From a Music Appreciation issue, the glorious music of Brahms juxtiposing perennial favorites, the Academic Festival Overture and Variations on a Theme by Haydn with the less heard "New" Liebeslieder Waltzes. The orchestral selections are led by George Szell with "his symphony orchestra" while Thomas Scherman conducts the choral waltzes. Vocal soloists are Lucine Amara, Frances Bible, David Lloyd and Hugh Thompson. The duo pianists are the excellent Abba Bogin and Eileen Flissler.
Music Appreciation, Book of the Month, Musical Masterpieces of the World were great services in their day. Marketed to the masses, their issues introduced many a lay person to the great classics by "assisting" the listener in choice of repertoire and performance. In essence, the services made choices for listeners who might have not made a choice at all if left to their own devices. For the most part, performances were well chosen and the artists often musicians overlooked or underappreciated by the big labels.
As you would expect, George Szell leads pointed and detailed renditions of the Haydn Variations and the Academic Festival Overture. A total unsentimental approach ensures an orchestral approach which is above all, based on precision with respect to the architecture of each piece. With Szell, the overall structure does not break down into mere episodes. If one can say anything about Szell, he was a consistent artist whose recordings came to symbolize "quality," both in sensible interpretation and immaculately prepared performances.
Scherman's New Liebeslieder waltzes are more thean adequate though strangely, I feel that vocal contributions are rather pushed and pulled at times. With a solid quartet, I find this quite odd however, there is an upside in that Bogin and Flissler are quite effective as duo pianists. These waltzes are beautiful examples of Brahms' mastery of the human voice though Scherman could have introduced a little more subtlety to the proceedings.
Both recordings are decent mono and date from the mid 50's.
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