From the Archives
The First Recordings by Composers
The very earliest recordings of all mostly involved a voice, with piano accompaniment, or a solo piano. Fortunately for posterity, voices were comparatively well captured by the primitive techniques of the time and give us a reasonably good indication of the qualities possessed by the greatest singers of the day. Piano tone was less faithfully…
The Composer as Performer
There has been a curious historic avoidance of the issues surrounding the question of performances by composers of their own works. It is a topic that has never been considered in detail by even the most erudite musical scholars. Instead, we read such statements as “The composer is not necessarily the best interpreter of his…
“Music for Frustrated Conductors” on RCA LSC-2325
Who can honestly say that they have not at some point, in the privacy of their own home, conducted the New York, Berlin, or Vienna Philharmonic? Cueing the brass through the final glorious chords to rousing applause, and then be left gasping for breath, perspiring even, and finally wondering how conductors do it? [The Editor…
Who was Rita Tritter?
As many readers will know, the late John Steane was one of the finest writers on the subject of vocal art, and his knowledge was encyclopedic. Seeking to catch him out one day, I asked him, “John, who was Rita Tritter?”. Back came the answer: “Ah yes, she recorded Schoenberg”. She did indeed, his cruelly…
A Reluctant Maestro Conducts Bruckner’s Eighth
For years Reginald Goodall coached singers in his room at the Royal Opera House, having been openly derided by the music director, Georg Solti, as no longer being capable of live conducting. Then he emerged in 1968 to conduct a widely praised new English language production of Wagner’s The Mastersingers at Sadler’s Wells. I was…
Pierre Monteux conducts Debussy’s Rondes de Printemps
For many years Debussy’s final orchestral work, the ballet Jeux, was thought to represent a falling-off in the composer’s powers. That is not so now, since Pierre Boulez and others have demonstrated its innovative and prophetic qualities, and it is regarded as a work of seminal importance. The status of Debussy’s immediately preceding orchestral composition,…
Riddle Solves the Problem: The Walton Viola Concerto World Premiere Recording
As is well-known, the great viola player Lionel Tertis commissioned Walton’s Viola Concerto, but initially rejected the work, and Paul Hindemith gave the first performance with the composer as conductor in October 1929. On that occasion Walton found Hindemith to be a disappointingly “no-nonsense player. He just stood up and played”. I was therefore surprised…
Nikolai Sokoloff and The Cleveland Orchestra – Rachmaninoff Symphony No. 2 in E Minor Op. 27
In May 1928 the Cleveland Orchestra and Music Director Nikolai Sokoloff undertook a momentous recording project: Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 2 in E minor, its gramophone debut. Running to 46 minutes and occupying 12 78-rpm sides, it was a daring venture by the New York-based Brunswick label. Initially retailing for $12, the label was forced to…
Herbert Sandberg Conducts Grieg’s Holberg Suite on DGG
Herbert Sandberg (1902-1966) was cut from the same cloth as many of his more famous colleagues – Bruno Walter and Otto Klemperer, among others – diligently learning his trade first as répétiteur and then assistant conductor, shepherding hundreds of operatic productions to fruition. If he never attained their fame, he was without doubt an indispensable…