by Peter Cates

Morton Gould

South of the Border
Columbia, m-593, 4 ten-inch 78s, recorded mid-’40s.

A very gifted pianist, composer, arranger and conductor, Morton Gould (1913-1996) straddled the worlds of classical and popular music very comfortably in a manner similar to Andre Kostelanetz, conductor and film composer John Williams and the latter’s Boston Pops predecessor, Arthur Fiedler. His classical compositions, often evoking American history, include Fall River Legend with its depiction of Lizzie Borden; and my favorite, the very powerful Spirituals for Orchestra. In later years, he wrote pieces featuring a rapper and a singing chorus of firemen for the city of Pittsburgh.

His LPs conducting such favorites as Rimsky’s Scheherazade, Copland’s Rodeo, Tchaikovsky’s 1812 and ballet waltzes, etc., are on my shelves.

But his most successful endeavors lay in the imaginative arranging of pop standards on a slew of albums, from the ‘40s until the late ‘60s, that were frequently categorized as mood music, similar to those of Kostelanetz, Fiedler, Percy Faith, Mantovani, Paul Weston and Bert Kaempfert. The above set consists of such hits as Brazil, Cielito Lindo, La Golondrina, and the mirthful Mexican Hat Dance. Unfortunately, it was only released on 78s and a ten-inch LP and is out of print, but a copy is listed on Amazon for 12 bucks; two selections from the album are also accessible on YouTube.

Frank Sinatra

The Voice
Columbia CL 743, LP, released 1955.

By the time this re-issue of selected early-to-mid ‘40s 78s appeared, Sinatra had been with Capitol records a couple of years. However, Columbia had quickly realized the cash cow potential of their own stockpile of tapes and began releasing 10- and 12-inch LP transfers. The move has proven very successful in the 65 years since.

The Voice contains 12 exquisite examples of the singer’s phrasing, characterizing and other facets of his unique set of pipes. And Axel Stordahl’s arrangements achieved a compatibility with “Old Blue Eyes” that was later matched only by Nelson Riddle. The songs include A Ghost of a Chance, Try a Little Tenderness, Spring is Here, etc. and the album has been transferred to CD.

An FS quote – “Alcohol is man’s worst enemy, but the Bible says to love your enemy!”

Tchaikovsky

Symphony No.6, “Pathetique”; Serenade for Strings; for the 6th, Marko Munih conducting the Radio Symphony Orchestra, Ljubljana; for the Serenade, Conrad Von Der Goltz conducting a chamber orchestra; CBS Special Productions PT 21698, cassette, released 1989.

Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893) conducted the world premiere of his 6th Symphony just nine days before his death, caused supposedly by cholera after drinking an unboiled glass of water in a restaurant. To my mind, it is one very emotionally searing work and has benefited from a rich list of good to very great recordings, of which I own a few dozen.

The above is conducted by the 82-year-old Marko Munih, one of two very gifted conductors – the other being his late contemporary, Anton Nanut, who died just last year at 85 – whose recordings, via mainly cheap CDs sometimes labelled confusingly, have made their way to Western collectors since the collapse of the Iron Curtain. The performance is intensely powerful yet nicely poetic, while the playing is responsive and masterful, definitely as accomplished as the world’s finest in both Europe and the U.S. The sense of tragedy in the final 4th movement is well sustained.

The beautiful Serenade is also performed well.

by Peter Cates

Jermaine Jackson

Frontiers
Motown M7-898R1, LP, recorded 1978.

Older brother of Janet, the late Michael and six other siblings and former member of the Jackson 5, Jermaine Jackson has reached a pinnacle of success as singer, songwriter, reality TV star and Jackson family spokesman at the nice young age of 63. The above LP, Frontiers, is a solid, very listenable example of late seventies Motown soul. My personal favorite among the eight tracks is the vibrant, charming Castles of Sands, the instrumentation alone worth the price of admission.

A few tidbits – like the rest of the family, he was raised as a Jehovah’s Witness but converted to Islam in 1989. He’s the father of seven children from three wives and a girlfriend.

Finally in 2015, his third wife was arrested and charged with physically abusing her husband and would file for divorce citing irreconcilable differences!

Most of the album can be heard on YouTube.

Sibelius 5th Symphony No. 5

Night Ride and Sunrise
Georges Pretre conducting the New Philharmonia; RCA Victor LSC-2996, stereo LP, recorded 1968.

Conductor Georges Pretre (1924-2017) gave performances of these two works of the great Finnish composer, Jean Sibelius (1865-1957) that are a bit more refined than the roaring, majestic, almost savage ones of the other notable conductors of the past – and a few of today. But the unique power and beauty of both works does reveal itself gradually.

The record’s producer, Richard Mohr, wrote an essay for this album that provided insight into Pretre’s working methods and revealed the relentless, sweating studying and rehearsing over and over again before a tape machine is even turned on. Pretre knew perfection for this record was impossible but he was determined to come veryyyyyyyyyyyyy close !

Sibelius wrote about his own feelings when he finished composing the 5th Symphony. “I already begin to see dimly the mountain that I shall certainly ascend. God opens His door for a moment and His orchestra plays the Fifth Symphony.”

Since I have been listening to this piece for more than 40 years, I totally agree with the composer on this one!

Father Brown

starring Mark Williams, etc., BBC TV series, six seasons since 2013.

I just started watching 10 days ago, and am on episode 6. I read some of the stories over 30 years ago and enjoyed the plots, perky characters and the moral and spiritual edification of them, the reasons why I like the show as well. I have not seen the ‘70s BBC version with the late Kenneth More!

by Peter Cates

Rimsky-Korsakov

Scheherazade
Seiji Ozawa conducting the Boston Symphony; Stravinsky: Firebird Suite-Lorin Maazel conducting the Berlin Radio Symphony; Khachaturian: Gayne Ballet Suite excerpts- Gennady Rozhdestvensky conducting the Leningrad Philharmonic; Deutsche Grammophon- 413 155-4, 88 minute cassette, from 1960 and 1978 original tapes.

The exotic, very listenable and ever popular Scheherazade has received a deluge of recordings since the beginning of records; conductor Andre Previn once commented on its popularity among musicians as the reason for the high quality of most recordings, as opposed to other frequently recorded pieces.

Seiji Ozawa conducted a nice performance with the Boston Symphony back in 1978 that is part of the above tape, along with 2 other items, from different conductors and orchestras- namely the Stravinsky Firebird Suite and Khachaturian Gayne Suite. This cassette of 88 minutes of great Russian orchestral music may be deleted but it often shows up at used record stores and thrift shops and on Amazon.

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

Mojo
Reprise-523971-2, CD, recorded 2010.

Tom Petty (1950-2017) was, I confess, one artist I had little familiarity with before hearing this CD. And it is one great collection of 15 songs that are most definitely rock, but exciting, musically satisfying rock that will withstand repeat hearings, unlike most other albums of the genre.

One powerful, moving track is the last one, Good Enough, about the narrator’s past love for a woman who had the kind of allure that would consume one’s soul – hence the reason to finally cut her loose or be destroyed:

“God bless this land/God bless this whiskey/I can’t trust love/It’s far too risky/If she marries into money/She’s still gonna miss me/And that’s good enough/Gonna have to be good enough.”

Janacek

Slavonic Mass
Bretislav Bakala conducting the Brno Radio Symphony Orchestra, chorus, and soloists; Urania URLP 7072, 12- inch LP, recorded early ‘50s.

Leos Janacek (1854-1928) was to 20th century Czech classical music what Antonin Dvorak was in the 19th century – two composers who carved a unique importance in their country’s cultural life that prevails to this day.

During his early years, Janacek displayed talent in playing piano and organ and conducting choirs. For a while, he was a music critic but got into trouble with some powerful institutions because of his very severe, outspoken opinions. Thus he practically starved for a few years. Eventually, he found work as a conductor and established a music conservatory in the Czech city of Brno, where he spent upwards of 40 years teaching, researching and composing.

His compositions began flowing in 1904 with the opera, Jenufa, when he was already 50. But it was another 12 years before it became an international success and brought fame to its composer. Other works followed, firmly establishing Janacek as a major figure of his time.

The main reason for the popularity of his music was its wild, very exciting use of irregular, complicated rhythms and exotic half-melodies. Many listeners, including myself, were grabbed by these works when hearing them for the first time, without knowing or even caring what was happening. His Sinfonietta is an excellent introduction and can be heard on youtube in a number of different performances.

The above Slavonic Mass is similarly characterful, far from being the typical solemn affair that Brahms, Mozart, Beethoven, and Verdi wrote, just to name a few great examples. But it too has a beauty of its own, even though eerie, weird, haunting and startling are adjectives that come to mind.

Its world premiere wasn’t until shortly after Janacek’s death in 1928, while the first US performance in 1930 in New York City utilized singers and musicians from the Metropolitan Opera. This week’s record features the extraordinarily gifted conductor, Bretislav Bakala (1897-1958), delivering an interpretation of exceptional drama, atmosphere, poetry and sheer power and setting a standard for later recordings, several of which are very fine. I own a few of them featuring such conductors as Leonard Bernstein, Rudolf Kempe, Karel Ancerl, Antoni Wit, etc.

An addendum: Unfortunately, Bakala left the tiniest handful of recordings, but a CD often cheaply priced, is floating around on a few sites such as Berkshire Record Outlet, and Amazon; it features mid-’50s Iron Curtain radio broadcasts of him and the great Russian pianist, Sviatoslav Richter, collaborating in two very exciting and satisfying performances of the Beethoven First and Third Piano Concertos. Very highly recommended!

Little Jimmy Dickens

Country Boy; I’m Fading Fast with the Time
Columbia-20585, ten-inch 78, recorded 1949.

Standing 4 feet, 11 inches tall, Jimmy Dickens (1920-2015) nicknamed himself “Little” after he began scoring hits. He was singing on a Saginaw, Michigan, radio station where he was heard by Roy Acuff, who then brought him to the attention of both Columbia records and the Grand Ole Opry. Country Boy hit #7 on the charts along with numerous others during his 17-year association with the label before leaving in 1965 to record for Decca and, in 1971, United Artists.

This record contains two songs imbued with a pleasant, down home, endearing charm that was uniquely his own. In 1951, he would be instrumental in paying Roy Acuff’s good deed forward by discovering Marty Robbins and bringing him to the attention of Columbia.

by Peter Cates

Paul Baumgartner

Piano Recital
recorded February 17, 1964; Ermitage-ERM 200-2 ADD, CD.

Swiss-born Paul Baumgartner (1903-1976) was most definitely below-the-radar, when compared to Rubinstein, Brendel, Ashkenazy or Horowitz, but he was highly revered by connoisseurs of really fine piano recordings. This CD preserves a live concert of the following works – Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata and An­dante Favori, the Brahms Opus 117 3 Intermezzi, Debussy’s 1st Images and Masques, Schubert’s 6th Moment Musical and Chopin’s 4th Ballade and 3rd Waltz of Op. 70.

Baumgartner’s artistry was splendid but of the quieter mode, rather than of cheap, virtuosic self-indulgence. Instead he used virtuosity, of which he possessed infinite amounts, scholarship, exquisitely honed dynamics, passion and soul-filled intelligence to convey the particular beauty of each selection in the program, whether it be the muscularity of Beethoven, the nobility and reserved sentiment of Brahms, the dew drops of Debussy, the lyricism of Schubert or the captivating, grace of Chopin. My favorite performance, by a tiny margin over the others, is of the lesser known but very engaging Beethoven Andante Favori in which Baumgartner pours out his soul in each note, one of the most moving performances I have heard in a long time!

Most, if not all, of this recital is accessible via individual yts !

Cold Justice

featuring Kelly Siegler and Yolanda McClary; produced by Dick Wolf; premiered 2013, each episode one hour, accessible via Netflix

For the last two or three weeks, I have been viewing one or two episodes of this investigative program most evenings and am on the second season. It follows former Hous­ton prosecutor Kelly Siegler and her colleague, retired Las Vegas homicide investigator Yolanda McClary, as they travel around the country investigating cold cases of murder that are languishing in local police department files. According to the pronouncements at the beginning of each episode, a murder is committed in the US about every 36 minutes and there are over 200,000 unsolved homicides since 1980.

What I find most engaging and endearing about the show is the absence of melodramatics, especially eerie music and the use of actors in staged re-enactments. Also, the 2 women’s warm personalities; their very caring interactions with families of the victims; their very personable working relationships with colleagues; and finally their comprehensive knowledge of investigative science contribute immeasurably to the well paced unfolding of each story.

Not to mention the remarkable advances in DNA processing just in the last ten years. These innovations alone led to the apprehension of a rapist/murderer of a young 25 year old Pocatello, Idaho, woman; ten years earlier, his hand print had been found on the outside of the victim’s back door. But, his priors were a few burglaries, he had no known connection to the victim and he left no other implicating marks, while the police had two other major suspects and scratched him off their list! With new techniques, the investigators were able to find new, more incriminating DNA within the existing DNA and to figure out the hand print came from within the house rather than outside!

by Peter Cates

Beethoven: Symphony No. 7

Paul Kletzki conducting the Czech Philharmonic; Quintessence PMC-7216; stereo LP, 1983 reissue of 1967 Supraphon original LP.

Paul Kletzki, who died in 1973, was one of six truly great conductors – the others being Jascha Horenstein, Karel Ancerl, Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt, Otto Klemperer and Istvan Kertesz. From what I have gleaned through listening to the recordings on my shelves, Kletzki had a knack for the rhythmic spirit in a work and sustaining this rhythm throughout a performance with slowish tempos that almost drag. His conducting of the 7th is both powerful and beautifully played as a result – in the wonderful climax of the first movement, he suddenly slows down the leisurely tempo to a crawl but the sustaining rhythms seethe with life. The record also contains a gripping performance of the exciting Leonore Overture #3.

Kletzki was studying in Berlin from the ‘20s to 1933 but wisely left due to his Jewish ancestry. He resided in Italy for a spell, then exited for the 1930s Soviet Union due to Mussolini’s growing closeness to Hitler. From the Soviet Union, he migrated to Switzerland where he lived out most of his life!

Meanwhile the Nazis murdered several members of Kletzki’s parents and a sister.

Wonderful Town

A musical by Leonard Bernstein, starring Rosalind Russell, etc.; Sony Broadway SK 48021, 1991 cd reissue from original Columbia Masterworks stereo lp recorded November 16, 1958.

This is a recording of the 1958 TV production for CBS, not the 1953 original Broadway production, and is loaded with wonderful songs and performances, none of which became a hit, unlike the later 1957 West Side Story. The story centers around two sisters from Columbus, Ohio, who move to New York City to pursue their dreams- one a writer, the other an actress !

Walton

Violin Concerto played by Dong-Suk Kang; and Cello Concerto, played by Tim Hugh; Paul Daniel conducting both works with the English Northern Philharmonia; Naxos 8.554325, CD, recorded 1997.

These two expessively tart, spunky works of Sir William Walton (1902-1983) are given exciting performances by the talent featured here. Walton achieved success before World War II with such musical creations as the blisteringly exciting 1931 Bel shazzar’s Feast, the most colorful choral romp ever composed, and the graceful 1939 Violin Concerto commissioned by Jascha Heifetz; after the war, his music didn’t generate much excitement because of changing times. But his 1956 Cello Concerto, commissioned by cellist Grigor Piatigorsky, is also eloquent and beautifully performed.