An interesting find on the Mercury label, a concert of Norwegian "popular" pieces conducted by Odd Gruner-Hegge and Oivin Fjeldstad. This lp features a favorite march of mine, the Valdres March of Johannes Hanssen, wonderfully idiomatic as you might expect.
Here's what Billboard said in 1954 about this issue:
This fine recording of light selections by some of Norway's top composers could interest those collectors who are perhaps a little tired of Strauss and Tchaikovsky. Some of the compositions are well known such as the "Entrance March of the Boyars" and "The Herd Girl's Sunday." But the rest by Hanssen, Halvorsen and Svendson, are not as familiar. All are played skillfully.
It's a delightful three quarters of an hour of your listening time.
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Thanks Fred!
ReplyDeleteDear Fred:
ReplyDeleteThis rare Mercury domestic issue of the European recording is MOST appreciated--thanks so much for it!
Speaking of Scandinavian music: did you once upload a Swedish Society/Discofil *stereo* Lp of Hugo Alfven conducting some of his own works? I thought I'd archived it from your blog, but now I cannot locate the folder. It was, I've read, the very first two-channel stereophonic record ever made in Scandinavia, and I was happy to find a copy of the Lp around 1970--but when I retired, I sold the entire collection. I was pleased to see the upload (if it WAS by any chance indeed yours) and planned to burn a CD one day--but now I can't find it in my various backup disks.
If you DID upload this at one time (I checked--of course it's not on your blog currently), could you DO IT AGAIN?! It would be *most* appreciated!
Sincerely yours,
Steve - a retired recording engineer in San Jose
Steve,
DeleteUnfortunately the Alfven wasn't me. But, more Berwald on the way...
I found it on the Big Ten Inch blog!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the Berwald piano quartets. Though Nonesuch issued this in fake stereo and mono, once I found a true stereo release on a Scandinavian CD...which I can't locate! Drat...At least your mono upload will help.
Steve