Steuart Wilson and John McCormack Sing Vaughan Williams

Vaughan Williams' song cycle On Wenlock Edge has been heard around these parts three times over the years. Twice the work was in its piano and string quartet guise: the first recording with Gervase Elwes (the work's dedicatee), pianist Frederick Kiddle and the London String Quartet; and a 1953 effort by Alexander Young, pianist Gordon Watson and the Sebastian String Quartet. Also we have encountered an orchestral version from 1979, with Robert Tear, the City of Birmingham Symphony and Vernon Handley.

I can't resist adding one more recording: the 1929 Decca set from tenor Steuart Wilson, the Marie Wilson String Quartet and pianist Reginald Paul. I believe this was the second recording of the work, following Elwes' 1917 effort.

Filling out the program are three songs from the Irish tenor John McCormack - Vaughan Williams' "Linden Lea" and "Silent Noon," and a setting of Yeats' "Down by the Salley Gardens."

Wilson and On Wenlock Edge

Steuart Wilson by Elliott & Fry, 1951

The Wilson set is sometimes considered interesting more for historical than artistic reasons. He was an important figure in British musical life, perhaps more for his administrative roles than his tenor voice. His bluff vocal manner was not ideal for Housman's brooding poetry; in "Is My Team Ploughing," he seems to identify less with the dead man's voice than with his live friend who has taken over the deceased's romantic relationship.

In the 1940s, Wilson became an arts administrator, first gaining notice as the music director of the Arts Council of Great Britain - he was knighted for his efforts - then as music director of the BBC. These days when you read about him, it is usually with regard to Sir Adrian Boult's retirement as music director of the BBC Symphony. Wilson insisted that the conductor stand down, and many believe he did so in retribution for Boult's marrying Wilson's ex-wife many years before.

Marie Wilson

In the song cycle, Wilson is accompanied by the a quartet led by Marie Wilson, who was at the time active as a chamber musician. She also had long experience in the Queen's Hall Orchestra and later in the BBC Symphony. Also on hand was pianist Reginald Paul, who recorded regularly during the period as an accompanist, but also as soloist in Saint-Saëns' second piano concerto.

I remastered this set from a lossless needle drop of the 78 set sourced from Internet Archive, patching a few noisy portions in "Bredon Hill" with passages from an LP reissue from my own collection. The relatively early electric recording was harsh sounding, but a small amount of convolution reverberation has made it very listenable.

John McCormack Songs

John McCormack by Howard Coster, 1940

I couldn't resist adding a few more Vaughan Williams songs from the catalogue of the illustrious John McCormack. The tenor recorded extensively, but set down only these two items by Vaughan Williams. They are perhaps the composer's best-known settings: "Linden Lea" and "Silent Noon." McCormack allied perfect diction with careful attention to the words he sang and great flexibility of meter. The result is remarkably satisfying, even though at times he sounds tired. These were made in 1941, at the end of his career.

"Linden Lea" is a setting of an 1859 dialect poem by the Dorset writer William Barnes. In subject it has much in common with Housman's "On Wenlock Edge." One passage reads:

     Let other folk make money faster
     In the air of dark-roomed towns,
     I don't dread a peevish master;
    Though no man may heed my frowns

"Silent Noon" comes from Vaughan Williams' setting of selections from Dante Gabriel Rossetti's The House of Life. Although the cycle is not performed as often as On Wenlock Edge or the Stevenson poems in Songs of Travel, "Silent Noon" is nonetheless one of the composer's best known songs. Both words and music are exceptionally beautiful, amply demonstrated in McCormack's reading. Again, the poem has a pastoral setting, although in this Rossetti likens the landscape's beauty with his love for his companion.

I have added a related work, although not by Vaughan Williams. It is a setting of William Butler Yeats' "Down by the Salley Gardens," a favorite of English composers. Rebecca Clarke, John Ireland, Ivor Gurney and Benjamin Britten all had a go at the poem, but here we have the earliest effort, by Herbert Hughes, who employed the traditional tune "The Moorlough Shore."

Yeats based his 1889 poem on a traditional ballad he had heard, with a theme of regret and loss that resonates well with much of the other material on this program. It contains the famous couplet:

     She bade me take life easy just as the leaves fall from the tree.
     But I being young and foolish, with my darling did not agree.

Gerald Moore

Four years before his death, McCormack was already sick, I believe. This may have led to a weary quality that can be heard in these performances, which is particularly appropriate for "Down by the Salley Gardens."

The fine accompaniments are by the liquid-toned Gerald Moore, who is at one with McCormack's flexible approach.

HMV's sound is very good.

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The Complete 'Keep 'Em Flying' Recordings and More Carol Bruce Singles

Singer/actor Carol Bruce has been a popular subject for this blog and its junior associate (Buster's Swinging Singles) for some time. Today I am expanding on a few previous posts through the generosity of blog follower and vocal aficionado Bryan Cooper, who provided almost all of these materials.

First we have what I believe are Universal's complete pre-recordings for the 1941 film Keep 'Em Flying, filling out the two songs previously shared. Also on offer are three additional Bruce 78s from the Shirmer, Decca and Columbia labels, dating from 1940-41, plus three songs she made for V-Disc in 1943, expanding on a post from early this year.

Keep 'Em Flying

Keep 'Em Flying was one of the many Abbott and Costello odysseys of idiocy that Universal inflicted on the American public during the period. I previously shared two songs recorded for the film - both of which Universal in its wisdom dropped from the final product. One was Bruce's first go at the wonderful Raye-de Paul song "You Don't Know What Love Is," the other Martha Raye's double-tracked vocal on the less-than-wonderful "Together."

Bryan has added three Bruce songs ("I'm Gettin' Sentimental Over You," "Time on My Hands" and "I Won't Forget the Dawn"), Raye's "What Kind of Love Is This" and her terrific version of "Pig Foot Pete," and Bruce-Raye duets on the attractive tune "The Boy with the Wistful Eyes" and on the title song. Co-star Dick Foran adds a stentorian version of the title song, and the Universal Orchestra contributes a number called "Rehearsing for a Nervous Breakdown," perhaps in sympathy with the audiences subjected to the film's Abbott and Costello routines.

Carol Bruce in Keep 'Em Flying

After repeatedly listening to these numbers, I came to the conclusion that Universal issued the whole set a half-step sharp - including the two songs I previously offered. For this post, I re-pitched all the songs, making use of the best files that Bryan sent along, while substituting my versions of "You Don't Know What Love Is" and "Together," which were in better condition.

Among the new items, the two solo sides from Carol Bruce are beautifully done. Her version of "Time on My Hands," a song that dates from 1930, betrays the influence of Connie Boswell, one of the first singers to record the number. "I'm Gettin' Sentimental Over You," which comes from 1932, was of course a big hit for and the theme song of bandleader Tommy Dorsey.

Shirmer, Decca, Columbia and V-Disc Recordings

My previous post of Carol Bruce's early recordings included her Decca "Souvenir Album," one additional Decca 78, and one coupling from the small Shirmer label documenting her big success in Broadway's Louisiana Purchase. Today's trove from Bryan starts with her other Shirmer recording, a coupling of "Lover, Come Back to Me" and "I Got a Right to Sing the Blues," where she sounds much like Lee Wiley. These are almost certainly from 1940, when she recorded the other Shirmer titles. The backing by Eddie Oliver is badly dated, making even Harry Sosnik's work for Decca sound modern.

The Decca items begin with "I Should Have Known You Years Ago," an excellent Hoagy Carmichael number that appeared here recently in Buddy Clark's rendition. The backing is "If I Feel This Way Tomorrow (Then It's Love)," a good Brown-Henderson song of the time.

Moving to what seem to be her only two Columbia singles, Bruce cut two of her songs from Keep 'Em Flying: "You Don't Know What Love Is" and "The Boy with the Wistful Eyes." One of the radio magazines of the day mentioned that she was dating Columbia's pop A&R head Manie Sacks at about this time, which may have something to do with her brief association with the label.

Today's collection finishes with three songs specially recorded for V-Disc in 1943, with Red Norvo and an outfit he called his "Overseas Spotlight Band": "Embraceable You," which has a spoken introduction from Bruce, "Abraham" and "Something for the Boys," a surprisingly suggestive wartime song. Bruce and the pianist don't seem to agree on the tempo for the first chorus of the Gershwin tune, but things improve thereafter. Her readings of the other two songs are much better. Irving Berlin's "Abraham," while well-intentioned, is embarrassing in hindsight. Bruce takes it fairly straight, backed by a trumpet obbligato in Ziggy Elman's style.

The sound on the singles is pretty good, even the V-Discs, which come from lossy sources. The Keep 'Em Flying sonics are variable, but never less than listenable.

Thanks again to Bryan for his largesse, and my apologies for taking so long to post these fascinating items from a favorite singer.

Bruce tried many deodorants before recommending
Arrid to readers of Radio Mirror in 1945

Sid Ramin's 'Love Is a Swingin' Word'

Sid Ramin, who died a few months ago at age 100, was one of the busiest orchestrators of the 1950s and 60s. He is mainly known today for his work on West Side Story, whose composer was his childhood friend Leonard Bernstein. Ramin and Irwin Kostal won an Oscar for their orchestrations of the musical's film version.

But Ramin did so much more: on Broadway alone he orchestrated Wonderful Town, Gypsy, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, I Can Get It for You Wholesale and Wildcat. He composed a great deal of music for television and advertising. People my age will remember the themes from Candid Camera and the Patty Duke Show. His commercials included famous jingles for Pepsi, Hertz and Charlie perfume. His "Music to Watch Girls By," written for a Diet Pepsi ad, became a big hit as an instrumental.

Ramin also orchestrated a Broadway show that didn't even use a pit band. The 1957 play Say, Darling, used piano accompaniment for its play-within-a-play songs, written by Styne, Comden and Green. But for recording purposes, RCA decided that the songs needed orchestrations, and it brought in Ramin to do the job.

At the Say, Darling sessions: Sid Ramin, Johnny Desmond, Jule Styne

While he was doing all this, he also was producing arrangements for vocal albums and his own instrumental LPs. I recently reuploaded one of the vocal albums, Abbe Lane's Where There's a Man, in the process opining that Ramin's arrangements were a little too space-agey and bachelor-paddy for my taste. In response, discographer Nigel Burlinson and theater music expert JAC both praised Ramin's work, and expressed interest in hearing one of the arranger's instrumental LPs.

So what we have here is, I believe, Ramin's first solo LP, done for RCA Victor, dating from 1958 and emanating from Webster Hall in New York. It was an early stereo effort, and both the engineer and arranger were surely influenced by that fact. The stereo separation is w-i-i-de. The arrangements emphasize high and low frequencies, so expect lots of piercing piccolos and booming bass saxophones.

Not that I mind such things. The record is a great deal of fun, with highly imaginative instrumentation and wonderful playing by the unidentified studio pros on the date. You may notice echoes of Billy May and Nelson Riddle in Ramin's work, but not so much to make the arrangements sound derivative.

Sid Ramin in action

RCA, Ramin or the producer came up with the idea of having the word "love" in all the song titles. The album begins with "The Lady's in Love with You," a Lane-Loesser song beloved by cabaret vocalists but not by me, and ends with "Love," a great Martin-Blane song that is beloved by me.

Ramin went on to make four other LPs for RCA, three of which are in my collection. Beside Abbe Lane, he accompanied a number of other singers on record. The RCA inner sleeve below credits his work on a second Lane record as well on as the Ames Brothers' Destination Moon. I was tempted to comment that RCA should have left the brothers there, but then I remembered I own the album.

RCA inner sleeve (click to enlarge)

I first became aware of Ramin through his arrangements for Robert Goulet's 1963 LP The Wonderful World of Love, a singer and album favored by my mother. I enjoyed the arrangements, and even grew to like Goulet's belting after a while.

Earlier, I mentioned the early-stereo sound on Love Is a Swingin' Word. RCA, in common with other record companies at the time, turned up the treble and bass controls during mastering. The resulting sonics were both shrill and boomy, tendencies I've moderated.

Lambert's 'Sleeping Beauty' Recordings, Plus Weldon's 'Faust' Ballet Music

1946 Covent Garden Sleeping Beauty production - the Prologue

My recent post of an LP containing Nicolai Malko's recording of excerpts from Tchaikovsky's score for the Sleeping Beauty ballet set off a lengthy discussion: was it really Malko or did the record company mistakenly include Constant Lambert's 1939 Sadler's Wells recordings?

It turns out it really was Malko. I had always doubted the doubters, mainly because I was familiar with Lambert's Sleeping Beauty recordings, and they were not the same as what RCA had presented as Malko's rendition. So today I come full circle by presenting the Lambert recordings.

The remarkable Lambert, the long-time music director for the Sadler's Wells Ballet, actually made two sets of excerpts from the ballet, one in conjunction with a 1938 staging, and one in 1946. The latter was recorded in association with a new production by Ninette de Valois and Frederick Ashton in the troupe's new Covent Garden home, with costumes by Oliver Messel. As she did in 1938, Margot Fonteyn danced Princess Aurora, with Robert Helpmann as both Prince Florimund and Carabosse.

Margot Fonteyn as Princess Aurora in the Rose Adagio

Margot Fonteyn and Robert Helpmann in the Awakening Scene

Robert Helpmann as Carabosse

Fortunately - and unusually - there is a good visual record of the 1946 staging in the form of color photographs taken by Frank Sharman during performances. The images seen here are from his collection, as made available on the Covent Garden website. Several others are in the download, along with a few black-and-white images taken by Merlyn Severn and published in his book Sadler's Wells Ballet at Covent Garden, a record of the 1946 season.

In the February 1939 session for HMV, Lambert assayed some of the most familiar excerpts from the score - the Introduction, the Waltz, the Rose Adagio, Puss-in-Boots and the White Cat, and the Finale. In 1946, he avoided these items, taking up the Dance of the Maids of Honor and Pages, the Aurora Variation, Red Riding Hood and the Wolf, and a few other dances.

Robert Helpmann and Constant Lambert

Lambert's work is, as usual, beautifully done. Both orchestras are up to the task, although neither has much weight of tone, as far as one can tell from the 70- and 80-year-old recordings, which nonetheless are relatively good for the period. As you might expect, the sound from 1946 is better than from 1939.

The 1939 recordings are taken from lossless needle-drops found on Internet Archive, as refurbished by me. The 1946 excerpts come from an early 50's U.S. Columbia LP in my collection that also included ballet music from Gounod's opera Faust, discussed below.

Weldon Conducts Ballet Music from Gounod's Faust

George Weldon by
Walter Stoneman, 1949

George Weldon (1908-63) was a talented English conductor who was the director of the City of Birmingham Orchestra in 1946, when these recordings were taken down. He was to stay there only until 1950, when he was dismissed or resigned (accounts differ), supposedly because he was having an affair with choir director Ruth Gipps, a very good composer whose music has lately been revived. Orchestras could be strict about such things back then - blog favorite Efrem Kurtz was reportedly shown the stage door by the Houston Symphony because of a liaison with principal flute Elaine Shaffer, later a well-known soloist.

Weldon made quite a number of records for EMI during his brief life - including a semi-complete version of Sleeping Beauty in 1956. I believe he was associated with the Sadler's Wells Ballet at that time, although the recording was with the Philharmonia. Sadler's Wells music director Robert Irving had recorded a competing version of the ballet the year before, which has appeared on this blog. EMI seemed to make the score a specialty - and so does Big 10-Inch Record, it appears.

The premiere of Gounod's Faust had been in 1859; Gounod added the dance music to Act 5 a decade later at the request of the Paris Opera, where ballets were expected as part of the spectacle.

Weldon secures a lively performance from the underpowered Birmingham band, which had been been decimated during the war. The sound - as with the rest of these items - is well-balanced and pleasing without any high-fidelity pretensions.

'Lost Summer Love,' the Sleeping Beauty Mystery Put to Rest, Plus a Reup

Today we have a second autumn-themed mix from David Federman, an answer to the Great Sleeping Beauty Mystery, and a reup from ex-Cugat canary Abbe Lane.

'Lost Summer Love'

David has dubbed his latest compilation "Lost Summer Love." He writes, "This is an autumn-themed mix, meant to augment the almost sacred sense of loss that comes every September and October."

In five parts, it is typically eclectic, ranging from Chet Baker to Hal Kemp to the Glasgow Orpheus Choir. I am particularly fond of the two versions of the superb but forgotten melody, "It All Comes Back to Me Now," both by the superb but almost forgotten vocalist David Allyn - one at the beginning of his career and one from an later, unreleased Warner Bros. LP.

The download includes 33 songs in all, along with David's commentary.

The 'Sleeping Beauty' Mystery Solved

The subhead above may sound like the title of an Erle Stanley Gardner novel, but it actually relates to the who-directed-it mystery involving conductor Nicolai Malko's RCA Bluebird LP of excerpts from Tchaikovsky's ballet music for The Sleeping Beauty.

I posted the LP not long ago, only to have a knowledgeable fellow say that there was some dispute as to whether Malko did actually conduct the excerpts. Some people apparently claimed that they were a reprint of Constant Lambert's 1938 Sadler's Wells recordings instead.

I was familiar with the Lambert recordings - and plan to post them here soon - and that contrarian thesis did not seem right to me. For one thing, the excerpts on LP included a piece that Lambert didn't record in 1938. And the excerpts he did record then did not seem to be the same as the ones on the LP.

Since then, all the evidence that has been submitted (i.e., the original 78s and 45s containing the Malko recordings) have supported the conclusion that the LP is indeed the complete set of Malko excerpts. I believe it is the only place they can be found in toto.

Why the confusion? I suspect that RCA did initially issue the Bluebird LP with Lambert's recordings in place of Malko's. They apparently corrected the mistake in a subsequent pressing - the one I own and posted.

Abbe Lane Reup

One quick reup today - Abbe Lane's RCA LP Where There's a Man, from 1959. Abbe, at one time a Xavier Cugat singer and wife, wasn't a great vocalist, but she was a great deal of fun, as this album demonstrates. I think Miss Lane must has a steady following - this is the second time a reup has been requested. Follow this link to the original post.