2022年5月31日火曜日

Beethoven Symphony No. 6 In F Major, Op. 68 ("Pastorale") by Ludwig van Beethoven; Bruno Walter; Columbia Symphony Orchestra Columbia (MS 6012) Publication date 1958

GUARANTEED HIGH FIDELITY  

MS 6012  

BEETHOVEN  

SYMPHONY NO. 6 IN F MAJOR, Op. 68 (‘Pastorale’)  


BRUNO WALTER  
conducting the COLUMBIA SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA  


BRUNO WALTER began his musical  
career when, in March, 1894, as a young  
man of seventeen, he ascended the pod-  
ium for the first time at the Cologne  
Opera House. Now, in his seventh decade  

| of active service to the world of music,  
he stands indusputably as one of the  
great creative conductors of the century.  


In recent years, at the summit of his  
| powers, he has taken time out to look  
| back at the earlier moments of a life  
“filled to the brink with music.” His  
autobiography, Theme and Variations,  
begins with the statement that had he  
been a composer he would “never have  
written this book; an autobiography  
of sound would have satisfied my urge  

| to express myself. However, I have made  

i only the music of others sound forth, I  
have been. but a ‘re-creator’.”  

“And so,” he concludes this Preface,  

“a modest apostle of music and its great  
| works, I venture to record my life be-  
cause it has served music’s timeless pow-  
er and beauty, and because its transitor-  
| imess has been blessed by an alliance with  
| the immortal. For the works of the cre-  
ative spirit last, they are essentially im-  
| perishable, while the world-stirring his-  
| torical activities of even the most emi-  
nent men are circumscribed by time.  
| Napoleon is dead—but Beethoven lives.”  


May we make the perhaps obvious  

comment that the orchestral Beethoven  

i lives only by virtue of the services of  

| such musical “re-creators” as Dr. Walter.  

i And that, whether he acknowledges it  

or not, he has indeed written his auto-  

biography in sound—in the sound of his  

| immortal recorded performances of these  
i great works.  


Beethoven: Symphony No. 6 in F major, Op.  
68 (‘Pastorale’)  


First movement: (Cheerful impressions  
awakened by arrival in the country. Allegro  
ma non troppo, F major, 2/4). This astonish-  
ing landscape seems as if it were the joint  
work of Poussin and Michelangelo. The com-  
poser of Fidelio and the “Eroica” wishes in  
this symphony to depict the tranquility of the  
country and the peaceful life of shepherds.  
The herdsmen begin to appear in the fields,  


THIS COLUMBIA STEREO  

Ludwig van Beethoven born in Bonn,  
Germany, December 16, 1770; died in  
Vienna, March 26, 1827.  

Symphony No. 6 in F major, Op. 68  
(Pastorale” composed in 1808, pub-  
lished in 1809. First performed in Vienna  
at the Theater an der Wien, December  
22, 1808. Its movements are:  

I. Allegro ma non troppo (Cheerful  
impression awakened by arrival in the  
country.)  

II. Andante molto moto (Scene by  
brook.)  

III. Allegro (Merry gathering of coun-  
try folk.)  

IV. Allegro (Thunderstorm; tempest.)  

V. Allegretto (Shepherd’s song; glad  
and grateful feelings after the storm.)  

Bruno Walter born in Berlin, Septem-  
ber 15, 1876.  

moving about with their usual nonchalant .  


gait; their pipes are heard afar and near.  
Ravishing phrases caress one’s ears deli-  
ciously, like perfumed morning breezes.  
Flocks of chattering birds fly overhead; and  
now and then the atmosphere seems laden  
with vapors; heavy clouds flit across the face  
of the sun, then suddenly disappear, and its  
rays flood the fields and woods with torrents  
of dazzling splendor. These are images  
evoked in my mind by hearing this move-  
ment; and I fancy that, in spite of the  
vagueness of instrumental expression, many  
hearers will receive the same impression.  


Second movement: (Scene by the brook.  
Andante molto moto, B-flat major, 12/8).  
Next is a movement devoted to contemplation.  
Beethoven, without doubt, created this ad-  


| mirable adagio while reclining on the grass,  


his eyes uplifted, ears intent, fascinated by  
the thousand varying hues of light and  
sound, looking at and listening at the same  
time to the scintillating ripple of the brook  
that breaks its waves over the pebbles of its  
shores. How delicious this music is!  


Third movement: (Merry gathering of  
country folk. Allegro, F major, 3/4). In this  
movement the poet leads us into the midst  
of a joyous reunion of peasants. We are  
aware that they dance and laugh, at first  
with moderation; the oboe plays a gay air,  







accompanied by a bassoon, which apparently  
can sound but two notes. Beethoven doubtless  
intended thus to evoke the picture of some  
good old German peasant, mounted on a cask,  
and playing a dilapidated old instrument,  
from which he can draw only two notes in the  
key of F, the dominant and the tonic. Every  
time the oboe strikes up its musettelike tune,  
fresh and gay as a young girl dressed in her  


Sunday clothes, the old bassoon comes in.  


puffing his two notes; when the melodic  
phrase modulates, the bassoon is silent per-  
force, counting patiently his rests until the  
return of the original key permits him to  
come in with his imperturbable F, C, F.  
This effect, so charmingly grotesque, gener-  
ally fails to be noticed by the public.  


The dance becomes animated, noisy, furi-  
ous. The rhythm changes; a melody of grosser  
character, in duple time, announces the ar-  
rival of the mountaineers with their heavy  
sabots. The section in triple time returns,  
still more lively. The dance becomes a med-  
ley, a rush; the women’s hair begins to fall  
over their shoulders, for the mountaineers  
have brought with them a bibulous gaiety.  
There is clapping of hands, shouting; the  
peasants run, then rush madly . . . when a  
muttering of thunder in the distance causes  
a sudden fright in the midst of the dance.  
Surprise and consternation seize the dancers,  
and they seek safety in flight.  


Fourth movment: (Thunderstorm; tem-  
pest. Allegro, F minor, 4/4). I despair of be-  
ing able to give an idea of this prodigious  
movement. It must be heard in order to ap-  


preciate the degree of truth and sublimity ~  
which descriptive music can attain in the.  


hands of a man like Beethoven. Listen to  
those gusts of wind, laden with rain; those  
sepulchral groanings of the basses; those  


shrill whistles of the piccolo, which announce  


that a fearful tempest is about to burst. The  
hurricane approaches, swells; an immense  
chromatic streak, starting from the highest  
notes of the orchestra, goes burrowing down  
into its lowest depths, seizes the basses,  
carries them along, and ascends again, writh-  
ing like a whirlwind, which levels everything  
in its passage. Then the trombones burst  
forth; the thunder of the timpani redoubles  
its fury. It is no longer merely a wind and  
rain storm: it is a frightful cataclysm, the  
universal deluge, the end of the world. Truly  


MS 6012:  


COLUMBIA  


GUARANTEED HIGH-FIDELITY  


MASTERWORKS  







this produces vertigo, and many persons lis-  
tening to this storm do not know whether  
the emotion they experience is pleasure or  
pain.  


Fifth movement: (Shepherd’s song; glad  
and grateful feelings after the storm. Alle-  
gretto, F major, 6/8). The symphony ends  
with a hymn of gratitude. Everything smiles.  
The shepherds reappear; they answer each  
other on the mountain, recalling their scat-  
tered flocks. The sky is serene, the torrents  
soon cease to flow. Calmness returns, and  
with it the rustic songs, whose gentle mel-  
odies bring repose to the soul after the con-  
sternation produced by the magnificent hor-  
ror of the previous picture.  


HECTOR BFRLIOZ  
* *  


Other Stereo Fidelity recordings released  
by Columbia Records are:  

Respighi: The Pines of Rome; The Foun-  
tains of Rome. The Philadelphia Orchestra,  
Eugene Ormandy, Conductor. MS 6001  


Bartok: Concerto for Violin. Isaac Stern,  
Violinist; New York Philharmonic, Leonard  
Bernstein, Conductor. MS 6002.  


Grofe: Grand Canyon Suite. The Philadel-  
phia Orchestra, Eugene Ormandy, Conduc-  


tor. — 3 MS 6003 _  


Prokofiev: Symphony No..5 in B flat Major,  
Op. 100. The .Philadelphig Orchestra, Eu-  
gene Ormandy, Conductor. - MS 6004  


Bach at Zwolle. Three Preludes’ ‘and Fugues  
played on the Arp Schnitger Dee of 1720. . |  
E. Power Biggs, Organist. KS 6005 a  


Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 6 i in B Minor,  
Op. 74 (“Pathetique??).. New . York Philhar-  
monic, Besta: Ronda, Conductor.  

2 MS 6006  


RA sii Night; "Vailehan  
Williams: Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas  
Tallis. Strings of the New York Philharmonic  
Dimitri Mitropoulos, Conductor, MS 6007 a  


Stravinsky: Le Sacre Du Printemps. i!  
York Philharmonic, Leonard Bernstein, Con-  
ductor. MS 6010  


Mahler: Symphony No. 2 in 0 Minor (“Re-.  
surrection”). Bruno Walter conducting the  
New York Philharmonic with Emilia. Cun-  
dari, Soprano; Maureen Forrester, Contral-  
to and the Westminster Choir, John Finley  


Williamson, Director. M2S 601 .  


* * *  


ws Library of Congress catalog card number o  
R58-1156 applies to this record. è  


| FIDELITY RECORDING IS DESIGNED FOR USE ON 33-1/3 RPM STEREOPHONIC REPRODUCERS.  

2022年5月27日金曜日

The Art Of The Fugue, Volume 1 (First Half) Fugues 1-9 by Johann Sebastian Bach; Glenn Gould Columbia Masterworks (MS 6338) Publication date 1962

 THIS COLUMBIA STEREO  FIDELITY RECORDING IS DESIGNED FOR USE ON 33Vs RPM STEREOPHONIC REPRODUCERS.  


Library of Congress catalog card number R62-1070 applies to this album.  


STEREO  
MS 6338  


BACH: THE ART OF THE FUGUE, Vol. I / Fugues Nos. 1-9  
Glenn Gould, Organist  

Recorded on the Casavant organ at All Saints' Church, Kingsway, Toronto, Canada  

Produced by Joseph Scianni  


Bach began composing his Art of the Fugue in 1748 or 1749  
and continued to work on it in 1750, the last year of his life.  
He had finished three-fourths of Fugue No. 15 when a severe  
eye disease obliged him to leave off work on his artistic last  
will and testament and undergo an operation. A combination  
of primitive medical techniques and a blundering doctor  
proved fatal; within six months of this operation Bach was  
dead. He spent his last days in a darkened room, alone with  
the God he had served and glorified all his life. When he felt  
death close upon him he sent for his son-in-law, the musician  
Altnikol, and dictated to him not the conclusion of the great  
B-A-C-H fugue but a chorale fantasia on the melody "When  
We Are in Deepest Need," telling Altnikol to entitle it "I Draw  
Near Unto Thy Throne." "In the manuscript we can see  
all the pauses that the sick man had to permit himself," Albert  
Schweitzer narrates; "the drying ink becomes more watery  
from day to day; the notes written in the twilight, with the  
windows closely curtained, can hardly be deciphered."  

This last composition from Bach's pen was included in the  
first edition of the Art of the Fugue, not because it belongs  
with that work but as an apologetic compensation to the  
purchaser for the incompleteness of the work itself. How  
incomplete the Art of the Fugue is we do not know. The  
mammoth Fugue No. 15 may have been the final one of the  
series, or Bach may have planned to follow it with a still more  
grandiose quadruple fugue. The latter contention was Sir  
Donald Tovey's, and Tovey actually completed the fifteenth  
fugue and composed, as the sixteenth, a totally invertible fugue  
with four subjects, to prove that such a feat was possible and  
that Bach had something of the sort in mind. Most perform¬  
ances of the Art of the Fugue, however, are content to break off  
where Bach himself broke off, for there is something awesome  
about this sudden silence just at the point when Bach intro¬  
duced the letters of his own name for the first time into one  
of his works.  

Bach saw the first eleven fugues through the engraving  
process, but the remainder of the editorial work was done by  
his two eldest sons and the theorist Marpurg. The edition  
came out in 1751; by 1756 thirty copies had been sold and  
so C.P.E. Bach sold the plates of his father's last work for the  
value of the metal. The editors of this first edition made at  
least one palpable mistake by printing a variant of Fugue No.  
10 as a separate fugue; Bach undoubtedly intended to discard  
this variant. Other questions arise to plague the editor and the  
performer. What part were the four long but not very inter¬  
esting two-part canons to play in the entire scheme? Did Bach  
intend them for this work or for a projected Art of the Canon?  
Do the double-keyboard transcriptions of the two parts of  
Fugue No. 13 belong to the series, or did Bach intend them as  
practical realizations, virtuoso pieces to be performed rather  
than studied?  

The most vexing problem, of course, is whether or not  
Bach intended the Art of the Fugue to be played at all. He  
does not once in the entire work indicate a tempo or a dynamic  
marking. He does not indicate what instrument or instruments  
should play the work. He writes each of the voices on a separate  
staff (in so-called "open score"), which is very helpful for the  
student but anything but helpful for the keyboard player.  


This leaves the field open to the arranger, and arrangers have  
eagerly rushed in. There are multiple versions for orchestra,  
for string quartet, for two pianos, for organ, for piano solo.  
Only the musical pedant can find these various realizations a  
source of annoyance; the genuine music lover will make his  
own choice or choices and take pleasure in the process. What¬  
ever choice he makes, the Art of the Fugue remains massively  
and imperturbably itself. For though it is devoid neither of  
humanity nor emotion, the human and the emotional are not  
its real concern. Like the figures on Keats's urn, it has passed  
out of time and accident, and wears the changeless beauty of  
pure thought.  

Since the Art of the Fugue is the greatest treatise on the  
subject of the fugue in existence (a treatise that teaches  
through example rather than through precept), a few of the  
basic definitions of fugal composition ought to be set down  
here in rudimentary fashion, to help the uninitiated listener in  
his journey through this splendid edifice. SUBJECT: this is the  
theme upon which a fugue is constructed (in the case of the  
Art of the Fugue, the first eleven notes); a fugue may be con¬  
structed on more than one subject, and therefore be a double,  
triple, or quadruple fugue. ANSWER: when the first voice (or  
part) has finished stating the subject, a second voice takes it up  
("imitates" it) either at a higher or a lower pitch—the "an¬  
swer." COUNTERSUBJECT: meanwhile the first voice con¬  
tinues with new material which is played against ("counter")  
the answer; if this material takes on definite shape and form  
(rather than being merely an accompaniment or counterpoint  
to the answer) and if it plays some part in the future develop¬  
ment of the fugue, it is labeled "countersubject"; a fugue may  
have several countersubjects or none at all. EXPOSITION:  
when the subject or its answer has appeared at least once in  
each voice (three times in a three-voiced fugue, five times in a  
five-voiced fugue, etc.) we have arrived at the end of the first  
section, or the first exposition. EPISODE: the next section,  
or episode, does not present a complete statement of the sub¬  
ject, but makes free use of portions of the subject or its  
continuation (countersubject); frequently the episodes of a  
fugue provide relief from the stricter expositions.  

These are the major phenomena of the fugue. It only remains  
to mention a few of the common devices with which composers  
manipulate their subjects and countersubjects as a fugue pro¬  
gresses. DIMINUTION: presenting the subject at twice its  
original speed. AUGMENTATION: presenting the subject  
at half its original speed, or twice as slowly. INVERSION:  
turning the notes of the original subject in the opposite direc¬  
tion, thereby giving it an intriguing quality of unfamiliar  
familiarity; for instance, the original subject upon which the  
entire Art of the Fugue is built looks like this:  



but when Bach inverts it, it looks like this:  



COLUMBIA  



M ASTE RWORKS  


MONAURAL—ML 5738  


One final important device is STRETTO, or starting the an¬  
swer before the subject has had a chance to finish; the closer  
the answer dogs the steps of the subject, the greater is the  
listener's sense of urgency and excitement (the Italian word  
stretto means "tight" or "squeezed together," and often has  
the overtone of "just by a hair's breadth").  

Now, if you will, enter the rarefied atmosphere of the Art  
of the Fugue, this "still and serious world," as Schweitzer  
called it, "deserted and rigid, without color, without light,  
without motion; it does not gladden, does not distract; yet  
we cannot break away from it." Follow it with an open score,  
if you can, so that you can see all the miraculous crossings  
and interweavings, "Instinct through all proportions low and  
high," the living brain of the structure, fantastically compli¬  
cated and beautiful as a drop of busy microscopic life seen  
through a powerful lens. Finally you will put your score away,  
however, and the infinitude of detail will be subsumed by the  
massive unity of the thing, the microscopic will give way to  
the cosmic, its inevitable obverse. And you may ask your¬  
self if the fragmentary state of the fifteenth fugue is merely  
the outcome of blind fate—or if it represents the limits placed  
upon the artist's fulfillment in the face of an otherwise limitless  
craving. Perhaps the rest indeed is silence.  

— DAVID JOHNSON  


The organ used in this recording was built for All Saints'  
Church, Kingsway, in Toronto, by Casavant Freres Limited  
of St. Hyacinthe, Quebec. One of the most interesting features  
of the organ is the Positiv section, which hangs exposed on  
the south wall of the chancel. The instrument, while a three  
manual, consists of four manual divisions and pedal, the  
Great, Swell, Choir and Positiv—65 stops, 69 ranks, a total of  
over 3900 pipes. It has excellent neo-baroque characteristics,  
ideal for the performance of Bach's organ works.  


"The foremost pianist this continent has produced  
in recent decades," wrote critic Alfred Frankenstein in  
High Fidelity Magazine. "A pianist of divine guid¬  
ance," added Jay Harrison in the New York Herald  
Tribune. A distinguished European critic, Heinrich  
Neuhaus, noted that he plays Bach "as if he were  
one of the pupils of the Thomasschule cantor... The  
music seems to speak through his playing." Such is  
the praise that has greeted each appearance of Glenn  
Gould, the distinguished Canadian pianist, who now  
adds new laurels to his crown as an organist. Mr.  
Gould began studying the organ as a young boy.  
When he was only fourteen he appeared in the  
Casavant Series at Eaton Auditorium in Toronto,  
which each year brought to that city five of the world's  
finest organists. Although the piano is now Glenn  
Gould's major medium as a performer, it is brilliantly  
evident from this recording of the Art of the Fugue  
that he is also a master of Bach's royal instrument.  


THE SELECTIONS (PUBLIC DOMAIN) ARE FOLLOWED BY THEIR TIMINGS  

SIDE I FUGUES NOS. 1, 2, 3 r 4 & 5.14:17 | SIDE II FUGUES NOS. 6, 7, 8 & 9.17:07  


COVER PHOTO: DAVE BARNES, CANADIAN BROADCASTING CORPORATION  


©COLUMBIA RECORDS 1962/ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ©"COLUMBIA","MASTERWORKS".[^MARCAS REG. PRINTED IN U.S.A 4  



2022年5月25日水曜日

Holst: The Planets by Gustav Holst; Leopold Stokowski; Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra; The Roger Wagner Chorale Seraphim (S-60175) Publication date 1958

 This monumental recording blends  

the skills. of two superb orchestral  
colorists, the composer Gustav Holst  


(1874-1934) and conductor Leopold  


Stokowski (b. 1882), in a classic per-  
formance that is an acknowledged  
sonic showpiece.  

Wrote Lawrence Gilman of Holst:  
‘‘He was a gifted artist, a gifted  
teacher; a man of flexible and capa-  
cious imagination, a wit, a poet, a  
mystic. He was on familiar terms with  
the cosmos.” And Louis Biancolli ex-  
plained the stimulus for The Planets  





(in “The Concert Companion”; Whitt-  
lesey House;- New York, 1947): “A  
man of multiple interests and fabu-  
lous learning, Gustav Holst found in-  
Spiration for his music in the vast  


realm of nature and history ...One  


day he looked into the skies and felt  
music surge in him as he sought the  
meaning of the stars.”  

An Englishman of Swedish and En-  
glish descent, Holst was born into a  
musical family and trained to music  
from boyhood. At 12 he was already  
studying Berlioz’s treatise on orches-  


MANUFACTURED BY CAPITOL RECORDS, INC., A SUBSIDIARY OF CAPITOL INDUSTRIES, INC., HOLLYWOOD AND VINE STREETS, HOLLYWOOD. CALIFORNIA, FACTORIES: LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, JAC
KSONVILLE, ILLINOIS, WINCHESTER, VIRGINIA 3  


























SERAPHIM  


“Angels of the highest order”  





tration. When he went to London to  
study at the Royal College, he came  
under Wagner’s spell. Later influences  
upon him were Bach and Purcell  
Grieg and Richard Strauss. It had  
been his intention to become a pian-  
ist, but neuritis of the hand obliged  
him to give up the keyboard and he  
became a trombonist instead. The ex-  
perience of orchestral discipline and  
orchestral playing account in part for  
the extraordinary virtuosity and prac-  
ticality of his scoring. With his close  
friend Ralph Vaughan Williams, he  
shared a passionate interest in folk  
poetry and folk music. After 1903,  
he gave up orchestral playing to de-  
vote himself fully to composing and  
to teaching.  

Throughout his lifetime, Leopold  
Stokowski has been a perennially,  
phenomenally vital creative force in  
music. Not even nine decades have  
chipped away at his genius. English-  
born of Polish and irish stock, and an  
American citizen since 1915, Stokow-  
ski studied in London and at the Paris  
Conservatory. From 1905 to 1908, he  
was organist and choirmaster of St.  
Bartholomew’s Church in New York  
City. He made his debut in 1909 as  
conductor of the Cincinnati Symphony  
Orchestra. His tenure as conductor of  
the Philadelphia Symphony (1912-  
36) is legendary: “Among the great-  
est and most revealing it has ever  
been our privilege to hear,” critic  
David Hall has called some of the  
Stokowski-Philadelphia performances  
of those days.  

Always restlessly seeking new per-  
Spectives from which to view great  
works of music, Stokowski’s demand  
for perfection has driven him to ex-  
periment with the seating of the or-  
chestra, to orchestrate works by  
Bach, and to labor for better results  
in the methods of reproducing music  
on both film and records. His collab-  
oration with the Disney Studios on  
“Fantasia” (1940) is one of the un-  


diminishing delights of the cinema,  


with proven power to enchant each  
new generation afresh. Though his  
most controversial readings have  
Caused purists to gnash their teeth  
with rage, even purists concede that  
no other conductor has done more to  
imbue classical music with excite-  
ment in our century.  

When Stokowski’s. performance. of  
Holst’s Planets was initially released,  
David Johnson wrote in High Fidelity:  
“As an essay in orchestral sound, the  
Planets is still capable of casting its  
spell. The huge orchestra is deployed  
with a clarity and simplicity that is in  
itself a kind of genius .. .. This disc  
iS aS near perfect a job of conducting  
as Can well be imagined: listen to the  


immaculate unison passages for the  


entire string body, the perfectly  
matched dialogue of solo violin and  
solo oboe (‘Mercury’), the wonderful  
precision of harp and celesta arpeg-  
gios, the weight and balance of the  
open fifths in the brasses (‘Saturn’),  
the weird harp harmonics. There is  
not a careless nor an ill-considered  
measure in the entire performance.  
The engineers have caught the spirit  


and given the record a perfect setting, —  


capable of mirroring the slightest nu-  
ances and of doing justice to the big-  


~ gest climaxes. By far the best Planets  


available.”  








The Planets, composed between 1914 and  
1916, is a suite of seven movements.  
Holst’s starting point for the music was the  
astrological character of each planet,  
though his daughter has written that once  
the underlying idea had been formulated  
“he let the music have its way with him.’  
There is therefore no program for the suite,  
and the composer himself pointed out that  
it has no connection with the deities of  
classical mythology. The only clues to the  
meaning of the music are the subtitles of  
the individual movements.  


SIDE ONE  
(26:09)  


MARS, THE BRINGER OF WAR  
(Band 1; 6:33)  


Three musical ideas are used to create this  
martial piece: (1) a brutally rhythmic fig-  
ure of five beats relentlessly hammered  
out; (2) a principal theme in triads moving  
by chromatic steps with no true harmonic  
purpose; (3) a second theme consisting of  
a tattoo in the tenor tuba answered by a  
flourish of trumpets. There is no glory, no  
heroism, no tragedy in this music. War as  
a senseless, mechanized horror is Holst’s  
real subject here.  


VENUS,  
THE BRINGER OF PEACE  


(Band 2; 8:01)  


She is announced by four ascending notes  
in the solo horn and a sequence of con-  
verging chords in the flutes and oboes.  
Most of her music lies, symbolically, in the  
middle and upper registers of the instru-  
ments, and harps, celeste, and glocken-  
spiel further characterize her heavenly na-  
ture. There are also beautiful melodies in  
the solo violin and oboe. Though this is  
music of Surpassing serenity, it is not sim-  
ple in harmony, texture or orchestral son-  
ority. One cannot help observe how fitting  
it is that the state of peace be described in  
complex terms, in contrast to the simplic-  
ity of the depiction of war.  


MERCURY,  
THE WINGED MESSENGER  


(Band 3; 4:00)  


This is the shortest movement of the suite.  
Apart from its speed, however, its particu-  
lar quality comes from the opposition of  
two simultaneous keys and two simultane-  
ous rhythms. The keys, sounded in the very  
first bar, are B-flat and E (which, being  
separated from one another by the interval  
of the tritone, have no note in common).  
The two rhythms arise out of different  
groupings of six beats, the first being ONE-  
two-three-FOUR-five-six, the second being  
ONE-two-THREE-four-FIVE-six. This opposi-  
tion of contrasting patterns is one of Holst’s  
principal characteristics, and other exam-  
ples of it can be found not only in the Plan-  
ets but abundantly throughout his other  


+ works.  


JUPLEER,  


_THE BRINGER OF JOLLITY  


(Band 4; 7:35)  


The exuberance here is manifested not  
only in tempo and rhythm but also in the  
multiplicity of subjects. One can count  
four, five, or six of them, depending on  
whether one divides the first two into their  
component parts—they do behave like in-  
dependent themes. ‘‘Jupiter’’ might well be  
designated as ‘‘the English movement,’’ be-  
cause it shows how profoundly Holst was  
influenced by his country’s folk music.  
This is rustic English music, music for a  
fair. There are crowds of people in it and  
infinite good spirits. The grand tune: that  


- ends the parade of themes has become the  


setting for a patriotic hymn with the words,  
“| vow to thee, my country.”  


S-60175  
STEREO  


Sean eee  


SIDE TWO  
(20:05)  


SATURN,  
THE BRINGER OF OLD AGE  


(Band 1; 7:50)  


Unlike the previous movements, which are  
static in the sense that each depicts vari-  
ous aspects of a single trait, this one moves  
through a series of ‘“‘events’’ that bring the  
music to conclusions not envisioned at the  
beginning. There is a profound hollowness  
and sense of defeat in the harmony of the  
opening chords, and an even deeper des-  
pair in the motif sounded beneath them by  
the double basses. But the elderly voice of  
wisdom is soon heard in the B-minor theme  
for the trombones, and at the end the  
mood is one of acceptance, reconciliation,  
and consequent serenity.  


URANUS, THE MAGICIAN  


(Band:2° 5:45)  


You can take as the figure of Uranus al-  
most any magician who has ever appeared  
in the opera, drama, or vaudeville — pref-  
erably one with the tall pointed hat studded  
with stars, the flowing blue robe with volu-  
minous sleeves, and the silver wand. He is  
invoked by Holst with a triple invocation,  
and he begins to show his tricks immedi-  
ately. His repertoire is vast and astonish-  
ing and at the climax of his demonstration  
he struts around pompously to a pompous  
tune. By way of encore, he makes some  
mysterious incantations, suddenly (one  
guesses from the music) envelops himself  
in flames—and disappears!  


NEPTUNE, THE MYSHIC  

(Band 3; 6:30)  

This movement is, if any music can be, the  
disembodied spirit of sound. Themes are  
practically nonexistent; in their place are  
fragments of melody and harmony, all  
manipulated at the very lowest dynamic  
level and in the most attenuated orches-  
tral sonorities. Almost imperceptibly a  
double chorus of women’s voices enters on  
a high G, sustained through a dozen bars.  
The singing continues, without words, em-  
bedded in a diaphanous veil of orchestral  
sound. Even this dies away, and the voices  
are left alone to intone a cadence over and  
over again with ever diminishing tone, un-  
til it is consumed in silence.  


Holst requires an unusually large orches-  
tra for this work: 4 flutes (2 of them dou-  
bling piccolo, 1 doubling bass flute in G), 3  
oboes, English horn, 3 clarinets, bass clari-  
net, 3 bassoons, double bassoon, 6 horns,  
4 trumpets, 3 trombones, tenor tuba, bass  
tuba, 6 kettle drums, 2 harps, celeste, or-  
gan, strings, and 4 percussion players for  
triangle, side drum, tambourine, cymbals,  
bass drum, gong, bells, glockenspiel, and  


xylophone.  


OTHER GREAT ALBUMS  
ON SERAPHIM:  


TCHAIKOVSKY: Suites from ‘‘The Nut-  
cracker” & “Sleeping Beauty.” Sir Ad-  
rian Boult conducting the Royal Philhar-  
monic Orchestra. Seraphim S-60176  

GERSHWIN: Rhapsody in Blue; An Ameri-  
can in Paris. Leonard Pennario (piano);  
Felix Slatkin conducting the Hollywood  
Bowl Symphony Orchestra.  

Seraphim S-60174  

ELGAR: Enigma Variations. BRITTEN: Vari-  
ations and Fugue on a Theme of Purcell  
(‘Young Person’s Guide to the Orches-  
tra’). Sir Malcolm Sargent conducting  
the Philharmonia & B.B.C. Symphony  
Orchestras. Seraphim S-60173  

DUKAS: The Sorcerer’s Apprentice. RAVEL:  
Bolero. CHABRIER: Espana. DEBUSSY:  
Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun.  
SAINT-SAENS:.-Danse Macabre. Pierre  
Dervaux conducting the Colonne Con-  
certs Orchestra. Seraphim S-60177  





<} THIS RECORD 1S ENGINEERED & MANUFACTURED IN ACCORDANCE WITH STANDARDS DEVELOPED BY THE RECORDING INDUSTRY ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA, INC., A NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATION DEDICA
TED TO THE BETTERMENT OF RECORDED MUSIC & LITERATURE.  


PRINTED IN U.S.A  


21

2022年5月24日火曜日

Stokowski Finest Moments Vol. 1 by Leopold Stokowski; The London Symphony Orchestra; New Philharmonia Orchestra; The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra; Radio Filharmonisch Orkest London Records (SPC 21074 / SPC.21074) Publication date 1971

 STOKOWSKI’S FINEST MOMENTS: VOLUME ONE.  



Wagner : Die Walkure, ‘The Ride Of The Valkyrie’. London Symphony Orchestra. 4.52.  
Tchaikovsky : Sleeping Beauty Waltz. New Philharmonia Orchestra. 3.22.  
Mussorsky/Stokowski : Night On Bald Mountain. London Symphony Orchestra. 9.19.  


7 a - Ravel: L’Eventail de Jeanne, ‘’Fanfarg’’. Hilversum Radio Philharmonic Orchestra. 2.09.  
Debussy/Stokowski: The Engulfed Cathedral. New Philharmonia Orchestra. 7.00.  
, Stravinsky : Pastorale. Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. 3.40.  


&  


* ; Handel: The Messiah, ‘’Hallelujah’’. London Symphony Orchestra & Chorus. 4.15.  


STOKOWSKI'S FINEST MOMENTS  


Leopold Stokowski has long been one of the music world’s  
most controversial and stimulating personalities—a man who  
brings drama, excitement and novelty into the concert hall. His  
music making is always alive and experimental, his performances  
vibrant and sonorous—characterised by his own belief ‘‘that  
music can be an inspirational force in all our lives—that its  
eloquence and the depth of its meaning are all-important—that  
music comes from the heart and returns to the heart—that music  
is a spontaneous, impulsive expression—that its range is without  
limit and is forever growing.”  

Stokowski was born in London on 18 April, 1882, the son of  
Kopernik Stokowski, a Polish cabinet-maker, and his wife  
Annie-Marion. Leopold Stokowski is his real name (contrary to  
some rumours which have gained currency over the years) and at  
no time has he ever changed it from—or to—anything else. He did,  
however, amend the spelling to Stokovski when he conducted his  
first concerts—presumably to induce people to pronounce it  
correctly.  

Like all great musicians, the young Leopold took to music at  
a very early age and he was playing the violin by the time he was  
six years old. Later he took up the piano and organ and at the age  
of thirteen became the youngest student to enter the Royal  
College of Music. His teachers included Sir Walford Davies, Sir  
Charles Stanford and Sir Hubert Parry,.and in 1903 Stokowski  
took his B.Mus. at Queen’s College, Oxford. By this time he had  
become organist at St. James's, Piccadilly, and when a similar  
appointment became vacant at St. Bartholomew’s in New York,  
Stokowski eagerly crossed the Atlantic to take it up. America  
was to become Stokowski’s home, and some years later he became  
a naturalised citizen of the United States.  


PRODUCER: TONY D’AMATO.  
ENGINEER: ARTHUR LILLEY.  


LINER: SPC 21074  


In his summer vacations Stokowski returned to Europe to  
study conducting, and he heard Mahler, Miuick, Wood, Nikisch,  
and the conductor he admired above all others, Hans Richter.  
His first opportunity to conduct came in Paris in 1908, and the  
following year he made his London debut. He returned to  
America to become conductor of the Cincinatti Orchestra and  
his three years there could be regarded as his ‘apprenticeship’. In  
the spring of 1912 he came to England again to conduct the  
London Symphony Orchestra for the first time, and when he  
returned to America it was to take over the Philadelphia  
Orchestra.  

Now began one of the great musical partnerships of the  
century. Stokowski’s achievements became legendary—he built  
the orchestra into a flexible ensemble, distinguished by glowing  
timbre and brilliant precision, and gave it a distinctive ‘sound’  
which became synonymous with his own name. He championed  
the modern composer and brought music to young people with  
special youth concerts. Millions of listeners at home heard  
Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra through recordings and  
broadcasting. To cinema-goers he brought a new concept of  
classical music with his appearances in films. One of these—Walt  
Disney's ‘‘Fantasia’’—is still being shown after more than thirty  
years. It remains a unique and highly effective achievement, and  
its best moments provide a vivid realisation of the combination  
of sound and vision. One of the items in the film—which included  
music by Bach, Beethoven and Stravinsky—was Mussorsky’s  
“Night on Bald Mountain’’—an eerie tone-poem depicting the  
witches’ sabbath. This is a special favourite of Stokowski’s, and  
its inclusion in the present album is highly appropriate. Like the  
Debussy and Stravinsky items also presented here, it is in  
Stokowski’s own orchestration.  


After nearly a quarter of a century in Philadelphia, Stokowski  
had reached the pinnacle of success and now felt the urge to  
move on. He wanted to form an orchestra consisting entirely of  
young musicians, and in 1940 the All-American Youth Orchestra  
was born. Stokowski severed his links with Philadelphia and took  
his new orchestra on a good-will tour of the South Americas.  
But the youthful ensemble was ill-fated and soon its members  
were called up to serve in the war. Stokowski found time to  
write a book entitled ‘‘Music for All of Us’’ and he was for a  
while guest conductor of the NBC Symphony Orchestra. During  
the war he formed the New York City Symphony and Hollywood  
Bowl Symphony Orchestras, and later became co-conductor of  
the New York Philharmonic.  

In 1951 Stokowski returned to London again and began a  
pattern of guest conducting in England and Europe. He was for a  
few years chief conductor of the Houston Symphony Orchestra  
(1955-60) and in 1961 directed some memorable performances  
of Puccini's ‘‘Turandot”’ at the Metropolitan Opera House in New  
York. He then founded and was the Music Director of another  
youthful orchestra—the American Symphony in New York.  

Leopold Stokowski was already an octogenarian when he  
began recording regularly in Phase Four Stereo. Always an inno-  
vator in recording techniques, he took to the multi-channel  
System with intense interest, constantly striving for even better  
results. Some of these results are preserved in the present  
recording. In their beauty of tone, intensity and ‘conviction,  
sensuousness and colour, they are a tribute to the ever-youthful  
vitality of one of the most illustrious conductors of our time.  


Edward Johnson  








stereo  


MADE IN ENGLAND THE DECCA RECORD CO.LTD.  


SPEED 33-4 Side (ZAL. 10884)  


SPC.21074  


@® 1968, 1967,* 1966**  


*1, THE RIDE OF THE VALKYRIES (Wagner) (5.02) +  
**2. SLEEPING BEAUTY WALTZ (Tchaikovsky) (3.26) +  
3. NIGHT ON THE BARE MOUNTAIN  
(Mussorgsky, arr. Stokowski) (9.19) t  


LEOPOLD STOKOWSKI  
Conducting  
+ LONDON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA  
+ NEW PHILHARMONIA ORCHESTRA  


MADE IN ENGLAND THE DECCA RECORD CO_LTD.  


SPEED. 33-3 Side (ZAL.10885)  


SPC.21074  


©) 1971, 1969,* 1966**  


1. FANFARE FROM “‘L’EVENTAIL DE JEANNE”’ (Ravel) (2.04)  
*2. “THE ENGULFED CATHEDRAL (Debussy, arr. Stokowski) (6.33) +  
3. ‘‘PASTORALE”’ (Stravinsky) (3.40) §  
**4. “AMEN” FROM MESSIAH (Handel) (4.25) +  


LEOPOLD STOKOWSKI  


Conducting  
+ LONDON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA  
+ NEW PHILHARMONIA ORCHESTRA  
§ ROYAL PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA  
+ HILVERSUM RADIO PHILHARMONIC  
ORCHESTRA 

2022年5月23日月曜日

The Sound Of Flamenco by Los Morenos; Elena Marbella Prestige International (INT 13052)

 



PRESTIGE/INTERNATIONAL 13052  

THE SOUND OF FLAMENCO  
LOS MORENOS with ELENA MARBELLA and FERNANDO “EL PINTOR”  


LUISA VERETTE, dancing and castagnettes  
ANTONIO DeJESUS, dancing and singing  
DAVID MORENO, guitar  

with  

ELENA MARBELLA, dancing and singing  
FERNANDO “EL PINTOR”, guitar  
Recorded July 22, 1961  


Side A  
. FERIA DE ABRIL (sevillanas)  
. RECUERDC GADITANO (alegrias)  


. TANGO EXTREMENO  

. GRANAINA  

. FIESTA JEREZANA (bulerias)  
. EL CABRERILLO  


Side B  
. PETENERA CON BAILE  
. FANDANGOS VARIADOS  
. DOBLARON LAS COMPANAS (siguiriyas)  
. LA FARRUCA  
. SOLEA APOLA  


Flamenco should not just be listened to. It should  
be experienced, As you hear the music, and feel the  
pulsating rhythms, your whole body will want to  
respond. Let ii. For Flamenco traditionally has trans-  
cended the barrier between audience and perform-  
ers. Back in the caves of Sacromonte the joys and the  
sorrows of the gypsy soul found their expression in  
the disciplined yet passionate forms of Flamenco.  
Hundreds of years of tradition have distilled its es-  
sence. Flamenco is group experience. It is emotional  
communication to the deepest sub-conscious self. As  
you listen to these highly sensitized players and sing-  
ers reacting and interacting to each other’s beat and  
melody, the Flamenco spirit will communicate itselft  
to you. You will become part of the group. As -you  
hear it again and again, you will find yourself becom-  
ing more and more sensitive to the haunting melodies  
and throbbing rhythms, Flamenco will say more to  
you on a deeper, richer, more emotional level.  


Now, imagine in the mind’s eye, the physical set-  
ting. It is late at night and in the cafe the heady smell  
of wine blends into the sensual background. The night  
is hot and outside the insects’ faint chatter underlines  
the emotional forces building up inside. Gypsy and  
non-gypsy alike await the “duende”, the mystic spirit  
of Flamenco. Suddenly a chord sounds and an in-  
voluntary sigh rises from the crowd. Someone says  
“Olé guitarista” in a low gravelly voice and the guitar-  
ist starts to weave a melodic variation on the chord.  
A dark-haired girl leaps to her feet and catching the  
rhythm of the guitar starts a pattern of taconeo (heel-  
beats) while moving her body with tremendous control-  
led passion. The crowd spurs her on as the music grows  
faster and faster. The guitar and dancer are as one,  
acting out a story of life and love and death. A voice  
from the table near-the bar starts the traditional wail  
of the cante, and as the singer develops the tapestry  
of melody a man comes forward and joins the frenzied  
rhythms. The crowd and the performers are swept up  
in an ever increasing torrent of sound. Their eyes shine  
with inner fire. Sweat runs down a dozen faces. The  
dance moves faster and faster as it builds up each  
climax. The duende carries the crowd ever higher, far  
into the night.  

This is Flamenco, the living spirit, the incarnation  
of life itself. Blood, tears, and agony, joy and the trans-  
‘cendence of thé every day world.  


The escape world of Flamenco has been an integral  
part of the Spanish gypsy culture for hundreds of  
years. In his need-for artistic expression beyond the  
poverty of his everyday life, the gitano has borrowed  
from each culture to which he has been exposed .. .  
from the Moors, the Jews, the Spaniards. Taking a  
little from each, but blending it into something new  
and distinctive. Something his own. Approach this  


Printed in U. S. A.  





music with more than just an open ear, open your  
mind and your heart and be swept up by the duende  
of Flamenco.  

Los Morenos is a young trio -of Riieioricos: Luisa  
Verette, who dances like a flame, Antonio De Jesus,  
strong, ‘elegant, a faint scar accentuating the regular-  
ity of his dark gypsy face, David Moreno, the guitarist,  
dedicated to the music he loves. With them, Elena  
Marbella who came here in February 1961, the win-  
ner of many honors in Spain including honorable  
mention at the National Cante Jondo contest in Cor-  
doba and Fernando “El Pintor”’ an artist’ with both  
brush and guitar. The group made its New York debut  
in May 1961 to an extremely enthusiastic audience.  
The critics were equally enthusiastic. The New York  
Herald Tribune said, “The authentic flavor of gypsy  
Spain was evoked last night — All the songs and  
dances were of gypsy derivation and emphasized the  
stormy and tempestuous nature of that melancholy  
race.  

Here, then, is the music that excited New York.  
Feria de abril (sevillanas)  

Of classical origin, this dance has become so influ-  
enced by the gypsies that it is a standard in any Fla-  
menco program. Sevillian children learn the gay, lilting  
“coplas”, or verses, and intricate steps at an early age,  
and their impromptu singing and dancing in the streets  
is one of the delights that adds charm to this. enchant-  
ing city.  

Here the entire group works together to recreate the  
vibrant atmosphere of the April Fair, where the hand-  
clapping and castanets do not cease during five unfor-  
gettable days.  


Recuerdo gaditano (alegrias)  

This musical form bears the same rhythm as the me-  
lancholy “Soleares”, but is lively and optimistic in  
character (The very name means happiness). Here, the  
gypsy, inspired by the saline breezes and bustling  
activity of the ancient Phoenician seaport of Cadiz,  
frees himself from his tradition of sorrow. Antonio de  
Jesus executes this dance with exuberance in the  
“salida” (entrance), and elegance in the slow melodic  
section, before abandoning himself to the contagious  
rhythm of the final “Bulerias”. The songs express, with  
lighthearted clarity, the pains and passions of love  
and the affectionate praises of “The Little Silver Cup”  
as Cadiz is foundly called.  


Tango extremeno  

Improvisation and mischievous humor are the key-  
notes of this gypsy dance in 2/4 time. It is derived  
from the more sober “Tientos’” and very popular  
throughout Spain, where it is performed with ritual-  
istic fervor at every “fiesta”, or gathering of the “afi-  
cionados”, The first song style is from Extremadura, a  
province to the west of Andalucia, and the others are  
traditional.  


Granainas  

Delicate and haunting, this guitar solo suggests all  
of the mysterious beauty of Granada with its Alhamb:  
ra, its caves of the Sacromonte, and the breathtaking  
surrounding landscape dominated by the snow-capped  
Sierra Nevada. The notes evoke the ever-present poetic  
inspiration of the Moorish city which sleeps and  
dreams of glorious past.  


Fiesta jerezana (bulerias)  

Quintessence of the fiesta! Translated from the Ro  
many tongue, the word means ‘lies’, for the gypsy  
enters the realm of gaiety, but his joy is bitter-tasting  
and razor-edged. He loses himself in a frenzied and  


“ uninhibited parody of life and love in this fiery rhythm.  


One of the most popular of Flamenco styles, it is cha-  
racterized by a naivete which is disarming to even  
the-most sophisticated. The dancers alternate to exhibit  
their virtuosity and unrestrained sense of humor in  
rapid “desplantes”. The greatest interpreters have  
been from Jerez de la Frontera, known also for its  
excellent wines and cognacs, (and, who -knows what  


i |  


PRESTIGE  
INTERNATIONAL  


subtle influence the latter may have exerted upon the  
explosive quality of the “Bulerias’’?).  
El Cabrerillo  

This is a pastoral romance, also in the gypsy Tango  
rhythm, which tells the story of a goatherd’s love for  
his flock, and causes his jealous sweetheart to turn to  
another man’s affections in her search for attention.  
Elena Marbella sings and dances this Andalusian folk  
song accompanied by Fernando “El Pintor”  

Petenera con baile  

Named after a famous courtesan, “La Paternera”,  
which means, innocently enough, “The Woman from  
Paterna”, the verses usually tell the tale of the legend-  
ary antics of “La Perdicion de los Hombres”, (The Per-  
dition of Men) as she was commonly called. Here Luisa  
and Antonio act out the pagent of this wicked wo-  
man and one of her spurned lovers, while the guitar  
of David Moreno interprets the traditional melodies,  
retaining all of the sentiment and emotional depth of  
the primitive songs.  

Fandangos variados  

Fandangos are popular throughout Andalusia, though  
the best-known and loved are those of the province of  
Huelva. These four “coplas” represent different styles  
from thai region, and are danced with enthusiasm and  
vivacity by Luisa and Antonio.  

Doblaron las campanas (siguiriyas)  

Relatively new as a dance form, the “Siguiriyas”,  
deepest of the “deep songs”, stems from an ancient  
mourning chant. In this number, dancer Luisa Verret-  
te interprets with sinuous grace the infinite jlament  
expressed in the immortal verses of the famous gypsy  
“cantaores”, “El Marruro’” and Tomas “El Nitri”. The  
first verse: “If in life | am not avenged, you will pay  
me in death — I'll search for you amongst the sepul-  
chers until | find you!” the second: “The bells of San  
Juan tolled! How they tolled, Oh! How they tolled  
for the mother of my heart and soul!’ While her feet  
mark continuously the relentless beat and her castanets  
answer with intricate counter-rhythms, the lithe body  
of the lovely young “bailaora” weaves a tapestry which  
reflects the inner conflicts of the human soul.  

Farruca  

Once a song of Galician origin, the 2/4 rhythm of  
the “Farruca” has evolved into a virile dance solo  
characterized by powerful stacatto heelwork, finger-  
snapping, and slow, marking sections where the  
“Bailaor’ awaits, with feline grace, the moment of  
“attack”. Antonio de Jesus, dark, handsome, and  
supple as a panther performs with male aggressive-  
ness this “tour de force” which establishes the gypsy’s  
skill and technique and offers the same feeling of  
challenge present in primitive war eee  
Solea apolé  

“Solea” means “loneliness”, but the emotional con-  
tent of this sad modality, often referred to as the  
“Mother of the Cante” extends far beyond mere lone-  
liness, Manuel Benitez Carrasco, the Flamenco poet,  
best describes its elusive character in the phrase “La  
Muerte Pequefia” — “the little death of a chant’. “’Sole-  
ares” describe with brevity, painful as a knife wound,  
the agonizing moments of life’s fleeting tragedies and  
accept these experiences with philosophical resigna-  
tion. In this sequence, the unfaithful lover, Antonio de  
Jesus succmbs to the charms of Luisa Verrette, while  
singer, Elena Marbella challenges his fidelity in the  
first verse, “May.God permit that, if you deceive me,  
the ground open up and swallow you”; and later  
declares that, “When the great earthquake took place, .  
(an actual occurrence in Seville) the waters rose high,  


‘but not as high as my agony.” The last verse, the  


“Solea apola” is a rare form usually sung as a post-  
lude to the “Polo”.  
Notes by: D. CHARNEY and E. MARTINEZ  
Recorded by: RUDY VAN GELDER  
Album conceived and arranged  
for by: DON SCHLITTEN  
‘Produced by: CHRIS ALBERTSON  


For free catalog send to PRESTIGE RECORDS INC., 203 SO. WASHINGTON AVE., BERGENFIELD; N. J.  



2022年5月18日水曜日

Trumpet Concerto / Trumpet Concerto / Sonata A 6 by Timofej Dokschizer; Rudolf Barshai; Moscow Chamber Orchestra; Joseph Haydn; Johann Nepomuk Hummel; Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber Melodiya/Angel (SR-40123) Publication date 1970



SR-40123  


Uussia  



S great trumpet virtuoso...  


Newly Recorded  



Solera  


MIMIIVINIV I I vini e rvivianiovinivaeni  





Iiumpet Concerto  
Irumpet Concerto  
Biber: Sonata a 6  



the Soviet Union’s most honered trumpet virtuoso  
Timoiey  
Dokschitser  


HAYDN: TRUMPET CONCERTO  
(HUMMEL: TRUMPET CONCERTO  
IBIBER: SONATA FOR SIX VOICES  





Moscow Chamber Orchestra  
Rudolf Barshai, conducting  





In works for trumpet by Haydn, Hummel and Biber, Melodiya/Angel presents for  
the first time on its label the artistry of Timofey Dokschitser. The Soviet Union’s  
pre-eminent trumpet virtuoso, he has been called “the Oistrakh of the trumpet”  
for his monumental technical command and the sheer poetry of his playing.  

Born in the Ukraine in 1921, Timofey Dokschitser began to study trumpet at the  
age of ten. At 14, he entered the Moscow Central School of Music. Later, at the  
Gnessin Music Institute, he studied with the celebrated teacher and performer oî  
trumpet Professor M. P. Tabacov. In 1950, Dokschitser himself became professor  


of trumpet at the Institute.  


At an all-Soviet competition for wind instrument players in 1941, Timofey  
Dokschitser won the laureate. In 1947, he took foremost honors in Prague. In 1945  
he became trumpet soloist of the Bolshoi Theater Orchestra, Moscow, a post he  
occupies today. Despite his full schedule as performer and teacher, he also under-  
took in 1952-1957 the study of conducting at the Moscow Conservatory.  

Dokschitser's repertoire is rich in the works of his countrymen as well as the  
finest works for trumpet in the classical repertoire of other lands—represented  
here by the trumpet concertos of Haydn and Hummel, and a sonata for six  


voices by Biber.  





ANNOTATION BY HARRY NEVILLE:  


Franz Josef Haydn's Concerto in E flat  
for trumpet and orchestra is unques-  
tionably the most popular of all works  
for this musical combination. Dating  
from 1796, the composer’s 64th year,  
and written only a few months before  
Haydn began work on his great oratorio  
“The Creation,” it is the last and per-  
haps the finest of his instrumental  
concertos.  


Haydn.wrote this work for Vienna  
Court trumpeter Anton Weidinger, who  
for some time had been experimenting  
with a keyed instrument of his own  
devising. His invention enabled the per-  
former to obtain notes other than the  

linstrument’s “natural” ones, thus mak-  
ing it possible to play chromatic pas-  
sages in the middle and lower registers  
with relative ease.  


Haydn instantly grasped the techni-  
cal and musical possibilities of the  
instrument, creating a work that is rich  
both in opportunities for bravura dis-  
play and in passages of great warmth  
and tenderness. The outer movements  
make unusual virtuosic demands of the  
soloist while the Andante exploits the  


instrument’s newfound capacity for  
lyric expression. Triadic figures which  
had hitherto characterized melodic  
writing for the trumpet here give way to  
diatonic and chromatic passages, some-  
times even in the instrument’s lower  
register.  


The opening Allegro is a fairly tra-  
ditional first-movement sonata-allegro  
construction with themes that are  
clearly contrasted in profile and formal  
subdivisions that are neatly defined.  
An orchestral exposition presenting the  
movement’s main ideas precedes the  
entry of the solo trumpet, which then  
proceeds to restate these ideas along  
with a fuller statement of the subsidi-  
ary theme. A modulation to C minor  
takes place at the outset of the develop-  
ment section, and a telling use of the  
minor mode also prepares the way for  
the joyous reaffirmation of the main  
tonality at the beginning of the recapit-  
ulation.  


The siciliano-like A flat major  
Andante, in ternary form, exerts a  
strong appeal through its combination  
of reposeful, melodic stasis and flowing  
accompanimental movement. The  





STEREO  


MELODIYA  


Recorded by  
Melodiya in the U.S.S.R.  


rondo Finale brims with ebullient good  
spirits, making much use of contrasting  
textures, modes, harmonies and instru- .  
mental registers. Haydn's orchestral  
scoring is for two flutes, two oboes,  

two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets,  
timpani and strings. The original manu-  
script is preserved in the library of the  
Vienna Gesellschaft fiir Musikfreunde.  



Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber, virtuoso  
violinist and perhaps the most remark-  
able Central European composer of his  
time, was born August 12, 1644, in  
Wartenburg, Bohemia. Not much is  
known of his musical training, but it is  
generally assumed that he studied  
violin and composition with Johann  
Heinrich Schmelzer (1623-1680), an-  
other important figure of the period. At  
age 22, Biber became a member of the —  
court orchestra of Count Karl of Liech-  
tenstein-Kastelkorn, a devoted patron  
of the arts who was also Archbishop of  
Olmiitz and Kremsier, and it was prob-  
ably at Kremsier, where the Count  
maintained a splendid castle, that Biber  
wrote his first professional works.  


Biber spent four yearsin the Count'’s  
service and then left to join the court of  
the Archbishop of Salzburg, where he  
eventually became Kapellmeister.  
Through numerous concert tours, his  
reputation spread throughout Europe  
and, by 1690, he had become so highly  
esteemed that Emperor Leopold I  
elevated him to the nobility. At the time  
of his death, May 3, 1704, he was the  
most celebrated violinist and composer  
of the German-speaking lands.  


Although Biber undoubtedly had op-  
portunities to be published, he seems to  
have exercised unusual discretion in  
this respect, for only five collections ot  
instrumental works appeared during his  
lifetime. The present Sonata à sei in B  
flat major, which was finally published  
in 1958, comes from the archives of  
Kremsier and is presumed to have been  
written during Biber's residence there.  
Formally, the work is modelled on the  
older Italian example of the one-move-  
ment sonata with a series of short con-  
trasting sections. Scored for trumpet,  
strings, and continuo, it exists also in a  
C major version, which may have been  
written to accommodate pitch differ-  
ences in continuo instruments or to  
allow use of a natural trumpet.  


After the Haydn Concerto in E flat,  
the next great trumpet concerto of the  
Viennese classical period is that of  
Johann Nepomuk Hummel (1778-1837).  
Hummel’s concerto was written when  
the composer was 25, one year before  
he succeeded Haydn as Kapellmeister  
to Prince Esterh4zy in Fisenstadt. As  
with his predecessor, Hummel wrote  
the concerto for Anton Weidinger, who  
gave the work its first performance on  


Library of Congress Catalog Card Numbers 78-751613 (for the Haydn), 75-751615 (the Biber), and 71-751614 (the
Hummel) apply to this recording.  
Produced and engineered by: Lidia Bobova (the Haydn), Mikhail Pakhter (Biber) and Aleksander Grosman (Hummel).
 


Manufactured by Capitol Records, Inc., a subsidiary of Capitol Industries; inc., Hollywood and Vine ANA This r
ecord has been engineered and ma  
Streets, Hollywood, Calif. Factories: Scranton, Pa., Los Angeles, Calif., Jacksonville, ili., Winchester, Va.  


%s/ Association of America, inc., a non-prof  


nufactured in accordance with standards developed by the Recording Industry z\  
it organization dedicated to the betterment of recorded music and literature. XE  


New Year's Day, 1804, as a Tafelmusik  
offering at a royal dinner of the Ester-  
hàzy court. Weidinger had continued to  
experiment with a keyed trumpet, and  
the instrument he had developed by  
1803 was a vastimprovement over what  
was available to Haydn in 1796, with  
the result that Hummel had at his dis-  
posal an instrument that was almost  
fully chromatic. Hummel’s concerto,  
like Haydn's, demonstrates that Wei-  
dinger must have been an exceptional  
player who excelled both in cantabile  
passages and in ornate display figura-  
tions.  

The opening Allegro con spirito  
pretty much follows the example of the  



. |Haydn concerto in the sharply alternat-  


ing character of its solo episodes. There  


in the movement'’s rather tightly or-  
ganized symphonic construction.  


The quite romantic A flat minor  


. | Andante is a lyric outpouring with  


string accompaniment, which changes.  
to the major mode as the woodwinds  
enter. A half-close leads into the finale,  
a Rondo requiring of the soloist all the  
technical brilliance—trills, figurations,  
chromatic passagework—of which he is  
capable. Hummel's instrumentation  
calls for flute, oboe, two clarinets, two  
horns, timpani and strings.  
e E  
SIDE ONE  
HAYDN: TRUMPET CONCERTO  

IN E FLAT I  

I. Allegro Band1 - 5:47  

II. Andante Band2 - 4:03  

III. Finale (Allegro) Band 3 - 5:40  


BIBER: SONATA A 6INBFLAT  
(ed. Yanetsky)  
Allegro—Adagio—Allegro Band 4 - 6:15  


SIDE TWO  
HUMMEL: TRUMPET CONCERTO  
IN E FLAT  
I. Allegro con spirito Band 1 - 9:12  
II. Andante III. Rondo Band 2 - 9:02  


I EEE e TTTTTIG:R  


Rudolf Barshai is an S. Hurok Artist.  


ALSO BY RUDOLF BARSHAI  
AND THE MOSCOW CHAMBER  


\ORCHESTRA ON .  


MELODIYA/ANGEL:  


SHOSTAKOVICH: SYMPHONY NO. 14. World  
Premiere recording of Shostakovich’s great  


‘ Isymphonic song-cycle, a meditation on death,  


on texts by Garcia Lorca, Apollinaire,  
Kiichelbecker & Rilke. With Margarita i  
Miroshnikova, soprano, Yevgeny Vladimirov,  
bass. SR-40147  


PERGOLESI: STABAT MATER. In Latin, with  
Irina Arkhipova, mezzo-soprano and the  
RSFSR Russian Chorus. SR-40044  


J. S. BACH: Six Concertos for Piano and  

Orchestra: No. 1 in D minor; No. 2 in E major;  

No. 3 in D major; No. 4 in A major; No. 5 in  

F minor; No. 7 in G minor. With Vasso  

Devetzi, pianist. (Two records, boxed).  
SRB-4108  


seems too some indebtedness to Mozart.  


SR-40123

2022年5月16日月曜日

The Romantic Guitar

 OUTSTANDING HIGH FIDELITY THROUGH RADIAL SOUNO ■ A PROOUCT OF CBS 

LC 3564 

THE ROMANTIC GUITAR 

Granados: Danza espanola No. 5 

(Andaluza) (trans. Llobet) 


Granados: La Maja de Goya 

(trans. Llobet) 


Albeniz: Torre bermeja (Serenata) 

(trans. Llobet) 


Albeniz: Leyenda 

(trans. Segovia) 



Tarrega: Marietta (Mazurka) 

Tarrega: Mazurka 

Tarrega: Minuetto 

Rodrigo: Zarabanda lejana 

Falla: Homenaje a Debussy 


Grau: Corranda 


(Antigua danza catalana) 



LC 3564 


OUTSTANDING 

HIGH FIOSLITY 

THROUGH 

i RADIAL SOUND 

A PRODUCT OF CBS 


REY DE LA TORRE, Classical Guitar 

In contrast to Rey de la Torre’s previous Epic recitals 

(LC 3418 and LC 3479), which embraced different periods and 

a wide variety of styles, the program selected under the 

heading of “The Romantic Guitar” follows a much more 

centralized pattern. Only Spanish composers are represented 

and these are further linked by a romantic-nationalist orien¬ 

tation which gained a powerful impetus from the work of 

Felipe Pedrell, the prophet of Spanish nationalism during 

the late 19th and early 20th century. One may even classify 

the entire program as “romantic music” without going too 

far afield, though the label of romanticism will not attach as 

easily to the compositions of Falla or Rodrigo as it does 

to the works of Albeniz and Granados. The nationalistic 

spirit, on the other hand, will he readily established as a 

unifying element that links together not only the individual 

pieces but also their totality to the centuries-old tradition 

of Spanish music. 


In his authoritative volume on “The Music of Spain,” 

(Norton, 1941) Gilbert Chase refers to a vignette in Luis 

Milan’s “El Maestro,” written in 1535, which “represents 

Orpheus, in medieval setting and surrounded by a rapt aud¬ 

ience of birds and beasts, playing not the antique lyre but a 

six-stringed guitar.” This amusing example illustrates the 

high esteem in which the Spanish people held the guitar in 

the early days, and from which they have never wavered. 

Luis Milan, incidentally, was one of the early masters of the 

vihuela (fore-runner of the modem guitar), and the book 

“El Maestro” offered detailed instructions for gentlemen 

wishing to master the art of playing that fashionable instru¬ 

ment. A talented composer—besides being a poet, wit, and 

man about the courts—Don Luis Milan is gratefully remem¬ 

bered today by Spanish composers and instrumentalists. It 

was to him that Joaquin Rodrigo reverently dedicated his 

Zarabanda lejana, an outstanding modern contribution to 

guitar literature and a particular favorite with Rey de la 

Torre. 


Rodrigo, like Luis Milan, is a native of Valencia. He 

was born in 1902 and has been blind almost from birth. 

Famed as a symphonist and composer of a colorful concerto 

for guitar and orchestra, Rodrigo, in common with other 

famous Spanish composers of past and present, does not him¬ 

self play the national instrument. But his natural affinity to it is 

clearly shown in Zarabanda lejana, a fascinating piece in 

which the modernity of harmonic idiom blends with a per¬ 

vading 16th-century spirit. 


Manuel de Falla’s Homenaje a Debussy also invokes the 

image of a departed musician, but there the emotional in¬ 



volvement is much more immediate. Falla, too, had studied 

with Pedrell and had received his first vital orientation as a 

result of this experience. But the most important period of 

his life were the seven years spent in Paris (1907-1914), 

where he found the orchestral techniques ideally suited to 

express the music of his national heritage. While in Paris he 

was drawn to the circle of Debussy, Ravel and Dukas with 

an attraction that soon deepened into friendship. When De¬ 

bussy died several prominent composers were requested by a 

French publisher to write musical tributes in his memory. 

On the advice of the Catalan guitar virtuoso Miguel Llobet, 

Falla responded with the Homenaje in 1920. Rey de la Torre 

describes this elegy as a “model of controlled intensity and 

precise notation for the instrument, consistent with the com¬ 

poser’s well-known meticulousness. In an original, almost 

strange conception Falla has used the habanera rhythm to 

communicate his personal grief in an elegy for the loss of his 

friend, quoting with grave irony toward the end of the piece 

a fragment from Debussy’s Soiree dans Granade.” Many 

years later Falla completed an orchestral verson of this piece 

for a four-part suite called Homenajes which also includes 

compositions written in the memory of Pedrell, Dukas and 

Arbos. 


Untouched by the Gallicism and impressionist colors which 

characterize much of Falla’s music, Spanish nationalism 

found its truest musical expression in the writings of Isaac 

Albeniz (1860-1909) and Enrique Granados (1867-1916). 

Both were Pedrell’s pupils, both virtuoso pianists and, by a 

further and lamentable coincidence, both came to tragically 

premature ends in their forty-ninth year. Albeniz was for¬ 

ever fascinated with the colorful exoticism of Andalucia and, 

particularly, with its Moorish heritage. His piano pieces— 

there were hundreds of them—are charming and captivating 

vignettes characteristic of his basically uncomplicated art. 

Although plainly a composer for the keyboard, Albeniz often 

modeled his technique on the guitar, a fact which lent his 

piano music a highly individual quality. It follows that these 

pieces sound entirely natural and idiomatic when performed 

on the guitar since the transcriptions are in effect realizations 

of the composer’s original concept. For this program Rey 

de la Torre has selected Andres Segovia’s transcription of the 

Leyenda, while Torre bermeja is heard in Llobet’s setting. 


The musical nationalism of Enrique Granados was not 

concentrated upon the soil of Andalucia, although some of his 

compositions—particularly the popular Spanish Dances— 

reveal an Andalusian character. It was the spiritual influence 

of the great Spanish painter Goya which gave a unique color 

to Granados’ art. La Maja de Goya, one of the selections 

chosen for this recital, comes from a collection of tonadillas 



—short compositions for voice and piano inspired by scenes 

and characters of Goya’s paintings. (The composer’s most 

famous opera, Goyescas, was also a dramatization of Goya 

paintings. Granados attended its world premiere at the Met¬ 

ropolitan Opera in 1916. On the return trip his ship was 

torpedoed by a German submarine and he and his wife per¬ 

ished.) As in the case of Albeniz’s piano music, La Maja de 

Goya lends itself most effectively to guitar treatment, an ob¬ 

servation that holds even truer for the very popular, flamenco- 

spirited Spanish Dance No. 5. Both Granados compositions 

are heard here in the transcription of Miguel Llobet. 


While Albeniz and Granados enriched the piano literature 

of their land, Francisco Tarrega (1852-1909) can be credited 

with the rejuvenation of the classical guitar repertory from 

a period of relative inertia lasting almost a century. Tarrega 

was a brilliant virtuoso and founder of a school to which all 

modern guitar teachings are related. As a composer he 

specialized in concert pieces of limited substance but con¬ 

siderable variety and melodic appeal, as exemplified by the 

three short selections Rey de la Torre has chosen for this 

recital. Although Tarrega enjoyed world-wide renown, his 

activities were limited to Spain. 


Unlike Tarrega, Miguel Llobet (1875-1938), whose name 

has frequently recurred throughout these notes, traveled ex¬ 

tensively in Europe and South America and gave solo re¬ 

citals which paved the way for the many excellent guitar 

virtuosos of the present generation. Llobet was Tarrega’s 

pupil and, in turn, the teacher of Rey de la Torre. During the 

quarter of a century that has passed since Mr. de la Torre’s 

career was launched in Barcelona (1934) thousands of lis¬ 

teners on many continents have discovered the remarkable, 

expressive powers of the classical guitar as a concert instru¬ 

ment. Today’s guitar repertoire embraces a wide area rang¬ 

ing from Bach transcriptions to original compositions for 

the instrument by musicians of our times. But Spain, the 

country which replaced the ancient lyre with the guitar in 

Orpheus’ hands, continues unrivalled in its cultivation of the 

instrument, adding new chapters to the fascinating history of 

“The Romantic Guitar.” 


Notes by George Jellinek 


Other Epic Records by Rey de la Torre include: 


Rey de la Torre Plays Classical Guitar: music by Sanz, Sor, 

Llobet, Ponce, Torroba and Tarrega. LC 3418 


Virtuoso Guitar: music by Giuliani, Turina, Llobet, Villa- 

Lobos, Falla and Tarrega. LC 3479 


■ Library of Congress catalog card number R59-1100 applies 

to this record. z 


2022年5月15日日曜日

Clavichord Music by Johann Jakob Froberger; Thurston Dart L'Oiseau-Lyre (SOL 60038)

 LONDON,  



STERE() SOL 60038 J. J. FROBERGER - CLAVICHORD MUSIC THURSTON DART  


EDITIONS DE  


L°OISEAU-LYRE  





THURSTON DART  


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J. J. FROBERGER  





CLAVICHORD MUSIC  


played by  


THURSTON DART  


SIDE ONE  


CLAVICHORD BY THOMAS GOFF  


Tombeau de M. Blancheroche — Suite X (A minor) — Lamentation for Ferdinand IV  


Capriccio — Suite XIV (G minor)— Allemande from Suite XX  


SIDE TWO  


Ricercar— Lamentation for Ferdinand III — Suite XIX (C minor)  


Fantasia — Suite III (G major)— Allemande from Suite XXX — Suite VII (E minor)  


Born at Stuttgart on 19 May 1616, Froberger was  
appointed court organist at Vienna in his twenty-  
first year. Shortly afterwards his patron, the music-  
loving emperor Ferdinand III, sent him to study  
with Frescobaldi in Rome, where he stayed for  
about three years. Upon his return to Vienna in  
1641 he resumed his court appointment, but late  
in 1645 he seems to have been granted leave of  
absence, and he spent the next eight years travel-  
ling extensively. During this period he visited  
France, the Low Countries, and Germany, making  
a great impression by the skill of his playing and  
the beauty of his compositions. From 1 April  
1653 until 30 June 1657 he was court organist in  
Vienna once again; the last ten years of his life  
were spent in Austria, England and France, where  
he died (in a house at Héricourt belonging to the  
dowager duchess of Wiirttemburg) on 7 May 1667.  

Famous throughout all Europe not only during  
his lifetime but for many decades after his death,  
Froberger was the Dowland of the keyboard. Like  
Dowland he seems to have had an introspective  
melancholy turn of mind, but he far surpassed the  
lutenist in contrapuntal skill and in the powerful  
originality of his musical idiom. He learned much  
from Frescobaldi, perhaps also from the contem-  
porary French school of harpsichordists led by  
Chambonniéres and Louis Couperin. In his turn  
he exercised great influence on more than a  
generation of composers, from d’Anglebert to  
Mattheson and Bach. His musicis poetic, personal,  
expressive and rewarding to play, yet it is little  
known; I hope this disc may encourage many  
music-lovers to explore it for themselves.  

The autograph copies of his own works preserved  
inthe National Library, Vienna, give no indication  
whatsoever of the instruments he had in mind for  
the performance of his music. The Amsterdam edi-  
tions (1697-98) of his keyboard suites describe  
them simply as ‘Suittes de clavessin’; as a result  
they have usually been discussed as though they  
form part of the development of harpsichord music.  
But the Mainz editions of 1693-96, from which the  
Amsterdam editions appear to have been derived,  
define his music as ‘for lovers of harpsichords,  
organs, clavichords and spinets’. Any experienced  
player of 17th-century music and 17th-century  
keyboard instruments will soon satisfy himself  
that Froberger’s Suites — perhaps also some of his  
more contrapuntal pieces — were in the first  
instance composed forthe clavichord, an instrument  
whose special features gave rise during the 17th  
century to a distinctive style of composition.  

For the present disc I have selected a little  
anthology of his clavichord pieces, chosen  
primarily for their beauty, but also to show various  
aspects of Froberger’s characteristic style. He  
was apparently the creator of what soon became  


known as the ‘French Suite’, consisting of an  
Allemande, Courante, Sarabande and Gigue  
(sometimes expanded by ‘Doubles’). The next  
generations of German composers expanded the  
form still further by the addition of other dance  
movements between the Sarabande and the Gigue;  
ona companion disc (OL 50208/SOL 60039) I have  
recorded Bach’s six French suites of this kind on  
the clavichord, since Iam convinced that this isthe  
instrument for which they were composed. Many  
stylistic elements suggest to me that Bach must  
have known of Froberger’s suites when he sat  
down to compose his own set. The present disc  
also includes some of Froberger’s fugal pieces;  
these seem to have much in common with Bach’s  
own clavichord fugues, especially those included  
in Book I of the ‘48’. The texts heard on the disc  
are based on the DTO versions, which I have  
collated with Cambridge copies of the Amsterdam  
and Mainz editions, and corrected when the  
readings seemed incomplete or faulty.  

SIDE ONE — Tombeau de M. Blancheroche  
(1652:DTO, X, 2, p.114) One of four elegies on  
the accidental death of the French lutenist  
Blancrocher, who was a close friend of Froberger  
and died in his arms; the others were composed by  
Louis Couperin, Denis Gaultier and Du Fault.  
According to the MS, the piece is to be played  
‘very slowly and freely, without keeping strict  
time’.  

Suite X, in A minor (DTO, VI, 2, p.27) A  
typical and very eloquent example of the four  
movement French suite.  

Lamentation for Ferdinand IV (1654: DT6O, VI,  
2, p.32) In memory of the infant son of Froberger’s  
patron, the emperor Ferdinand III; the child was  
elected ‘King of the Romans’ in 1653, but died the  
following year.  

Capriccio no. VI (DTO, IV, 1, p.88) An essay in  
fugue, on a chromatic subject, owing much to the  
style of Frescobaldi.  

Suite XIV, in G minor (DTO, VI, 2, p.38) In one  
source the Allemande has the subtitle ‘Lamentation  
on what was stolen from me: to be treated freely,  
and better than I was treated by the soldiers’. A  
footnote tells how Froberger, journeying from  
Brussels to Louvain, fell into the hands of a roving  
band of soldiers who robbed him, beat him up and  
left him for dead; ‘this piece was composed to  
comfort his bruised spirits’. The Gigue is a  
typical example of the jerky rhythms so often used  
in17th-century gigues, and retained by Bach in the  
Gigue to the first of his French suites.  

Allemande from Suite XX (ibid., p.57) In the  
Yale MS 21.H.59, the basis of the present text,  
this is headed ‘Meditation on my future death: to  
be played slowly and freely.’ Contemporary  
references speak of it as Froberger’s ‘Memento  


LOISEAU-LYRE  





Mori’. No other 17th-century composer known to me  
ever attempted so intimate an expression of  
personal feeling.  

SIDE TWO — Ricercar no. VI, in C sharp minor  
(DTO, IV, 1, p.112) The three sections are based  
on differing aspects of the same theme; the choice  
of key cannot, I think, be paralleled at this early  
date.  

Lamentation for Ferdinand III (1657: DTO, X, 2,  
p.116) Another of Froberger’s rhapsodic Alle-  
mandes, unusual in that it consists of three  
strains instead of the customary two. Perhaps this  
is a conscious reminiscence of another style of  
musical epitaph, the named pavan.  

Suite XIX, in C minor (DTO, VI, 2, p.54) Very  
similar in style to some of Buxtehude’s clavichord  
suites, this contains a particularly beautiful  
Sarabande.  

Fantasia no. II (DTO; IV, 1, p.38) Based on  
two contrasting versions of a single theme, in  
the severe Phrygian mode (considered martial and  
warlike by 17th-century theorists).  

Suite III, in G major (DTO, VI, 2, p.6) The  
Gigue is in the newer italianate style preferred by  
most later composers, Bach among them. 2  

Allemande from Suite XXX (1662: DTO. X, 2,  
p.110) Subtitled ‘Plaint composed in London to  
banish melancholy: to beplayed slowly and freely’.  
A footnote tells how Froberger was robbed while  
travelling from Paris to London, arriving w:thout a  
penny in his pocket. According to Mattheson, this  
took place in 1662; Christopher Gibbons, then  
organist of Westminster Abbey and notorious  
drunkard, offered Froberger the job of blowing the  
organ-bellows during a recital he was giving before  
the English court, upon the occasion of Charles  
IIl’s marriage. Falling into one of his fits of  
abstraction, Froberger forgot what he was doing,  
so that the organ groaned into silence; under-  
standably upset, Gibbons kicked him out of doors,  
‘whereupon Froberger composed this piece’.  

Suite VII, in E minor (DTO, VI, 2, p.18) Another  
fine example of Froberger’s nervous, tense, but  
expressive, style. A second version of the Gigue  
exists, in which the rhythms are transformed into  
the more normal triple time throughout.  

One last point: the clavichord is an extremely  
soft instrument, softer even than the guitar or lute,  
and its sound is not at all easy to re-create  
faithfully on a record — not least because the  
microphones have to be very close to the player’s  
hands, and can therefore pick up the percussion of  
finger on key. The music will sound most like a  
clavichord if the volume control is set fairly low,  
with no cutting of top frequences.  


THURSTON DART  


Printed in England by Robert Stace.  


DITIONS DE  





J. J. FROBERGER: CLAVICHORD MU  
Band 1—Tombeau de M. Blanct  
Band 2- ite X bealtel  









ISIN A  


SOL 60038  


J. J. FROBERGER: CLAVICHORD MUSIC  
Band 1—Ricercar  
Band 2—Lamentation for Fetdinand III  
Band 3—Suite XIX (C minor)  
Band 4—Fantasia  
Band 5—Su Ill (G major)  
Band 6—Allemande from Suite XXX  
Band 7—Suite VII (E minor)  


THURSTON DART