I've had a number of requests to put this up again, only complete this time. Last year, when Newstalgia was in its first few weeks, I had put up this performance of the Moussorgsky Pictures At An Exhibition as performed by The New York Philharmonic, guest Conducted by the legendary Fritz Reiner from the broadcast of March 20, 1960. At the time, I only had YouTube as a means of offering this post. And YouTube has a ten minute maximum on their players which meant I could either not offer this at all, or offer a ten minute excerpt with the promise that I would offer the complete performance some day when we got the new C&L players.

Well, that some day has arrived and I am happy to offer this complete performance of the Moussorgsky Pictures At An Exhibition with The New York Philharmonic led by Fritz Reiner.

Sorry it took so long.

Another recording from the Radio France Transcription Service. Unfortunately, this disc is rather trashed, but the music contained in the largely destroyed grooves is significant. Swiss-French Composer Artur Honegger completed this work for Piano and Orchestra (Concertino) in 1948 and this recording, according to the original program notes, was made shortly after the premier.

Strangely, cataloges don't list this work as the Concertino, but rather a Concerto for Piano, Horn and Strings composed in 1948. And the Concertino a piece composed by Honegger in 1924. Since I don't have fingertip access to other recordings of the work to make my own discoveries, I guess I will rely on what the announcer indicated was the Concertino and see if a reader can make the discovery.

In any event, it's an important work and one which features the great Pedagogue of the French Piano school Eliane Richepin, along with the Symphony Orchestra of the French Radio conducted by Pierre-Michel LeConte.

Enjoy, and apologies beforehand if the scratches and damage are truly distracting.

Digging through the Transcriptions of French Radio again this week. It's music of Louis Aubert as performed by legendary mezzo-Soprano Irma Kolassi with the Orchestra of the French Radio conducted by Pierre-Michel LeConte in radio performances from 1950.

Three of the six Poemes Arabes (1. Le Visage Penche` 2. Le Vaincu 3. Le Destin) and the Orchestral tone poem Tomb of Chateaubriand, all Radio Studio performances.

From looking at her biographies Irma Kolassi, although she was a much loved singer and teacher, was not that prolific in the recording studio. So the performances I'm posting today are rather rare and have, in all probabilities, not been re-isssued by anyone. So this may be a first for you, if you're a collector.

In any case, these are wonderful performances, not only of the Poemes but also the bigger orchestral Chateaubriand. A sadly neglected composer these days whose work is of the highest order.

But don't take my word for it.

Hit "play" and enjoy.

The Eastman School of music Orchestra under the direction of Howard Hanson played music of Student Composers on this particular evening in 1953.

Works featured on this set of transcription discs from March 6, 1953 are:

1. Walter Hartley: Ballet Music For Orchestra
2. William Pursell: Christ Looking Over Jerusalem
3. Ron Nelson: Savannah River Holiday

It's not likely any of these are familiar, or even ring bells. But these were representative of the Best and Brightest at the time.

Enjoy what's currently left of Sunday.

Please consider making a donation as preserving history isn't cheap.

Again this week from the French Radio Transcription collection. This one is a radio studio performance of a ballet written in 1935 by Marcel Delannoy. Cendrillon (Cinderella) and performed in this recording by the French National Orchestra conducted by Jean Giardino. Giardino is not a terribly familiar name outside of France unless you collect French 78 rpm discs and early lp's from the 1940's and early 1950's. He recorded almost exclusively for Pathe`. Delannoy is primarily known these days as a soundtrack composer as well as music critic, but his early works received good reviews and considerable attention from his contemporaries, including Ravel.

Here's a recording that probably hasn't been heard since it was first made of a piece that is seldom performed.

Enjoy.

If you don't mind . . . .it's very much appreciated.

Slowly chipping away at the mountain of French Radio Transcriptions. This one comes by way of the (circa) 1952 Strasbourg Music Festival with the Strasbourg Radio Symphony conducted by Louis Martin in a performance of the seldom heard Rhapsodie Flamande by Albert Roussel.

Enjoy.

Since we've been diving into French Radio Transcriptions a lot these past few weeks, I thought I would break things up by spending a bit of time with the BBC. This one in particular is pretty special, mostly because it features the great Sir Thomas Beecham leading an all-Mozart program and commenting as he goes along which, if you like droll senses of humor, this has your name on it. The one hour concert features the following Mozart pieces: Overture to Magic Flute, Divertimento Number 2, Piano Concerto Number 19 (with Betty Humby Beecham, piano) and the Overture to Marriage of Figaro.

All good stuff from April 28, 1947, courtesy the BBC Transcription Service and those monstrous 16" discs which you don't want to drop on your foot.

Can't seem to get out from under the mountain of French Radio Transcriptions this week, so I'm just going with the flow on this.

Tonight it's a performance from circa 1958 featuring the Quatuor Marcel Mule playing the music of Jeanine Rueff in a recording made for French Radio and not issued commercially.

Jeanine Rueff had a remarkable career, not only as part of that increasing number of Women composers in France but also as Professor at the prestigious Paris Conservatory.

This particular recording is her Quartet for Saxophones.

Back over to the French Radio transcriptions this week and music by Jean Cras (1879-1932).

Jean Cras is a pretty remarkable figure and something of a renaissance man in the process. In addition to a long and distinguished career in the French Navy where he achieved the rank of Rear Admiral, he was also a scientist, inventor and philosopher and enjoyed great popularity as a composer during his lifetime. However, after his death in 1932, Jean Cras has been largely overlooked by both musicians and audiences and sadly, much of his work has been forgotten over the years.

Even though Cras is not a familiar name with most audiences, his chamber music has become the best known of all his work, in particular this piece, the Trio for Strings, which I'm featuring today.

This recording features the legendary Pasquier Trio (Jean, Pierre and Etienne) and was recorded by French Radio around 1953 (no exact dates, just guessing based on scribbled label dates).

As always, something interesting and adventuresome by way of scratchy shellac or vinyl. Just happens to turn out that way.

Back over to some Americana tonight. Phil Moore established his reputation in the music world as a Jazz musician, composer and arranger, working with many of the greats of the day. He was also a prolific film soundtrack composer, but most all of his work in that area went uncredited owing to the racial barriers of the day (Phil Moore was black). Rather than let that thwart his career, he flourished and branched out into a number of musical idioms, among them Classical, or in his case a melding of Classical and Jazz. One of the results was his concerto for Piano and Orchestra which he recorded for the Los Angeles label Discovery Records in October of 1947. The Orchestra consists of some of the biggest names in the L.A. session scene in the 1940's, including Gerald Wilson and Red Callender along with members of the MGM Studio orchestra and Calvin Jackson at the Piano.

Like most of the attempts at fusing Classical and Jazz, it never quite figures out what it wants to do and it probably could have used a couple more takes here and there (it was recorded during the dreaded October of 1947 just before the great Musicians Strike at the end of that month). But it's a glimpse into another place and time when a lot of contributions were being made to the cause of contemporary music and they were coming seemingly from everywhere. That they have become mostly forgotten now is rather sad because it does ignore a particularly innovative period of time in music and certainly in American music. Whether these attempts are viewed as successful or not isn't as important as that they happened at all and happened in an atmosphere of acceptance - and where the color line meant nothing and creativity had full reign.

It happened and that's a good thing.