The fourth composer songbook recorded by vocalist Lee Wiley was devoted to Cole Porter, issued in a 1940 Liberty Music Shop album. It's the fourth songbook, that is, in its appearance on this blog; the Porter album actually was second in its date of recording, preceded by a George Gershwin set from 1939, and succeeded by the music of Rodgers and Hart (1940) and Harold Arlen (1943). As before in this series, I've augmented the eight-selection Porter album with other Wiley recordings from the same general period. The bonuses brings the total number of songs to 11. This collection displays th ..read more

The distinguished conductor Sir Andrew Davis has died at age 80 after a brief struggle with leukemia. Today a tribute to him in the form of one of his earliest recordings, the Requiem by Maurice Duruflé (1902-86). Davis, who was famed for his genial nature and wide repertoire, began recording in 1974. After a one-off assignment for Decca leading the orchestra for an Ilana Vered concerto recording, he began making discs in 1975 for Columbia (CBS in England). This particular LP comes from early 1977, when the conductor was 32. The young Andrew Davis Duruflé's Requiem was not nearl ..read more

Casper Reardon (1907-41) didn't start out to become the first jazz harp player. He was a trained classical musician who had performed with the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Cincinnati Symphony. But after a few of his Cincinnati students introduced him to the delights of popular music, he became interested enough that he began appearing on local radio playing jazz as "Arpeggio Glissando." Eventually his avocation became a vocation, and he ended up in New York, in a recording studio with Red McKenzie and his group. That's where this story of Reardon's brief but eventful jazz odyssey begins ..read more

I had a request for a particular LP of Edgard Varèse's music, so I thought I would turn this post into a small festival of historic recordings of works by this remarkable, iconoclastic figure. Varèse (1883-1965) was born in Paris and came to the US in 1915, already seeking new vistas in sound. Soon after arriving, he announced to a reporter, "I refuse to submit myself only to sounds that have already been heard. What I am looking for are new technical mediums which can lend themselves to every expression of thought and keep up with thought." As Eric Salzman wrote in a long article on Varèse ..read more

Toward the end of last year I posted Robert Shaw's early LPs of both Thanksgiving and Christmas music. Today I am adding to the collection with his Treasury of Easter Songs, which came out in 1952. Similar to his other sets, the famed choral conductor assembled a variety of seasonal material, ranging from Schütz to spirituals and across several centuries. There are 20 selections presented in a relatively brief period. Nothing wears out its welcome, but the stylistic diversity elicited equally diverse critical opinions. Enthusiastic: "Mr. Shaw has chosen these selections with extreme car ..read more

A quick tribute to the remarkable pianist Maurizio Pollini, who has died at age 82, in the form of one of my favorite recordings. It is Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 4, here in a magnificent 1976 performance by Pollini and the Vienna Philharmonic, conducted by Karl Böhm. The quality of this recording is evident from the opening bars. The pianist's astonishing perfection is beautifully set off by the warmth of the Vienna Philharmonic under the masterful Böhm. In The Gramophone, Richard Osborne wrote: "Pollini’s performance is both brilliant and beautifully proportioned; driven but neve ..read more

Here is the third in our exploration of the composer songbooks recorded by the great Lee Wiley from 1939-43. The earlier posts were devoted to Gershwin and Rodgers and Hart. The R&H article provides background on the singer. This time, Wiley does wonders for Harold Arlen, a distinctive composer whose songs are suited to her vocal manner. Lee Wiley Sings Songs by Harold Arlen dates from 1943 and was issued by the Schirmer label, in succession to the Liberty Music Shop (Gershwin and Cole Porter) and Rabson's (R&H).  Along with the Schirmer album, for this collection I've added fi ..read more

For the first entry in its "American Music Festival Series," the Mercury label turned to patriotic works by two of the leading composers of the time - Howard Hanson (1896-1981) and Randall Thompson (1899-1984), calling the 1952 LP Music for Democracy. Both works were choral settings - Thompson adapted texts by Thomas Jefferson for his Testament of Freedom; Hanson drew upon Walt Whitman for Songs from "Drum Taps." As always in this series, the orchestra was the Eastman-Rochester Symphony, led by Hanson, the director of the Eastman School of Music. The voices were from the Eastman School Chorus ..read more

Steve Lawrence made a whole lot of records and a whole lot more appearances on stage and television in a career that lasted nearly 70 years. The singer-actor-comedian died last week at age 88. Something of a prodigy, Steve was signed by Dewey Bergman of Cincinnati's King Records while the young man was still in high school, this on the strength of Steve's winning on the Arthur Godfrey Talent Scouts television program. Bergman, who had made his first record with Ted Weems in 1924, was experienced and prescient. From the moment Steve started to sing in the New York studio on that April day in ..read more

For this post I am combining a few records to provide a by-no-means comprehensive overview of 20th century music in Ireland. First we have two transcription discs published by the Marshall Plan administration at about mid-century. Then a Decca LP of "New Music from Old Erin" from about 1958, augmented by a recent concert recording of an Ina Boyle overture. Orchestras of the World - Ireland Orchestras of the World label and Marshall Plan poster The French conductor Jean Martinon (1910-76) was known for his performances of French, Russian and German composers, but in this unusual set ..read more