REVIEW POTPOURRI: The Cathedrals

by Peter Cates

The Cathedrals

The Cathedrals

The Cathedrals – Masters of Gospel; Riversong 84418-2876-4, 1992 cassette.

The Cathedrals is a gospel men’s quartet in the tradition of the two most well known ones from the Deep South – the Blackwood Brothers; and the Statesmen.

This cassette is a generously filled anthology of 15 previously released selections- such titles as As It Was In the Days of Noah, Take This Whole World, Blood Washed Band, An Old Convention Song, etc., with scholarly notes on the background of each selection.

The four gentlemen sang in a festive, fervent manner, the results making for conducive listening one side at a time. And there are times when well sung gospel tunes make for great listening, hence my attraction to hearing this tape.

Bellini

Vincenzo Bellini

Bellini: I Puritani; Riccardo Muti conducting the Ambrosian Opera Chorus and the Philharmonica Orchestra of London with a cast that includes soprano Montserrat Caballe, tenor Alfredo Kraus, and baritones Matteo Manuguerra and Agostino Ferrin etcs.; EMI CLASSICS 077776966328, recorded July-August 1979, three compact discs.

Opera composer Vincenzo Bellini (1801-1835) attended a production of Rossini’s Semiramide in 1824 while studying music, in Naples, Italy. A friend who accompanied him later wrote that “Bellini was so affected upon hearing it that…he…explained…in words of sad discomfort, that it seemed to him impossible to write good music in the face of that classic music by Rossini.”

Fortunately for musical posterity, the young man freed himself from this inhibition and would compose several very good operas, including the masterpieces Norma, La Sonnambula and the especially magnificent I Puritani before he died, at 33, from what was described as amoebic dysentery. During his last years, his operas had become popular in Paris and he was idolized in its social circles.

Puritani is most notable for the streams of melody in its arias, duets, vocal ensemble, choruses and orchestral writing. This 1979 recording features beautiful singing from Caballe, Krauss, Manuguerra, Ferrin and others while the conducting of Riccardo Muti, still active in his 80s, was among the best he achieved during those early years in his 30s – within a year, he would replace Eugene Ormandy as music director of the Phildelphia Orchestra.

Rusty Draper

Rusty Draper

Rusty Draper – The Shifting, Whispering Sands; and Time; Mercury 70696, seven inch 45, recorded 1955.

Pretty much forgotten in recent years, country singer Rusty Draper (1923-2003) had a few hits on Mercury records during the mid 1950s along with a TV show which featured other country singers. The Shifting Whispering Sands was among Billboard’s top 20 in 1955 and is sung with a concurrent story line narrated by Draper which combines wisdom about the shifting sands in the passage of time with corny sentimentality; Billy Vaughan did a best selling cover of it for Dot records. Side 2’s Time is a throwaway.

Draper sang decently but not memorably with the very good David Carroll’s arrangements.

Rossini

Rossini

Rossini: Stabat Mater- Fac Ut Portem (Oh, Endow Me); contralto Louise Homer; Victrola Red Seal 88132,12-inch one-sided acoustic shellac, recorded 1908.

Louise Homer (1871-1947) concertized several times in Portland and Bangor, according to the memoirs of her husband Sidney, and had a richly expressive contralto voice.

Starting in 1907, she recorded arias of Gluck, Handel, Saint-Saens and Mendelssohn; one of the best Star Spangled Banners and several hymns with soprano Alma Gluck (1884-1938) for Victrola Red Seal. And a large number of them make for wonderful listening.

The above Rossini selection from his Stabat Mater is a gem, despite the acoustic fidelity.