Lukas Foss leads the Zimbler Sinfonietta in Bartok, Ives and more

A quick post today as I get myself ready to head north to Mount Snow, Vermont for their annual Oktoberfest festivities. Last weekend, the band was performing at the Harpoon Brewery on the Boston waterfront. Though rain put a damper on Friday night, the weather held for Saturday and the event drew over 10,000 thirsty patrons!

Here is the Turnabout reissue of the Unicorn record pictured above. I dissed the electronic stereo enhancement and returned the record back to its monophonic charm. Rather cutely, if you look at the cover of the Unicorn issue Lukas Foss, the conductor, has his name spelled "Lucas." Foss leads the reliable Zimbler Sinfonietta in engaging performances of the following works:

Ives - The Unanswered Question, trumpet solo Roger Voisin
Milhaud - Symphony no. 4 for strings
Skalkottas - Little Suite for strings
Bartok - Divertimento for string orchestra

There is vigorous leadership here, you might say, youthful, as Foss was in his mid 30's at the time of the recording. I think a lot of people forget just how gifted Foss was. Indeed, he was a close second in popularity to his esteemed associate Leonard Bernstein. Both shared teachers, had rich and varied talents, and were able to cross over easily into more popular forms of musical expression. Brilliant men both, without question. This record makes a strong case for Lukas Foss the modern conductor and his grasp on each piece is strong and musical.

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Milhaud conducts Milhaud

I've had a fascination for the music of Darius Milhaud for many years. For me, his music sparkles with wit and is unpretentious. There is an almost naive quality to many of his pieces that sort of wraps itself around me and reminds me of simpler times when the biggest decision I had to make was which color crayon to use when coloring a steam locomotive.

A Varese Sarabande reissue of two suites that are for the most part, unfortunately, forgotten. The Joys of Life and Globetrotter Suite are conducted by Milhaud leading the pickup Los Angeles Chamber Ensemble. The movements of each encapsulate sharp ideas in a very condensed space, typical of this composer's writing. Totally accessible, this is happy, even festive music, not totally memorable but not overstaying its welcome either. Possibly, the reason for its disappearance is that the music is more entertaining than intellectual and I suppose that has been a reason why Milhaud fares less and less well as the years pass. He churned a lot of music, some pieces brilliant, others workmanlike, much of it solid, entertaining yet hardly provocative. Needless to say, Milhaud is a great antidote to one's ills and stresses because it is fresh and well, alive!

This reissue here dates from 1978 but the original MGM was late 50's.

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Modern French Orchestral Miniatures conducted by Gennady Rozhdestvensky

I've been looking for this elusive Westminster Gold lp for some time now. As my introduction to the music of  "The Six," I recall playing this over and over again during my teens. For my money, Rozhdestvensky scores a homerun in this repertoire. (I consider Satie the "father" of Les Six)

The "little" symphonies of Milhaud and the Paris Suite of Ibert are the "big" pieces on this lp. Both of these composers wrote in a similar style and both excelled at exploiting the colors of smaller ensembles. I think the interplay of strings and winds in the "little" symphonies is among the most imaginative and stimulating listening that I've ever encountered. However.....it has to be done right and when I say right, I mean the ensemble has to be listening carefully to one another in order to understand the logic behind the compositions. Milhaud's own recording with Radio Luxembourg does not come close to the dynamic that Rozhdestvensky caresses out of these exceptional musicians, the cream of the famed Leningrad Philharmonic.

This record was released by Melodiya in 1964, at the end of the Khrushchev years and the thaw that helped break (at least for a short time) the stranglehold on Soviet arts and artists. This music would have been decidedly bourgeois by Soviet standards and I'll bet that many of these musicians were seeing this fare for the first time. And, early on Rozhdestvensky's career, he was an innovator, an experimentor and a friend of the avant garde. In my opinion, the forces came together well here for an inspired recording session of terrific music.

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Piano Music of Milhaud, Villa Lobos and Stravinsky

Interesting twentieth century piano music today. Lenore Engdahl performs Milhaud's Saudades de Brasil along with short works of Villa Lobos and the estimable French pianist Marcelle Meyer does great justice to Stravinsky in Three Movements from Petrushka and Serenade in A.

Admittedly, I know little of these two ladies of the keyboard. Engdahl had a long career as an artist, performing from the 1940's through the 80's. It would appear that she was a renowned teacher too, as witnessed by a quick google search. Though from the upper midwest, Ms Engdahl plays these pieces inspired by Brazil with great authority and is fully within the idiom. Really nice listening and I am pleased to have found this old MGM lp. I'd like to find more by Lenore Engdahl

Marcelle Meyer

Marcelle Meyer was one of the greatest French pianists of the last century, an artist well regarded by Ravel, members of Les Six, and Stravinsky. These masters apparently valued her musicianship since she served their music with an equal and total devotion and always avoided over dramatising the score. In other words, she was not one for effect but let the music speak directly and honestly to the listener. Her performances of Stravinsky are absolutely magnificent - Petrouchka is not easy stuff and she makes it sound so natural and unforced, like watching Fred Astaire dance.

I am not totally sure on the date of the Engdahl - MGM record and the Meyer - Haydn Society lp. I would guess late 40's for Meyer and mid 50's for Engdahl. This two records really make for some neat listening...really.

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French Music for Piano and Violin with Fistoulari conducting

Another MGM record that sparked my interest. Interesting repertoire featuring a fine conductor, two excellent orchestras, and two rather less famous soloists.

Elizabeth Lockhart, the Scottish born violinist, was actually Anatole Fistoulari's second wife. A web search turned up a few reviews of performances dating from the 1940's but little else. From the evidence here, she is a self assured player, technically sound but, not someone that I would easily remember. I suppose Ms Lockhart had a rather provincial career of teaching and playing - she passed on in 1995.

Fabienne Jacquinot is new to me too, however there is recorded evidence that she collaborated frequently enough with Fistoulari. Again, not much to find on her though she was a judge at the International Piano Competition in Andorra as recently as 2008. Jacquinot's playing is very good though not top tier. However, as with the Lockhart pieces, a conductor of Fistoulari's stature can make all the difference and it does! The Milhaud and Honegger are delightful and a pleasant treat for the ears.

Anatole Fistoulari is too often earmarked as a ballet specialist and this recording does its job to cause us to rethink that assumption. Obviously, Fistoulari was a multitalented man with a healthy repertoire whose time for reassessment is long overdue. A retrospective by Decca or EMI would be nice.

Not sure of the exact date of these recording but I'd say mid to late 50's. 

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The wonderful Schuyler Symphony in Verklaerte Nacht and Suite Provencale!

Haha...got your attention! Who, what, where??? The Schuyler Symphony is of course the RCA Camden pseudonym for the St Louis Symphony Orchestra and its music director of a quarter century, Vladimir Golschmann.  On this Camden release, Golschmann leads strong performances of Schoenberg's "Verklaerte Nacht", Milhaud's  delightful "Suite Provencale", and a couple of encore Dvorak Slavonic Dances from Op. 46.

Golschmann was a fine conductor, if not at the very top tier. Well respected, and highly held by musicians and teh public alike,  he was a welcome guest conductor and a favorite of a number of composers, probably due in part to his musical honesty and freedom from excess and egotism. The program here is tailor made for Golschmann as he was closely associated with both Schoenberg and even more so with Darius Milhaud.  My favorite on this recording is Suite Provencale, it simply sparkles. Its really a wonderful piece of writing if you do not know of it, you need to make an acquaintance. Golschmann lets the music speak clearly and naturally and though Munch's take with the superior BSO is tremendously exciting, the latter conductor does tend to overdrive the piece. Golschmann seems so right.

Sound is so so on this Camden as it is in most Camden reissues. How technology for reissuing classics has changed!  Still, it is nice to have Golschmann conducting this orchestra, one that best represents his art on record. Mono FLACs.


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Two Pianos are Better Than One!

A little while ago, The High Pony Tail posted a very lovely, but neglected, LP of Schubert's Grand Duo that featured the wonderful duo of Gold and Fizdale. Though much celebrated in their day, the recorded legacy that they left behind has sadly languished in the vaults. I greatly enjoyed the Schubert and recently, I was fortunate to come across this record of the two performing Brahms and Debussy.

Brahms' Haydn Variations is just a superbly realized creation and Debussy's "Children's Games" sparkle with an effervescence that only "little ones" can innocently muster. Very different compositions yes, but Gold and Fizdale manage the transitions between the two in a masterful fashion. This is excellent music making by the premier duo of the time. Artists like the Lebecque sisters don't hold a candle to G & F and  the former often resort to cheap trickery to get their message across. Gold and Fizdale let the music breathe and fly on its own initiative and this Odyssey reissue was well pressed for a budget offering.

I've included another wonderful duo to round off the program, the husband and wife team of Walter and Beatriz Klien. Walter Klien was a very admired interpreter of Mozart, however, he and his wife make a strong impression in this French program of Debussy, Ravel and Milhaud. I especially like the Scaramouche of Milhaud though the Debussy in the Klien's hands is handled so delicately and with a tender touch. A beautiful program released by Vox.

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