelyn Helin asks Virgil Thomson about his career, ballet and why you need to arrange ballets for piano. From 1986'S MHS Review 375 (7 MIN READ).......................................................................page 34
The Musical Heritage Review
FAQs
The Musical Heritage Review has changed with the times.
Here's a few quick pointers to get the most out of the new Musical Heritage Review. CLICK ON THE ALBUM COVER If you have any questions about our releases - Just click on the cover and you’ll be taken right to the product page on our web site. There you’ll get reviews, track listings, sound samples and more!
OUR INTERACTIVE LINER NOTES If you see this icon, we've restored the liner notes from this recording, and you can now read them in our interactive format. The liner notes will read like a magazine, you can flip the pages and the booklet looks great on a phone, tablet or desktop computer.
LISTEN BEFORE YOU BUY: SOUND SAMPLES You can try before you buy. On our product pages, you will find at least one sound sample for you to try before you buy!
You can listen to hundreds of samples of our releases any time at our YouTube channel. Click here to listen and subscribe!
EXPLORING MUSIC by David White FOR THE PLEASURABLE DIVERSION of MUSIC LOVERS 4 MIN READ
Ah, even in today’s miraculous technology-driven “best of all possible worlds” we’ll barely scratch the surface when presented with this MHS exclusive – Bach’s Six Partitas, the Goldberg Variations, Italian Overture, Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue and assorted smaller pieces – left in the sincere and humble hands of Jörg Demus.
I think this set is analogous to one of those large books you get when the gift giver isn’t sure but they try and surround you with something pleasant so they can come close to the happiness mark, if not hit a complete bullseye. And it’s handy to have those items around when you’re looking for a moment or two of distraction, just like a collection of New Yorker comics, you can sit and enjoy 15 minutes and then move on to the other dreary tasks of the day, and you don’t have to feel as if you’ve left something behind (except more Bach or more Roz Chast). My own preference would be to call Jorg Demus Plays Bach a forest bath of Bach (J.S. with a bit of C.P.E added in). This collection will surround you in filtered musical sunlight, for a journey determined by your own desire for comfort and your own listening stamina. There’s certainly enough here if you’re parched and in serious need, but as stated above, if you’re looking for a quick drink, a short hike through a heavenly meadow, this might the very thing. As stated in the opening – we could fill this entire magazine just with the history and our thoughts about the keyboard works of Bach included here. Perhaps Bach’s original title for what is now known as the Six Partitas, BWV 825-830 is perfect for this set - “Keyboard Exercise: Consisting of Preludes, Allemandes, Courantes, Sarabandes, Gigues, Minuets, and other Galanteries, Composed for the Pleasurable Diversion of Music Lovers.” (Note: judging from the original title, precious little has changed in the marketing of Bach's music since Bach himself was doing it...) Harpsichordist Davitt Maroney makes an interesting point in writing about Bach’s Partitas. Most of Bach’s works were hand copied and distributed, but the Partitas were officially published by Bach, and heavily annotated with dynamic markings and performance suggestions by J.S. himself. Bach’s directions were criticized, and Maroney suggests this might have held back Bach’s reputation for a time, as his instructions led to unsatisfactory interpretations. Maroney – to use up my finite space with an anecdote – suggests that we continue to stick to Bach’s original suggestions because
he sent his compositional “children” out into the world fully clothed, instead of allowing them to wander naked and afraid through musical history. And to argue – unintentionally - both for and against, Maroney holds up Dinu Lipatti’s famous performance the second movement of Bach’s Partita No. 1 as an exact reason why we should stick to Bach’s concise notes. Lipatti speeds through the Allemande, creating more of a “nocturne” and not an Allemande at all. The traffic cop Maroney does admit that Lipatti's performance is, in fact, beautiful, if not at all close to an Allemande, and therefore not really what Bach had in mind. As omnipresent as the Goldberg Variations are today, complete performances of the work only began in the 1930s. Commissioned as one of the first uses of music as an aid to good sleep, these variations have transcended their original purpose and find Bach’s inspiration at its greatest level. Many have written that Bach’s keyboard works – for organ and harpsichord – are his attempts at conversations with the Almighty. In the Goldberg Variations he steps aside from the grandeur and the attempts to create a musical version of Heaven to work in a full range of emotions simply and effectively – 30 variations of a gentle aria, lasting barely one minute. The Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue - not named by J.S. Bach who referred to it as a fantasia and added the fugue later - was a work that helped establish his reputation during his lifetime, and was a favorite of composerperformers like Mendelssohn and Brahms when Bach’s reputation was restored in the mid 1800s. The fantasia is unmistakably unique and a keyboard Everest. J.S. Bach created the Anna Magdelena Songbook for his second wife, following a tradition he began with his eldest son, Wilhelm Friedrich. Much of it is written out in Bach’s own hand, and it contains much of what is now included in the French Suites, and there are many sketches and works adapted from better known works simply to fit on the allotted pages (the first Prelude of the Well-Tempered Clavier is slightly shortened and included in this collection). It may serve history more as a reflection of the exceptional musical tastes of the Bach household rather than as a key document in Bach’s compositional career.
The Musical Heritage Review MAIN SELECTION JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH (1685-1750) The Partitas, BWV 825-830 Goldberg Variations, BWV 998 Italian Concerto, BWV 971 Chromatic Fantasy & Fugue, BWV 903 Selections from Anna Magdelena Songbook Jörg Demus, piano MHS 10801
JÖRG DEMUS PLAYS BACH NON-MEMBERS PRICE: MEMBERS PRICE: $29.99 $14.99
Demus is a gentle interpreter of Bach, attempting to make himself nearly artistically invisible so that all you hear is Bach. But after 100 years of recording, you realize that this too is an interpretive decision and these Bach recordings are, as our accompanying essay says, "a forest bath" and not a dazzling, breath-taking account of the keyboard works of Bach. And that is just fine with this writer - Demus' Bach is still revelatory, not in his digit work but in his humility and his reverence for the music. This isn't a keyboard stampede - this is a gentle brook, running through a meadow. One MIGHT quibble and wish a stronger voice was coming to the fore - but these voices exist on other recordings. For a listener craving beauty and peace, these recordings are just the thing.
EXPLORING MUSIC
by David M. Greene
FROM CHOPIN'S ROOTS 4 MINUTE READ
I was, a couple of years ago, talking to an acquaintance in a musically oriented New York firm when a large, swarthy young man came in. He chatted, politely, even deferentially with the proprietor for a while in a foreign tongue, then shrugged and went away. The proprietor shook his head sadly. The young man, he said, had come here recently from Moscow. He was a fine 'cellist. There was no work for fine 'cellists who spoke no English and lacked a union card. The young man was hopeful of a job with the firm--as stock-clerk, packer, anything. "It's sad," the proprietor added; "They keep coming, day after day." "They," it eventuated, were emigre Soviet musicians. Possibly the proprietor was engaging in hyperbole. Certainly there's not much publicity. And yet they keep turning up. One wonders who's left back there. (Don't send in lists. I know about Gilels and Kondrashin and Igor Oistrakh, but still...) Anyhow, here's another. Dmitry Paperno, I am told, studied with the legendary Alexander Borissovitch Goldenweiser, sometime friend of Tolstoy, director of the Moscow Conservatory, and one of the greatest piano teachers in Russia. Paperno took sixth prize in the Warsaw Chopin Competition in 1955, and went on to a successful concert career. In 1976 he emigrated to the United States and settled in Chicago. He is now on the faculty of De Paul University and has given several rapturously received concerts in the area. The present recording was made at Mandel Hall, on the campus of the University of Chicago. Mr. Paperno makes what I take to be his American recording debut with an all-Scriabin recital. For a Chopinist (or "Chopinzee" as, I think, James Huneker put it) to essay Scriabin is not surprising, for Chopin's music is. where Scriabin took off from, and, indeed, his early pieces have many of the earmarks. Not that people always recognized that now-obvious fact Back in the old c. 1910 Etude magazines that kicked around my childhood home, Scriabin--along with Ravel, Debussy, Reger, and Cyril Scott--was one of the crazies, quaranteed to elicit a what-in-the-world-
are-we-coming-to every time his name was mentioned. But after that, as far as musical life in these United States was concerned, he became an unperson. Leopold Stokowski--popularly regarded as an eccentric genius in those days, which opinion(s) he did little to dispel-bravely made records of the Poem of Ecstasy and Prometheus. Now, of course, American, and German, and French, and English pianists are "discovering" Scriabin; but Mr. Paperno, has the tradition, so to speak, in his blood. Scriabin was, in many ways, an odd fish, though by no means so odd as gossipy reviewers and annotators would like to have us believe. It is true that he was blessed or cursed with synaesthesia, which caused musical sounds to register on his inner eye as colors, and he foreshadowed modern rock concerts with his notions of instruments to produce colors and odors as part of "mixed media" compositions. He also developed a set of complex mystical beliefs that probably defy rational explication. Though these were supposed to underly his later music, I insist that music is a very poor vehicle of things intellectual and that we should not bother ourselves too much about the links between the one and the other. Most of what Paperno plays here comes, anyhow, from the earlier periods when Scriabin was still using Chopin as his cornerstone, and the two earlier Poems, the terse little Preludes, and the Ravelesque Waltz should pose no problems. Nor should the Sonata No. 2, though Scriabin breaks with standard sonata-form here. The work is titled Sonata-fantasie (his first, unpublished, essay in the sonata was similarly called), and consists of an andante and presto, conjoined as a unity, but actually composed four years apart. The ninth sonata, also in one movement, is, however, pure Scriabin and one of his most individual works. It is a piece that has elicited a wide variety of conflicting reactions. One of Scriabin's friends termed it the "Black Mass" Sonata ( a name that has stuck) in jesting reference to No. 7, which Scriabin had called the "White Mass;" but Scriabin insisted that he intended it in quite opposite terms. The late Poem "Toward the Flame," which plays with some of Scriabin's notions of links between vitality and fire, is, to my thinking, the most fascinating work on the disk.
! W NE
The Musical Heritage Review NEW RELEASE
ALEXANDER SCRIABIN (1872-1919) Piano Sonata No. 2 ("Sonata-Fantasy") Two Poems Op. 32 No. 1 in F-sharp Major No. 2 in D Major Poem: "Vers la flamme," Op. 72 Five Preludes, Op. 16 Waltz, Op. 38 Piano Sonata No. 9, Op. 68 Dmitry Paperno, Piano MHS 103994
SCRIABIN: SELECTED WORKS FOR PIANO Dmitri Paperno, piano NON-MEMBERS PRICE: $9.99
AN
MEMBERS PRICE:
$4.99
EXCLUSIVE - OUT OF PRINT FOR OVER 40 YEARS!
The Russian pianist Dmitry Paperno describes Scriabin's music as "the expression of an unrestrainable, deeply human yearning for happiness, freedom, and the joy of living." "Dmitry Paperno is one of the most gifted of my students. Paperno possesses a marvelous natural musicality and exceptional attributes of technique." Alexander Goldenweisser "Some people laugh when I compare Scriabin to Beethoven, but I am absolutely serious. They are similar on many levels. First, both men were great innovators in the areas of form and musical language. Scriabin was years ahead of his time and pointed the way for much 20th century music. Secondly, their music aims toward the freedom of mind, of the human spirit, and the ultimate happiness and ecstacy of humanity. Their music represents man's struggle from darkness to light, the struggle toward freedom and the elevation of the human being. Finally. the output of both men can be divided into three periods: an early, youthful period, a middle grouping, and a later period comprised of works which are difficult, complicated. and were misunderstood by many people when they were first played. I believe Scriabin is the greatest Russian composer because he touches the universal aspirations of all men. Scriabin must be understood first as a genius and only then as a mystic and moral philosopher. But, when you hear his music, if you don't feel the mystical and emotional quality, the idealistic striving for freedom, then you haven't appreciated it 100%."
--Dmitri Paperno
Scriabin: Innovator and Mystic by Jeffrey Miller 7 MINUTE READ
Alexander Scriabin is surely one of the oddest and most fascinating composers in music history. A transitional figure who lived in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, his music reflects the virtuosic style and emotional excesses of the romantic era, as well as sharing the concerns for tonal organization and intricate formal structure typical of the twentieth century. In addition, many of Scriabin's pieces possess mystical and ecstatic aura that often entirely obscures the form entirely.
He was a flamboyant character in an era which abounded with them. Highly nervous, and fastidious about his appearance, he was almost megalomaniacally self-centered. Scriabin had strong mystical leanings, and was for a time a devotee of Theosophy, a quasi-Indian philosophy which had many followers, notably the poet William Butler Yeats. This grew, with Scriabin, into a belief that his music could change and influence the world, and he developed a semi-religious system based on this belief. Surprisingly, many people followed him in this, an effect that was no doubt due to his magnetic personality. Scriabin was born in Moscow on Christmas Day, 1871, according to the Julian calendar then in use in Russia (the date on the Western calendar was January 6, 1872--Epiphany). He died in April, 1915, on a date close enough to Easter for some Scriabinists to claim that he was born on Christmas and died on Easter; that, alas, is not the case. It is true, however, that the lease on Scriabin's last apartment expired on the same day he died. Scriabin studied piano and composition at the Moscow Conservatory, where Sergei Rachmaninoff was a friend and classmate (it is interesting that, in those days, Rachmaninoff was considered to be mainly a composer, and Scriabin mainly a pianist). Musical composition in Russia was then under the domination of Tchaikovsky and of the group of nationalistic
composers known as "The Five" (Balakirev, Borodin, Cui, Moussorgsky, Rimsky-Korsakoff). Scriabin's early works, however, do not reflect any of these influences strongly, but instead use as points of departure he works of Chopin, states, such as the Piano Sonata No. 9, Op. 68 (1913), subtitled "The Black Mass," a work which, to Scriabin, depicted absolute evil. In seeming contrast to his mystical ideas and attitudes is the extreme care that Scriabin took in constructing his works. He paid close attention to form, often determining the formal proportions of a piece before composing it. In the larger works, sonata form is never entirely abandoned, no matter what melodic or harmonic innovations are used. Scriabin was also extremely careful and systematic in constructing his melodies and harmonies, especially in his later music where he abandoned traditional melodic and harmonic formulas. As he stated, "Thought must always be present in composition and the creation of themes. It is expressed by means of principle. Principle guides creation. I create my themes mainly by principle, so they will have concordant proportion." Of course, the seemingly contradictory use of highly formal construction to attain a mystical result is not unique to Scriabin. Similar procedures are used by many Renaissance composers, later on by Bach, and more recently, by composers such as Messiaen
and Stockhausen, who were perhaps influenced by Scriabin. Scriabin's harmonic system is probably his greatest contribution to music. He developed a very personal way of using harmony that consists of extensions and alterations of common scales and chords, and which had mystical significance for him. In the later works, such as piano sonatas six through ten, he eliminates key signatures and approaches atonality and the serial techniques used by such as Schoenberg. Scriabin. however, always displays a preference for sensuous
experiment was Prometheus--the Poem of Fire (1910), for piano, orchestra, and colored lights. Although this work was not a success in its early performances, it has recently been enjoying a revival in popularity. It was only a short step that took Scriabin from believing that his music could depict any external event to believing that his music could actually influence the outside world. That belief. coupled with his interest in combining the arts and his mystical beliefs, led Scriabin
Scriabin...always displays a preference for sensuous sonorities and lush textures that makes his music easier to listen to than much other music that uses similar techniques.
sonorities and lush textures that makes his music easier to listen to than much other music that uses similar techniques. In his later years, Scriabin was interested in the idea of incorporating other senses than that of hearing into his artistic works. The first nonmusical element to attract him was color, no doubt because he was gifted with photoism. which is the ability to associate sound and color. To either "hear" colors or "see" tones (RimskyKorsakoff and Messiaen are other composers with this trait.) Scriabin developed a scale of colors to correspond to the usual scale of pitches. and had a device called a "color--organ" built to "play" them. The artistic result of this
to his last large project, which was called the "Mysterium." This work (or event) was to include chorus. orchestra, color. and scent, and would take the form of a mystical rite to be performed at an especially built temple in India. The performance, directed by Scriabin, would last several days, during which the work would reflect all the stages and aspects of the universe. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how much credence one puts in his ideas), Scriabin did not live to complete the "Mysterium." He died from blood poisoning caused by an infected pimple on his lip, a fatal malady in the days before antibiotics. However, much of the music from the "Mysterium" survives in the last two piano sonatas, the Preludes, Op. 74 and Prometheus, forming a fascinating legacy to a brilliant, if often bizarre, career. Jeffrey Miller was a composer and teacher at Brooklyn College.
Musical Heritage Review VAULT TREASURES: OUR PIANO HERITAGE
MORE RECORDINGS FEATURING JÖRG DEMUS
SCHUBERT: Impromptus, Sonata in A Major, D. 664, 6 Moments Musicaux
DEBUSSY: The Complete Solo Piano Works
MHS 101546
MHS 10131
NIELS GADE: PIANO MUSIC
MUSIC OF THE ROMANTIC PIANIST/COMPOSER
Bengt JOHNSSON, piano
David DUBAL & Stanley WALDOFF, pianists
MHS 101480
MHS 103681
SIDNEY FOSTER: HIS 2 MHS RECORDINGS NOW AVAILABLE
Upon his all too early death in 1977, The New York Times called Sidney Foster "one of the finest pianists of his generation". His MHS recordings have been out of print for over 50 years. Now you can again hear the pianist Harold Schoenberg described as "an interesting, original pianist,
the master of tonal shading and an artist."
CLEMENTI: Six Sonatinas, Op. 36 Six Sonatas, Op. 4
MOZART: Piano Concertos 8 & 26 "Coronation" Vienna Chamber Orchestra
MHS 10949
MHS 10992
Musical Heritage Review VAULT TREASURES: OUR PIANO HERITAGE TWO RARE ARTUR BALSAM RECITALS C.P.E BACH: PIANO WORKS Mozart said of C.P.E. Bach: "He is the father. We are the children."
MHS 10558
MUZIO CLEMENTI: SONATAS includes Clementi's masterwork "Didone Abbandonata"
MHS 10580
2 EUGENE LIST RECORDINGS - OUT OF PRINT FOR 50 YEARS! EARLY SONATAS FOR THE PIANOFORTE Eugene List finds an album's worth of remarkably fine yet mostly unknown works! MHS 10733
MHS 103148
VIOTTI & DOMENICO PUCCINI: Piano Concertos Eugene List performs the debut recordings of both these works.
MHS 10709
BOIELDIEU: THE 6 PIANO SONATAS
SEIXAS: HARPSICHORD WORKS
Hans KAHN, piano
Pamela COOK, harpsichord
MHS 101208
EXPLORING MUSIC
by David White
BACH & SON: RE-ARRANGERS 4 MINUTE READ
Perhaps not suprising in our world, where even our teenage children (well, mine, at least) are very aware of intellectual property because they fear the awful sting of a YouTube copyright block, or even worse, a takedown (ask someone under 20), we consider arranging another work to be rather unusual, even a bit lazy or at least, suspect behavior. The days of rampant “sampling” have been exposed as a passing fad, not a symptom of the decline of imagination as a foundational part of the creative process. But Johann Sebastian Bach was a serial arranger and rearranger. Perhaps because his training consisted of handcopying music, so if the act of copying was very like the act of creating, well…who wouldn’t take a phrase of two and insert it here where I need a few bars. Those with deeper knowledge of the lives of the great classical music composers know that arranging, borrowing, outright stealing took place quite often, with or without the composer’s knowledge and usually without any kind of permission. But J.S.B and his son C.P.E.B weren’t arranger/thieves, not at all. To them, it was a healthy part of their work as composers. In doing the research, you learn that the job of composer (not that you can look it up on LinkedIn) has an image of someone hunched over piles of sheet music, some blank, some torn, or even putting it all into a computer program, agonizing over notes. An examination of JSB shows him to be remarkably prolific with no mention of any kind of writer’s block – because writer’s block meant unemployment and no money (something he shares with all composers up to the present day). But JSB and CPEB operate not in some lonely writer’s room, they resembled more the modern day contractor. A scratch of the workaday world of Bach & Son and you find works reworked, repurposed, rewritten for different instruments, whatever you need, however you need it – that’s our motto at J.S. Bach & Son. Today’s scholars, when they come across a reworked work of J.S. Bach start a reaction similar to when art scholars find that Leonardo daVinci painted over something to create something else. The excitement when they detail that there are eraser marks on a piece of paper from 1690 indicating that Bach actually wrote a piece in G Minor for oboe instead of D Major for viola da gamba.
Now, musically it’s really not all the much meat for the non-wigwearing classical music lover to even stop their scrolling for a moment. And I don’t remember much earth-shattering scholarship coming from either a charcoal figure beneath a Rembrandt or a Bach arrangement of a concerto that he turned into a trio sonata that ended up as a solo partita for keyboard. I find the incessant rearranging as part of the career of a composer to be fascinating. We gain insight into the dull drudge of working on creating a cantata every week for three weeks, or multiple chamber works for each week. The guy was human – he borrowed from himself all the time, and reworked his precious bits of great music into a number of works. This acceptance of the thought of Bach as a musical painter, roofer or general contractor lends me to a greater understanding of why he is held in such high regard over three hundred years after his death. We all do what he does, in all our jobs, we use the same techniques – it’s often a calling card. We look at photos of a painter’s last job up the street, or on their social media and we say, “I want that!”. Bach had that pressure and more – someone would say “I want that” but he couldn’t create the same exact work, when we’d be happy with the same exact fireplace or kitchen island that we saw on our friend’s Insta. So he could give his audience “that” – the thing they loved about last week’s piece, but he also had a creative mind that turned a tiny bit of reused material into something we’d wish we could write on our best day. Bach’s Concerto for Harpsichord in D Minor, BWV 1052 was arranged for multiple instruments – during Bach’s lifetime, often by Bach himself. And since Mendelssohn ushered in the era of “Bach: Exalted Genius” (rightfully so, not too much sarcasm there), it’s been arranged and arranged again. So harpsichord, make way for violin, until it’s time for the oboe, then the marimba…and now we have the guitar as well. CPEB is a gadget man, even more so than his dad. Possibly even more practical, maybe less ego-driven, who knows, who cares, but when he wrote his harpsichord concerto in A Major (and quite a few more concertos just like it), he designed it so it could be performed on a number of instruments. Not for guitar, because, well, it hadn’t been perfected for this kind of use yet. I could go on, but the C.P.E. Bach of window replacements is coming to the house in a few minutes…
! W NE
The Musical Heritage Review NEW RELEASE
JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH (1685-1750) Concerto in D Minor, BWV 1052 (originally for harpsichord, arr. by Benjamin Verdery)
Laurentian String Quartet CARL PHILIPP EMANUEL BACH (1714-1788) Concerto in A Major (originally for Flute, Cello or Harpsichord; arr. by Benjamin Verdery)
Brandenberg Collegium Benjamin Verdery, guitar Anthony Newman, harpischord & conductor MHS 107397
BACH: TWO GENERATIONS (CONCERTI FOR GUITAR & ORCHESTRA) BENJAMIN VERDERY, guitar
NON-MEMBERS PRICE: $9.99
MEMBERS PRICE:
$4.99
AN
EXCLUSIVE
The first impression that one might get from the first notes of this recording are, to be honest...oh, no, not THIS piece again...there's no shortage of recordings of Bach's Concerto in D Minor, written for harpsichord, performed on piano and arranged, seemingly for many other instruments. But quickly you understand this is going to be something different. The centerpiece of any recording of this concerto is the Adagio and Verdery does not fail expectations. The more enjoyable overall experience is the second concerto - C.P.E Bach's concerto fares much better, perhaps because it does have a "road less travelled" feel, there are some surprises and there's more of a virtuosic feel. Verdery's arrangements and playing show respect and also allow the listener to love the guitar without feeling that this is an overly arranged marriage.
Musical Heritage Review BAROQUE MUSIC (and more) FOR GUITAR J.S. BACH: CELLO SUITES arr. for guitar & performed by JORGE CABALLERO
J.S. BACH: THE SIX TRIO SONATAS BWV 525-530 with Albert Fuller, harpsichord
MHS 105815
MHS 107182
J.S. BACH: SONATAS & PARTITAS FOR SOLO VIOLIN arr. for guitar & performed by ELIOT FISK
VIVALDI: CONCERTOS & OTHER WORKS Eliot Fisk and Frederic Hand, guitar Orchestra of St. Luke's MHS 103556
MHS 102158
VIVALDI: Concertos for Diverse Instruments and Orchestra Austrian Tonkunstler Orchestra MHS 10788
BAROQUE TRANSCRIPTIONS for GUITAR Eliot Fisk, guitar
MHS 107310
Musical Heritage Review BAROQUE MUSIC (and more) FOR GUITAR A NIGHT AT THE OPERA Opera Overtures Transcribed by the Newman & Oltman Guitar Duo
CANTOS DE ESPANA: THE MUSIC OF ISAAC ALBENIZ The Newman & Oltman Guitar Duo
MHS 102157
MHS 107181
SCARLATTI: SONATAS arr. for guitar by FABIO ZANON
ELIZABETHAN AND JACOBEAN LUTE MUSIC Stanley BUETENS, lute
MHS 102681 MHS 103124
DOWLAND: LUTE SONGS & LUTE SOLOS Deborah Minkin, lute Willard Cobb, tenor
MHS 101548
THE CLASSICAL GUITAR (Haydn, Mozart, Soler, Paganini) Eliot Fisk, guitar MHS 106793
EXPLORING MUSIC
by Nina Totenberg
LESSONS FROM MY FATHER 4 MIN READ
My father started teaching when he was 11 years old. His first student was 9. Ever since, he has loved it and learned from it. He once told me that you have to figure out how you do something in order to teach it to someone else. And if your system doesn't work for that someone else, you have to adapt it until it does. Sometimes that means re-fingering an entire concerto for a student to suit that person's physical and technical capabilities. But my father is more than a violin teacher. He is a financial advisor and consultant. He helps round up scholarship money and finds jobs for his students. He is also a Realtor. He helps them find apartments or live-in situations they can afford. And he is a travel agent, and mother. A few years ago, when I was visiting, he asked me to drive with him and a student to Boston's north station. When we got there, I realized why. He needed me to car-sit so he could take the student to the train. She didn't speak much English, and he was afraid she would get lost. When he got back to the car, I asked what took so long. "Oh," he said, "I had to get her some sandwiches for the train. It's a long ride to New York, you know."
When I go into my father's study and look at his hundreds of records and reviews and prizes, it is hard to absorb his incredible life — from famines and revolutions in Russia to the life of a child prodigy, winning the Mendelssohn prize in Berlin at age 18, playing for European kings and American presidents. Just looking at his recordings is like time traveling through the 20th century. From the thick, waxen records he made in the 1920s to the 78s of the following era, then 33s and then CDs.
If you look at the orchestras in the United States, and much of the world today, you would be hard-pressed to find one without a Roman Totenberg student.
Nearly six decades later, in 2001, Richard Dyer would review a Totenberg concert in The Boston Globe with this observation: "Totenberg's playing was miraculous... He has kept growing in experience and insight."
About six years ago, I was with my father in Prague at a concert of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. After the concert, we went backstage to say hello to maestro James Levine. Suddenly, I hear a scream: "Mr. Totenberg!" and this cute violinist comes running into his arms. It's a scene I have witnessed many times. As my sister Jill said, in a rap song she composed for my father's 90th birthday, what we tell women from 8 to 80 is: "Get in line, get in line, you're number five thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine." For students who study with Mr. Totenberg today, it's hard to imagine how much musical history he has been a part of. Name a modern composer — Barber, Stravinsky, Copland, Szymanowski, Hindemith, Martinu, Milhaud — he knew them all, worked with them, and even premiered some of their works. The same is true for the great musicians and conductors, from Fritz Kreisler and Artur Rubinstein to Leopold Stokowski and Pierre Monteux.
I look at the reviews from his youth, and I gasp and giggle. One reviewer wrote in the early 1930s: "He is a thorough technician, prepared to take up the sword with anyone... He is not the Slavic type, who breaks the strings as an outlet for his feelings; he is a wise man who knows where the limit lies, even when the tempo demands blazing fire." Of his New York debut, composer and critic Virgil Thompson wrote: "Totenberg can play anything his predecessors could. He is, in fact, more expert than most of them. His is the smoothest bow arm of all and, in consequence, the most evenly sustained legato line."
To this day, my father is still curious about everything, and never content to practice the pieces he already knows. He is always trying to learn something new, a fearless explorer of everything. His daughters have small fits about this. At the last big recital he gave, several years ago, the entire first half was new material he had learned for the program. We came home from that concert with armloads of flowers and basking in the glow of stomping, standing ovations. "Well," said Mr. T., with a twinkle in his eye, "you know, when you are very young and can do it, they scream and yell, and when you are very old and can do it, they scream and yell." "I," he said puckishly, "have been the beneficiary at both ends."
! W NE
The Musical Heritage Review NEW RELEASE
JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH The Sonatas and Partitas for Violin Solo BWV 1001-1006 ROBERT SCHUMANN Two Violin Sonatas (with Artur Balsam) GERMAN BAROQUE VIOLIN CONCERTOS HEINICHEN/PISENDEL/HANDEL/FASCH
Vienna Chamber Orchestra Zlatko Topolski, conductor MHS 10802
ROMAN TOTENBERG: THE COMPLETE MUSICAL HERITAGE SOCIETY RECORDINGS
NON-MEMBERS PRICE: $14.99
MEMBERS PRICE:
$7.49
AN
EXCLUSIVE
These recordings come with a bit of mystery - the mystery to this listener is how did so much time pass before MHS could get their act together to reissue these recordings. 'Twas a crime, but luckily now, justice has been served. And the revival of Totenberg's Bach recording is a cause for celebration - his calm, sophisticated approach and his steady understanding of these works are truly to be admired. A cynical ear could say Schumann's violin sonatas are justly kept under wraps. True, the original notes do note that Schumann's work for violin and piano hold little to excite the modern soloist. But for two fine "musicians' musicians" like Balsam and Totenberg, this music comes off quite well. And Totenberg's "Ames" Strat sounds glorious. At the time of recording, the German Baroque violin concertos presented here were less understood than many modern works that Totenberg premiered (Hindemith, Barber). The notes refer to the practice, supposedly revived in the studio, that the soloists (violin and harpsichord) would be called on to improvise. The note writer begs our forgiveness, asking us to rely on the good taste of the performers to carry us through. Now, these ears didn't hear much in the way of wild improvisation in fact, one does have to forgive a bit on the dated approach, particularly from the orchestra. But Totenberg, like with his Bach, plays with a romantic heart that makes a VERY persuasive argument that authenticity is not solely about historic correctness. These thoughtful, heartfelt performances do make an argument that is well worth hearing. To put it simply - the overall effect from listening to these recordings is not "Ohhhhhhh", as if he played in a manner mere earthlings could never duplicate. The performances make you go "oooooooooo", like a fine wine, a great meal or a exquisite, modest work of art.
Music Lovers Have No Sense of Humor... At long last here's the letter I've wanted to write ever since the appearance of a notice that we could now send letters to The Editor. My buying of your records and cassettes has steadily increased and if my budget didn't prevent, I'd be ordering many more .... I have a list of considerable length of ones I want. I've really enjoyed some of the more obscure pieces of music you've unearthed so much. All the sacred choral music of Perosi is simply lovely (I'd never heard of him), a great many of the Lyrita records are splendid, you've offered much great piano music, and so many more. Of those wellknown, I think the MHS recording of Verdi's Requiem is beautiful and wonder why it's never been mentioned or reviewed ... or has it? How disappointing and saddening it is to learn that so many music lovers are utterly devoid of a sense of humor ... somehow they've never developed a sense of the ridiculous. How, I wonder, do they survive in this world, without one ... how grim life must be! ... and how does one derive complete joy from music without a complete range of emotions in good working order? I can't imagine. Sincerely yours, Ruth Sargeant Rutland, Mass.
NO References to Mahler at MHS...(remember this letter was written in 1977) In searching through at least twenty of the latest MHS Reviews, I have found but one, ever-so-slight reference to Gustav Mahler. The vast MHS catalogue of recordings contains nearly every name in music from past to present, both significant and forgotten only to the exclusion of Gustav Mahler, indicating that none of his music has been recorded for MHS at any time. This might be somewhat understandable in view of the fact that MHS dedicates a great deal of time and energy to lesser known music, however each issue of the Musical Heritage Review is studded with pictures, articles, and information about the greater composers: Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Schu mann. Schubert--the list goes on. And among the "lesserknown" works of these composers are their recorded symphonies, cantatas. and concertos.
Mahler's contemporaries and followers-- Strauss, Schonberg, and Max Reger to name a few have all been given some attention by MHS. It seems absurd to ignore the man whose music marks the most crucial turning point in musical history--the end of the classical romantic age and the dawn of the modern era. Believe me. his absence is glaringly conspicuous. Jane Stensland Corvallis, ORE. MHS current editor’s note: It’s true that MHS created almost no Mahler recordings, but we have licensed quite a few. Currently we have two essays “Mahler: A Painter of Sound” and Joseph Braunstein’s first hand recollections of playing in an orchestra conducted by Mahler.
The Ongoing Wind Ensemble Neglect Scandal At MHS I have enjoyed my MHS membership since 1976, having added many records to my limited library. There is one limitation you can help me get rid of. That area is the world of wind ensemble music. There is an abundance of very excellent music in this field; just look at the composers. There's Persichetti, Holst (the same one of the "The Planets") Alfred Reed, Charles Ives, Sousa, (and not only his marches, but his operettas, too) Vaughan Williams, God knows how many more. This concept of taking wind ensemble music seriously has been a point of controversy for several years, and I'm hoping MHS can help out in this field. After all, music heritage in American has alot of roots in wind bands. How about it? Thanks, Charles Johnson Brainerd, MN. MHS response from 1977, by employee Douglas Townsend: As a composer of several works for wind ensemble (including a symphony for nine winds) I am in complete sympathy with Mr. Johnson. MHS has recorded most of Mozart's music for wind ensemble, as well as three fine Sextets by Pleyel, and music for winds by Weber. Hummel and Lachner. We hope to eventually be able to present our subscribers with some of the band music of Holst. Grainger, Ponchielli, Sousa, etc., etc. although this project is still in the discussion stage. D. T.
I’m Not Leaving Until... I was interested by the letter a couple of issues back pointing out that Johann Strauss did write a ballet and hoping that MHS might bring out a recording of it. That would indeed be an idea worth exploring, as you noted. In the meantime, though, MHS has already provided interested listeners a chance at least to sample the gorgeous melodies in the score of Aschenbrodel (Cinderella). One of the selections on Hans Kann's record of Strauss waltz paraphrases for piano (MHS 1959) is a concert arrangement of themes from Aschenbrodel by Alfred Grunfeld. Grunfeld was court pianist to the Emperor Franz Josef and a personal friend of the younger Strauss. Indeed, Strauss dedicated "Voices of Spring" to Grunfeld, who reciprocated by making a concert paraphrase of it, also on the Kann record. (Grunfeld, in turn, received the dedication of one of the truly grotesque examples of the paraphrase genre: Max Reger's concert study on the "Minute Waltz.") I fell in love with the Aschenbrodel arrangement on first hearing and decided to learn it. Should other amateur pianists feel the same inclination, let me save them some research: there are only two known copies in the United States, and I got my xerox from the Boston Public Library. A footnote to the excellent article on encores in the same issue. Josef Hofmann's habit of playing endless crowd-pleasers became so notorious that it finally provoked one of Leopold Godowsky's legendary sarcasms. After Hofman had already played half a dozen encores, Mrs. Godowsky was ready to go home, but her husband announced: "Im not leaving this seat until Josef plays 'The Rosary.' '' Robert E. Neil Oberlin, Ohio MHS 1977 response: Although we only have the Grunfeld arrangement of Strauss's Aschenbrodel, we are trying to obtain a copy of an article about the ballet published by the Johann Strauss Society of England for MHS Review. We look forward to the day when we can issue a recording of Aschenbrodel, but alas, it is not yet even on the horizon!
About that D.V.M. Puccini Piano Concerto... I am happy to be associated with MHS. I enjoy your MH Review, you offer excellent recordings at a reasonable price and my orders have always been filled promptly and correctly. Keep up the good work! I find Professor Greene's style an interesting and entertaining variance to the more serious articles in your magazine. I particularly like the "Notations" by Louis Chapin.
His "Winds and Shadows over the Landscape" (Vol. 2, No. 7) was a literary masterpiece. For me certain works will remain among my favorites because they are part of my "landscape" --associated with periods or events in my life. I thought Mr. Kenneth Risco (Vol. 2, No. 9) had a valid question regarding short playing times on modern LPs. You responded that "30 minutes on one side tends to sacrifice quality of the reproduc tion." I would like to see an article explaining why. I have held on to my old mono recordings of works such as Dvorak's violin concerto and Mendelssohn's "Scotch" symphony because the complete work is on one sidel (Mr. Risco might be interested in MHS 3797 which has playing times of 32' 12" and 24' 18" .) In addition to the popular MHS 1060, I would recommend to your readers as excellent performances of beautiful works MHS 1045 (von Weber) and MHS 1643 (Tchaikovsky: Trio). Also, anyone who likes Mozart's piano concerti would like the concerto by D.V.M. Puccini on MHS 709. Thanks for letting me share my thoughts and comments. Sincerely yours, J.C. Fleischer Kingsport, Tenn. Current MHS Editor’s Note: after being out of print for nearly 50 years, in this very issue, we have revived MHS 709, with Eugene List performing the DVM Puccini piano concerto.
From Mrs. Alexander Tcherpnin Your record of my husband's music is excellent! I would like to have some more. With all my congratulations! Mrs. Alexander Tcherepnin New York, N.Y. Current MHS Editor’s Note: Mrs. Tcherepnin wrote in the late 1970s - by our research we can’t find too many Tcherepnin recordings (owned or licensed) on the MHS label (sorry Mrs. T) - but we do have a fine concerto performed and probably commissioned by harmonica specialist John Sebastian (father of the Lovin’ Spoonful’s John Sebastian) on our career retropective compilation “Harmonica Virtuoso”, which you can stream from our site.
EXPLORING MUSIC by David M. Greene FIGARO HAS NUPTIALS 2 MIN READ
You had to be almost as rich as Homer Capehart to afford a harmonie, even with wages what they were in the 18th century. It consisted of a body of wind players -- six or eight was the norm-- and was the ancestor of our modern bands (as in "band festival"). The harmonie enabled you to hear the latest hits (which were usually opera tunes or dances) even if you lived a day's journey (20 miles) from a metropolis. Being rather loud, the harmonie functioned chiefly at summer parties, placed discreetly in an arbor at the bottom of the garden, where it could be chattered over, like the modern stereo, which my guests always insist on having played for them to drown out. Although Emperor Joseph suspected that it was seditious and although it flopped in Vienna, Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro ("Figaro Has Nuptials" as the New York Times would put it) was full of hits, as Jan Nepomuk Went ( or Johann Wendt) recognized. Went (1754-1801) was a Bohemian of the upper-case variety who played oboe and cor anglais. He began his career as musician to a Count Pachta in Prague, went to Vienna with Prince Schwarzenberg, and in 1782 joined the emperor's armonie as number-two oboe and arranger. The emperor, be it noted, paid him 900 gulden per annum, which was 800 more than he paid Mozart. Though Went specialized in wind music, he wrote a symphony and a good deal of chamber music, of which virtually nothing survives. Went must have admired Mozart (he could afford to!) for of his 40 transcriptions of stage works, five come that composer. From Figaro he arranged the overture (quite successful in this guise) and 14 numbers, most of the familiar ones. You won't hear Non so piu or Bartolo's aria, or the usually omitted ones of the comprimarii in the last act, but in recompense you get pieces like the wedding march and the great recognition-ensemble in Act III. The sequence is generally that of the opera, though two or three numbers are, for whatever reason, out of place. Went's no-nonsense arrangements are hardly subtle, and conductor Rudel has tidied them up a bit. Undemanding fun!
The Rudel recordings were issued by Musical Heritage Society about 1987. At least two of them (Don Giovanni and The Marriage of Figaro) were favorably reviewed in these pages at that time. There have been other recordings of these various sets of wind transcriptions by Mozart's contemporaries (Wendt, Triebensee, and Heidenreich). During Mozart's time, in the pre-electronic-media days, arrangements of this sort were immensely popular, as it was the easiest way to hear these great . operatic tunes at home. That, of course, assumed that one had the financial resources to hire musicians to play at your social engagements. I must admit that I often dislike transcriptions and think they are unnecessary, but these are so delightful that reason succumbs to emotion...Rudel and his forces give wonderfully alert performances. They have outstanding sound. If you want these arrangements, you might as well have them all. --Fanfare Magazine
! W NE
The Musical Heritage Review NEW RELEASE
WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART arr. for woodwinds and string bass by Johann Nepomuk Wendt
Le Nozze di Figaro, K. 492 "The Marriage of Figaro" 1. Overture 03:47 2. Cinque-Dieci (Opening Scene) 02:09 3. Se a caso madama 02:05 4. Se vuol ballare, Signor Contino 01:41 5. Voi che sapete che cosa e amor 02:22 6. Porgi Amor 02:10 7. Non piu andrai 03:07 8. Crudel! perche Finora 02:10 9. Venite, Iinginocchiatevi 02:58 10. Dove sono 04:13 11. Sull'aria che soave zeffiretto 02:16 12. Riconosci in questo amplesso 03:52 13. Deh vieni non tardar 02:57 14. Pian, pianin le andro piu presso 02:30 15. Ecco la Marcia
The Amadeus Ensemble, Julius Rudel, conductor
MOZART: THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO arr. for winds THE AMADEUS ENSEMBLE JULIUS RUDEL, conductor
MHS 107459
NON-MEMBERS PRICE: MEMBERS PRICE: $9.99 $4.99
AN
EXCLUSIVE
OK, hands up - who likes their opera without those pesky words. You won't be bothered, you’ll be in awe of the genius of Mozart when you sit back and listen to these arrangements. In fact, it's music that was intentionally written to be halfignored, originally played at huge parties and unlikely to be picked apart and musicologically dissected over drinks. But - there in lies the raison d'etre, the purpose in life that this music serves. Crafted well, featuring glorious melodies and exquisitely performed, these recordings offer a loving tribute to Mozart. And if you can't stand singing, you CAN enjoy listening to The Marriage of Figaro by listening to this recording.
Musical Heritage Review MUSIC OF MOZART PIANO CONCERTOS NO. 23 & NO. 9 John Browning, piano Julius Rudel conducts the Orchestra of St. Luke's
DON GIOVANNI (arr. for woodwind octet and bass by Josef Triebensee) JULIUS RUDEL, AMADEUS ENSEMBLE
MHS 107560
MHS 108492
THE MAGIC FLUTE & THE ABDUCTION FROM THE SERAGLIO arr. for woodwinds
LA CLEMENZA DI TITO & COSI FAN TUTTE arr. for woodwinds
JULIUS RUDEL, AMADEUS ENSEMBLE
JULIUS RUDEL, AMADEUS ENSEMBLE
MHS 102817
MHS 102162
THE SIX QUARTETS DEDICATED TO HAYDN The American String Quartet
MHS 10804
THE COMPLETE WIND CONCERTOS Orchestra of the Old Fairfield Academy, Thomas Crawford, conductor
MHS 107157
Musical Heritage Review MUSIC OF MOZART SONATAS FOR VIOLIN & PIANO Robert Mann, violin Yefim Bronfman, piano
PIANO SONATAS, K. 332, 475, 457, 533 Fantasia in C Minor, K. 475 John Browning, piano
MHS 107415
MHS 108803
MOZART & SALIERI: THE GREAT RIVALS Ernst MARZENDORFER, VIENNA CHAMBER ORCHESTRA
MOZART & HOFFMEISTER: TWO FLUTE QUARTETS Carol Wincenc The Muir String Quartet
MHS 10749 MHS 107078
DIVERTIMENTI NOS. 7-15 Orchestra of St. Luke's Chamber Ensemble
MOZART: FANTASY ON GUITAR DENNIS KOSTER, guitar
MHS 103326 MHS 10806
G IN AM RE ST
A CONVERSATION WITH MORTON GOULD
Many of Musical Heritage Society's important recordings are available on the major streaming and downloading services. Morton Gould wrote a lengthy autobiographical essay for the MHS Review in 1986 for the issue of his only MHS recording "Chamber Music by Morton Gould".
“A composer hopefully creates sounds that communicate living experience. Music is the greatest fantasy there is. It's its own thing, it's its own language. It's unlike anything else.” CHAMBER MUSIC BY MORTON GOULD Concerto Concertante, 'Cellos Pavanne from South American Symphonette Bronx Arts Ensemble Violincello Society, Inc Morton Gould, conductor
9 MIN READ
We all have dreams of glory, and when I was very young I wanted to be, oddly enough, a railroad engineer. Though I fantasized about driving steam locomotives, in reality I was a musical prodigy. My family lived in Richmond Hill, Long Island, just outside of New York City. They were middle-class poor. My parents liked music, but there's no musical ancestry in my family. I had my first composition, a waltz, published when I was just six. It was titled "Just Six." In the early '20s, growing up a prodigy was hazardous to your heaIth. If you were a boy, you were not supposed to play the piano--this was looked upon with great suspicion. And I was getting publicity at that time-articles and pictures in the paper about the prodigy--and the teachers saying he's oh so smart in school; well, that's all I needed. The only way I survived was to develop a posture that made me sound tougher than anybody else. To this day, if I get hassled in a certain way (such as not starting fast enough when the light changes when I'm driving) I have to be careful or all this juvenile macho pours out of me and I can really sound like what I'm not. I had a scholarship to the pre-Juilliard Institute of Musical Art in New York at age eight, but I only lasted there a year or two. I was desperate to be taught composition but they wouldn't do it, saying I was too young. It was a very Germanic kind of set-up. I'd travel from Richmond Hill to the Institute in upper Manhattan, changing from train to elevated to subway, back and forth, by myself. Can you imagine letting an eight yearold do that today? I also studied piano privately with Abby Whiteside and composition with Dr. Vincent Jones. I was 12 or 13 when I started with Abby Whiteside. She was quite a very unique teacher, there was a mystique attached to her, and she was very important to my development. I continued to coach with her for many years. Although my training was classical, I began to do commercial work in my adolescence because of tremendous economic pressure. I was the oldest son and somebody had to support my family, and I was it, so I had to go up on the barricades, as I put it, at a relatiavely early age. Among other things I was part of a two-piano team that broadcast and played at the tail end of vaudeville. When I was 16 or 17 somebody got
G IN AM RE ST
A CONVERSATION WITH MORTON GOULD me to Fritz Reiner--I was interested in conducting too-and he tried to arrange to get me into the Curtis Institute of Music. I had to reply, "Thank you very much but I can't comply because I have to go out and earn a living." (Not too long ago I was shown that actual letter and I must confess I felt like l was reading a corny script.)
things I was doing when I was doing them. But all these activities don't prove anything because one can do a million things and do them badly. Nicolas Slonimsky has described me as ''an ambidextrous composer of serious and popular music'' - -a funny designation--but I would rather have written the B minor Mass.
So, at a time when ordinarily the route would have been to go to college and from there to Europe, I guess, to study with Boulanger, l was off and running--I had to be. I got into radio, and spent many years with a large orchestra making arrangements for radio programs.
I've already said more about my music than I believe in saying--music is its own language. It really doesn't make a difference what I say, but it does make a difference what I sound. That's where it's at--once it leaves my insides and goes through the transference to calligraphy of notes on paper, then really I'm done with it--it's out of my hands. It's very nice to get applause, to
Along the same time I was guest conducting and composing not only lighter works--many of which I did
“When I look back on my career, I get very tired in retrospect. It's a good thing I wasn't aware of all the things I was doing when I was doing them.” for my radio programs--but my symphonic works started to get performed by conductors such as Stokowski, Reiner, Mitropoulos, etc. I also began to get commissions. But I always felt a sense of imbalance-if Stokowski and the Philadelphia did a work of mine in the Academy of Music there was an audience of-what? 1,800 people or so-but when I broadcast my arrangement of "Dark Eyes," that went out to millions of people. I think in that sense my career has certainly been different because I had all these areas in which I was functioning, in many cases simultaneously--as a conductor, pianist, arranger, recording artist, and composer. I have conducted and recorded a wide variety of music, from popular to symphonic. I have composed ballets with and for Jerome Robbins, Agnes deMille, Balanchine, Eliot Feld, movie and TV scores, and symphonic works. I have been on the board of ASCAP for well over 25 years, and have served also on other boards and panels, such as the American Symphony Orchestra League and the National Endowment for the Arts. Now, as President of ASCAP, I have a tremendously responsible job that doesn't leave too much time for composing; but I do have several projects in the works, and I carry a sketchbook with me. I have in mind a piano concerto and a violin concerto, and many other projects. When I look back on my career, I get very tired in retrospect. It's a good thing I wasn't aware of all the
get recognition, we all want that, but to me the great joy, the pleasure is the act of creating, of writing, whether it's good or bad. It is a kind of sensuous pleasure, at two or three in the morning, if you're really rolling, and maybe it's garbage, but you don't think it is at that point--that strange euphoria, where you feel that you've got it, that this is what you want to say, this is what you want to be sounding--that's what it's all about. Everything else after that is nice, the premiere, the receptions, and, hopefully, people liking it, but it's the creative act that is what people like me are about. If I have a commission or a deadline, I do it. No matter what we think of ourselves, we either ''are,'' or we aren't. I think you just go on doing what you're supposed to do. In my case it's making music. The bottom line on everything is, "What do you produce?" That's probably a very mundane way of putting it, but I believe in saying simple things in simple words. "What is the product?" It either is, or it "ain't"; there's nothing you can do about it. As far as the mechanics are concerned, what I do comes easily. I have no problems with orchestration. I don't work at the piano, so I can compose anywhere. (Whether you compose at a piano or not doesn't prove anything, but for me it's a help because it's convenient and doesn't disturb the neighbors.) The orchestra and large instrumental forces have been my home, my habitat, throughout my career. I've spent all my life l
ooking at 30-or 40-stave score paper and have always thought orchestrally--the music I hear in my head is already orchestrated. I've done relatively little chamber music. As far as the mechanics are concerned, what I do comes easily. I have no problems with orchestration. I don't work at the piano, so I can compose anywhere. (Whether you compose at a piano or not doesn't prove anything, but for me it's a help because it's convenient and doesn't disturb the neighbors.) The orchestra and large instrumental forces have been my home, my habitat, throughout my career. I've spent all my life looking at 30or 40-stave score paper and have always thought orchestrally--the music I hear in my head is already orchestrated. I've done relatively little chamber music.
G IN AM RE ST
A CONVERSATION WITH MORTON GOULD
The Pavanne serves as a sort of dessert. It was originally written as the second movement of a symphonette, but became a popular standard and has been done in every shape and form, in every possible combination of instruments and arrangements. Here we hear it for woodwind quintet. It's obviously a "lighter" kind of piece. As we know, the French pavane is spelled with only one n, while my movement is spelled with two ns. The reason is that when l wrote it in the '30s, pavane was not a well-known name such as minuet or gavotte. Everybody kept calling it an assortment of names (including my publishers, who called it "Pavoon" ). So I told them, "You better put another n in it, so people won't go around calling it 'Puhvain."' (That was already a relatively sophisticated pronunciation.) It's been published that way since then. I
“As I get older I am more intrigued with the texture of chamber music of all kinds. One purely practical asset is that just a few staves on the score paper makes me feel almost as if I am not working...the creative ideas in chamber music are very exposed. You can't escape, you can't run for cover behind a bararage of percussion or big thick orchcstral textures-what you hear is what there is.” This new Musical Heritage album has certain aspects of my creative thoughts that have not been too exposed. As I get older I am more intrigued with the texture of chamber music of all kinds. One purely practical asset is that just a few staves on the score paper makes me feel almost as if I am not working. Of course thats just a glib remark, because the creative ideas in chamber music are very exposed. You can't escape, you can't run for cover behind a bararage of percussion or big thick orchcstral textures-what you hear is what there is. The Concerto Concertante is really a septet. I had great pleasure in writing this, in trying to do a work that would have a balance between the solo violin and the woodwinds and piano, which all play important roles. 'Cellos is also in a way a chamber piece, too, because it was written for only eight cellos, although it can be played also by massed cellos divided into eight parts or two quartets. In the slow movement I set myself the objective of composing a movement that would have really very little external motion, but hopefully a very condensed concentration of intensity from the opening bars to the last.
've been waiting these years for some purist to say, ''He doesn't even know how to spell pavane, what's he doing writing one?" I've traversed a wide musical area and enjoyed all the different parts of this musical estate I've been fortunate enough to walk around in and plant my own kinds of musical vegetation. Some of it is smaller, some of it bigger, but I really have never been hung up about thinking, "Will this be part of history?" I don't mean this in any sense to denigrate creative people who do think about their destiny and immortality. It's just not my style. I've been occupied all my life in doing things, always working under pressures of deadlines, of commitments. I really don't have much time to philosophize. I think all creative people share a certain number of common traits-in a sense, we all within the confines of our talents and natural gifts explore the unknown. A composer hopefully creates sounds that communicate living experience. Music is the greatest fantasy there is. It's its own thing, it's its own language. It's unlike anything else.
A STRIKING TRIBUTE - MANHATTAN JAZZ 3 MIN READ
MANHATTAN JAZZ Dick Hyman, piano Ruby Braff, cornet
Duos are rare in the history of jazz. I can think of only a handful, including the one mentioned by Dick Hyman in the liner notes to this album: a 1928 duet between Earl Hines and Louis Armstrong for Armstrong's "Weatherbird." It is an appropriate reference, for the musical relationship between cometist Braff and pianist Hyman works as much to their mutual advantage as did that much earlier arrangement between Hines and Armstrong. Armstrong by 1928 had reached full stride, having perfected his swooping style, open full vibrato, and conversational melodic voice. Hines, on the other hand, had freed himself from the limitations of stride piano, that is bass on the one-beat complemented by chord on the two-beat. He was inclined to try the sweeping phrases usually associated with brass in his right hand and play a more suggestively implicit series of rhythms in the left. The result of this duo was experimental narrative rather than piano accompaniment of a cornet solo.
G IN AM RE ST
EXPLORING MUSIC by Spencer Bennett
In this, the present album, lies a striking tribute to those two jazz forefathers. Ruby Braff is about as direct a musical descendent of Louis Armstrong as you will find on the present jazz scene. It has been fashionable in recent years to pay lip homage to Armstrong as the father of the inventive jazz line and dismiss his contribution as a mother lode that has been played out. Braff never believed it and has always kept his counsel as a child of the master (not always to his commercial advantage in the faddish world of jazz taste). But we have come full circle and what might have sounded dated in the avant garde '70s never in fact was. A couple examples will suffice. You cannot go much further back than "Jeepers Creepers" for an Armstrong tune with a short line that says it all with its jumping intervals and slightly meditative bridge. But Hyman and Braff treat it as though hearing it for the first time. Braff begins with a twisting open treatment that literally creates air pockets of sound. When his turn comes to solo he fools around with the dynamics of a low register cello .like a series of slurs, only to descend upon us with a highpitched sotto voce when we least expect it. Hyman makes that left hand work overtime with a bass line, now single and now chorded, punctuated with jumpy little breaks; yet he offers Braff righthand melodies to chew on when it comes time for them to trade four-bar solos with each other. The dynamic interplay between these two gives pause. They move in and out of pianissimo and forte shadowing to completely transform the character of the melody a dozen times over. These two stick close to traditional standards, and that is no mistake. For one thing it clues us in to just what a humorous vehicle jazz can be. The Harold Arlen medley is a case in point. "The Man That Got Away" gets the delicately hued treatment a blues deserves, but when it is juxtaposed against "If I Only Had a Brain" the idea of paradox takes on new meaning. "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" is somewhere between light nostalgia and lament but serves here as a transition to a reiteration of the first song, which now has a less hopeless statement in the context of the other two. Here's to two veteran musicians who never lost sight of the joy of playing for and with each other while, incidentally, giving us pleasure as well.
THE ART OF DICK HYMAN
BLUES IN THE NIGHT: DICK HYMAN PLAYS HAROLD ARLEN
COLE PORTER: ALL THROUGH THE NIGHT
BROADWAY SONGBOOK
HOLLYWOOD SONGBOOK
PIANO PLAYERS & SIGNIFICANT OTHERS with Carrie Smith, Milt Hinton, Ruby Braff, Butch Miles and many more guests
G IN AM RE ST
Musical Heritage Review
FACE THE MUSIC: A CENTURY OF IRVING BERLIN
THE GERSHWIN SONGBOOK: JAZZ VARIATIONS
DICK HYMAN PLAYS VARIATIONS ON RICHARD RODGERS: RODGERS & HAMMERSTEIN
DICK HYMAN PLAYS VARIATIONS ON RICHARD RODGERS: RODGERS & HART
THE KINGDOM OF SWING AND THE REPUBLIC OF OOP BOP SH’BAM with Derek Smith & Butch Miles, Milt Hinton, Warren Vache Jr.,Buddy Tate, Urbie Green & Joe Wilder
INTIMATE JAZZ
JIM HALL: SOMETHING SPECIAL with Steve LaSpina
JIM HALL: SUBSEQUENTLY with Toots Theilemans
BOBBY SCOTT AND HIS TRIO: FOR SENTIMENTAL REASONS A Tribute to Nat “King” Cole
DUKE ELLINGTON: IN MY SOLITUDE:
G IN AM RE ST
Musical Heritage Review
BENNY CARTER: NEW YORK NIGHTS
Solo Piano and Small Group Performances - Duke Ellington, Roland Hanna, Billy Strayhorn
with Chris Neville, Steve Laspina & Sherman Ferguson
LIONEL HAMPTON: MOSTLY BALLADS
DAVE BRUBECK QUARTET: ONCE WHEN I WAS VERY YOUNG
LAINIE KAZAN: IN THE GROOVE
SWEET & LOVELY: THE ART OF JAZZ GUITAR
JOBIM FOR LOVERS
a collection of great jazz guitar performances with Charlie Christian, Jim Hall, Jack Wilkins, Jim Abercrombie, Howard Alden, John Scofield and more
with Romero Lubambo, Nilson Matta, Duduka da Fonseca, & Gary Fisher
VINCENT HERRING,
with David Benoit, John Ferraro, Jennifer Bena
G IN AM RE ST
JACQUELYN HELIN TALKS TO VIRGIL THOMSON
To celebrate the reissue of an MHS classic, we revived the Review interview that accompanied the release of "Virgil Thomson: Ballet and Film Scores Arranged for Piano" in 1986. 7 MIN READ
Virgil Thomson: Ballet and Film Scores Arranged for Piano Jacquelyn Helin, piano
VT: Well, there was a ballet school in existence by that time, and a ballet company which called itself the Ballet Caravan because it went around in buses and trucks. And it had a very brilliant director, who had put in all his personal friends to run the school and prepare dancers: that was George Balanchine. And he thought he would train some choreographers, too. And so with Lincoln Kirstein, who was sort of running the whole business for him, and from one source or another providing money, he got some ballet scores. I think mine was the first one. Then Aaron (Copland] did one the next year, (and] a fellow named McBride, Paul Bowles, various others. Every year, they were to do one or two new American ballets; and he found that the best way to get good choreography for them was to let the male dancer, the leading male dancer, choreograph the ballet in which he starred. JH: Good idea. VT: Well, it's one of those ideas you run into without being at all sure it's going to work, but it did.
Virgil Thomson talked with Jacquelyn Helin, the pianist on the MHS release, and about his life and music.
JH: During the '30s, you began your collaborations with film makers. VT: I did my first film score in 1936: The Plough that Broke the Plains with Pare Lorentz-that's a documentary for the United States Government-and another one called The River the next year. After that, I didn't do any more film scores-I went back to Franceuntil I did the Louisiana Story in ... JH: I think it was '48 ... VT: Forty-eight, I guess, yes, and I did one or two after that. JH: What about the ballets; for example, Filling Station? VT: That was '37. JH: Could you tell us about that, because it is one of the works to be included in this recording.
JH: And Lew Christensen was the hero of this ballet, he was the dancer-choreographer. VT: Oh yes, well, Lew was a terrific dancer. I suppose the finest male dancer in the sense of "danseur noble" that we have ever produced. He could do virtuoso tricks too, such as 12 cartwheels in the air, never touching the ground except with his feet. JH: The story of Filling Station is very classic Americana, with the gas station attendant as hero ... VT: And the neighborhood, with people coming by and all that. Well, that was our intention of course. JH: ... and the people driving, and the gangster, and the shoot-out, and then the resolution and funeral. You've described the pieces that you used-tangos, a fugue, "Big Apple," "Holdup•:_as all designed "to evoke roadside America as pop art." VT: Well, the term pop art was used later to describe an intellectual movement in painting and sculpture. JH: So they called it pop art later.
VT: But there was this kind of thing long before. Of course the 19th century called its pop art "folklore." But that tended to be rural folklore. Urban folklore gives you pop art. JH: So you didn't call it pop art in the '30s, you called it that when you were writing about it later in the '60s. VT: Somebody else called it, the painting dealers called it, pop art. Then there was op art too, which has to do with visual angles. JH: At the Hartford opening of Filling Station, on January 6, 1938, the production was first done with piano accompaniment. Was that the same piano score that I will now be recording on the Musical Heritage album? VT: I don't remember. I think probably; I'm not sure. There is a two-piano version also, and the ballet toured with the two piano version also, and the ballet toured with the two-piano version for quite a while. They would use an orchestra if there was one around. The orchestral score was first first performed in a WPA theater in New York, I think probably, sometime in '38. During the war, when the Caravan made a big South American tour, they used the local orchestras wherever they were. But they could always do two-piano dates in colleges and so forth. JH: The Ballet Suite from Lord Byron will also be on this record. Now we've talked, you and I, many times about what we're going to call it. It's got a very interesting history. It began life as your Second String Quartet. VT: It is a string quartet and one which I've always been fond of. I also had the idea fairly early that it could be put on the stage. I once played it clean through on a piano for George Balanchine; he thought he might put it on the stage, but he didn't. It remained string quartet until the early 70's, when I was producing my Lord Byron opera at the Julliard School. And I had an idea of putting a ballet into that and getting Frederick Ashton over from London to direct the opera--we'd enjoyed so much working together long years before in the Four Saints. And he said he was delighted and would do it . Peter Mennin, who was running the school at that time, delayed in writing to Ashton. I thought you see once I got him here, I could run up a ballet for the opera, an appropriate and proper one on some kind of theme that
G IN AM RE ST
JACQUELYN HELIN TALKS TO VIRGIL THOMSON
we would think up together. Well, the delay in salting down the engagement, --he (Ashton) waited around for two months in London and then took a job in Australiathat was offered him to do a ballet. And so we were going into rehearsal and there was no ballet, and so I went back to my earlier idea of making a ballet out of the Second String Quartet, and I orchestrated it for that purpose. And we use it in the opera. Well, for various reasons, I decided I wasn't going to do that again. JH: Who did the choreography for that ballet? VT: Alvin Ailey. I didn't like that music as a ballet, and I didn't like the idea of there being a ballet anyway. I thought it my mistake. So that work existed as a ballet for about how many performances did they do-about seven or eight maybe. After that it was published and for publication purposes I called it Third Symphony. It's a four-movement work in symphonic form, and as such, it works perfectly well. Now, when I showed you the piano score and you decided you were going to play it as a piano piece, you thought it would look attractive on a program as Ballet Music from Lord Byron. Well, it had long since ceased to be Ballet Music from Lord Byron (laughter), and it had never quite become a Third Symphony. You can't call a piano piece Third Symphony. I still don't know what to call it. [Mr. Thomson has since decided to call the work Lord Byron on the Continent.] JH: The question that Jeffrey Nissim of Musical Heritage asked me to ask you was, "Why should anyone listen to piano transcriptions of these works when they can hear the orchestral version on recordings?" VT: Well, because it sounds good and people seem to like it. Anybody who likes music of course enjoys piano music. There's a four-hand arrangement of my first and, I think, also my Second Symphony. These get played from time to time quite successfully. JH: So it's not that the music loses anything from not having orchestral color. VT: No, no, it's different and it's lively. It works. JH: What do you think is your most important contribution to the ballet and film score genre?
VT: To the ballet? Why, I don't know whether I've ever even made a contribution, except certain pieces that work nicely. The Filling Station works completely and, as I say, from 1937 to, now we're getting on toward '87that's getting on to 50 years-it's remained pretty steadily in repertory. A ballet was made by Erick Hawkins on my Second Symphony. It works. It works in the full orchestral version and also works in a reduced version for seven instruments which a very gifted young man, Braxton Blake, did for the Erick Hawkins company. Then there's another ballet which I did for Erick Hawkins which is made out of music from the Federal period, which I've sort of fitted to the ballet story and orchestrated for seven instruments, which is the size of the group that he uses. That's quite successful; it works nicely too. JH: What piece is that? VT: It's called Parson Weems and the Cherry Tree. Now the one on the Second Symphony's called Hurrah. That's all about white flannel pants and straw hats, you know, pre-World War I youth life. Then there's another ballet which didn't work at all. George Balanchine thought he would make a ballet out of an orchestral suite which was published and which was derived from my music for Louisiana Story. It's authentic Cajun folklore. Stravinsky told him he shouldn't do it; he said "If you want to make a ballet out of Louisiana Story, you should take the big suite which has longer pieces and sustained construction." But Balanchine thought he would go his own way and put these short pieces to music. Well, the ballet as produced, I've even forgotten what is was called, something about , Acadian ... JH: Bayou? VT: Yes, that it's. It's called Bayou; it's all Acadian Bayou tunes arranged and orchestrated by me exactly as they are in the Louisiana Story film. Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein, who was always his adviser about such things, got a very good painter, Dorothea Tanning, to make decorations, and she filled the stage full of dripping Spanish moss, or paintings that looked like it, which were very pretty as paintings; but Spanish moss is pretty dismal on on stage or off. (laughter)...Anyway, (the ballet) was not successful...I think it was sunk by the fact that it
G IN AM RE ST
JACQUELIN HELIN TALKS TO VIRGIL THOMSON
was too many short pieces, as Stravinsky had told him, and too much Spanish moss, as anybody could have told him. (laughter) Anyway, it's never been given again. Nor have they ever used the scenery again. (laughs) JH: You did lot of research into folk music for the film scores; for example, you went to the Library of Congress and researched the Cajun tunes, and you unearthed a lot of old anthologies on which to draw. VT: Well, every now and then and then you look something up in a book in a library, sure. I've been to the New York Public Library too. (laughs) JH: Well, I guess I was thinking that you, perhaps more than any composer before you, really drew on the folk materials of America. VT: Well, I wouldn't know about that. People did Indian folklore, don't you remember the "Land of the Skyyyy Blue Waaater?" And Mr. Cadman (Charles Cadman) wrote a whole opera on Indian themes; so did Victor Herbert. Even Madama Butterfly of Puccini is full of Japanese themes. There's nothing novel about that. Petrushka's full of Russian themes. JH: No, what I think is novel about it is that, when you're watching a film like The Plough that Broke the Plains and listening to your music, there's a real sense of America that comes across from the use of the hymn and the folksong. VT: Well, that is music criticism on your part, which I'm in no position to dispute, because it's about my work. In general, whenever what you might call a social background, that is to say, a people, has a musical literature, it's very effective to use that musical literature as accompaniment to photographs of their actions. You can't use it for landscape because landscape is not folklore, a tree is a tree anywhere. There are ways of representing landscape which composers have used for centuries. If you want to do a sea storm, you can give it any geography; but you can't stick Basques and their music into a picture about American Indians. And cowboys happen to have a literature, and of course the Cajuns a terrific one.
BENEFITS OF MEMBERSHIP
Every month, a deluxe release, specially curated from the thousands of recordings in the Musical Heritage Society catalog will be available for download. If you’re a member, use the code “FREE” during that month to get the download as a membership benefit.
NON-MEMBERS PRICE:
$9.99
MEMBERS PRICE:
$4.99
Members save up to 50% automatically! Make sure you’re logged in and if you’re a member, the savings will show up at checkout!
If you’re logged in, you’ll receive your $9.99 store credit automatically each month you are a member. The amount credited toward your purchase will show at checkout!
Can’t remember when the next membership is scheduled? Need to redownload a title? Click here - all your membership information is in one place.
COMING in NOVEMBER The Musical Heritage Review
OUR CHRISTMAS MAIN SELECTION featuring the Galliard Brass Ensemble, with the first complete release of their recordings of music for the Christmas season. ALSO FEATURING VADIM BRODSKY PLAYS TCHAIKOVSKY & SIBELIUS VIOLIN CONCERTOS PETER SERKIN PLAYS BACH & MOZART MAURICE PERESS: THE BIRTH OF RHAPSODY IN BLUE DENNIS RUSSELL DAVIES & AARON COPLAND KEITH JARRETT PLAYS 20TH CENTURY MASTERPIECES Musical Heritage Society, Jazz Heritage Society & The Musical Heritage Review © 1962-2023 Heritage Music Royalties. All Musical Heritage Review written contents © 1975-2023 Heritage Music Royalties. All Musical Heritage Society sound recordings © 1968-2023 Heritage Music Royalties.