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| Fredell Lack |
Recently, I came a number of items destined for the great mound of garbage at the transfer station. These records were Music Appreciation and Musical Treasures of the World issues. Released beginning in the 50's, these records were sold by subscription, club membership and in places like the local supermarket and Woolworth's. Some were older recordings relabeled with pseudonyms while others were fresh new recordings cut by musicians looking to make a couple bucks outside of their normal concertizing. Today, I offer two records from the Music Appreciation series, released by the Book of the Month Club. Both feature the "Stadium Concerts Symphony Orchestra" aka the Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra of New York. The Mendelssohn Violin Concerto is performed by Oklahoma born violinist Fredell Lack with radio conductor Alexander Smallens conducting and the Tchaikovsky Symphony No 5 is led by famed resident conductor at the Met and former Cincinnati SO director, Max Rudolf.
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| Alexander Smallens |
Prior to this recording, I had never heard of Fredell Lack. Ms Lack appears to have had a relatively short career in the limelight, primarily as a soloist and member of the Little Orchestral Society in New York City. By the age of 30, she had relocated to Texas where she would spend many years as a distinguished professor of music at the University of Houston and, as leader of the Lyric Arts Quartet. On evidence of this recording, she is strong soloist with a sweet tone and impeccable finger work. Lack is ably supported by noted radio conductor and arranger, Alexander Smallens. The latter was one of these musicians who could apparently step in to a scene quickly and coax fine results by musicians with little preparation for producers whose eyes were constantly on the clock.
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| Max Rudolf |
Max Rudolf is a name familiar to most, a conductor of impressive stature who spent his earlier years in the opera pit but emerged later as a conductor who could lead convincing performances in the concert hall minus the trappings of the operatic stage. Rudolf's Tchaikovsky is taut, no nonsense and almost businesslike but not in a way that would denote boredom or indifference. This is Tchaikovsky for people that do not want over exaggeration but rather prefer the music to speak for itself. In essence, this is performance by an operatic conductor who has to regularly bring differing performing styles together and have them coalesce into a work that is interpretively consistent. I find Rudolf refreshing and he coaxes some very good playing from an orchestra that is probably recording late into the evening or into the wee hours of the morning.
These mono records were a bit of a challenge to work with. Again, I would guess that there were not many takes as time and money dictated that a product had to be produced quickly, efficiently and cheaply. Consequently, I don't believe that recording conditions were at all ideal. Even so, its nice to have these recordings available as they are a fond remembrance of musicians that left their individual imprints on the music of the day.
DOWNLOAD MENDELSSOHN
DOWNLOAD TCHAIKOVSKY
