Today's lp features strong familial ties along with terrific playing by an orchestra that was for all practical purposes the cream of Hollywood Studio musicians. Pianist Victor Aller joins his brother in law Felix Slatkin and the Concert Arts Orchestra in Shostakovich's Concerto for Piano, Trumpet and Strings and Hindemith's The Four Temperaments.
During the 40's and 50's, Hollywood was home to some of the very best classically trained musicians in the country. Many, were drawn to the optimistic outlook of California, often coming from disparate circumstances in Europe, and others liked the idea of good pay, steady employment and, superb benefits that the studios lavished on their best of the best. Of those working in the studio were the extended Slatkin family, Felix, his wife Eleanor and her brother Victor Aller. Felix and Eleanor would found the Hollywood Quartet, which in its day was one of the finest quartets in the Americas and a pioneer in performing newer works for the string quartet medium.
Felix Slatkin was the longtime concertmaster of the Twentieth Century Fox Orchestra and often conducted this fine band, which many considered the best studio orchestra and, even a better ensemble then the famed Los Angeles Philharmonic. Slatkin had developed a relationship with Capitol through the Hollywood Quartet and during the early 50's, Capitol sought to offer a "pops" type series to rival RCA's Boston Pops and Columbia's Andre Kostelanetz. Capitol settled on Felix Slatkin to conduct larger works with Carmen Dragon directing the "lollipop" type offerings. Mostly Slatkin was put to work with overtures and ballet suites but here he is with a full scale recording of two serious and contemporary works.
Both the Shostakovich and Hindemith are well played and ideally interpreted. Aller and Slatkin are truly of one mind and what is beautiful about the performances is that Aller does not view these as solo concertos but rather as works for orchestra with a "leading" piano part. I really like this approach as I view the works in this way. The Shostakovich is a marvelous and colorful piece, probably one of the five best concertos of the last century. The Hindemith, not heard often enough, is a strong work and this performance softens ever so slightly Hindemith's often spiky manner in a beneficial way. Though very different composers with styles that are hardly congruent, this pairing makes sense and flows naturally under Slakin's able direction.
These recordings date from 1953 and were well recorded by Capitol.
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