Welcome to our new issue. Back are two previous contributors. The first is artist/writer Neale Osborne, whose visual guides of Soviet-era opera film (Spring 2023) and the music of Gian Francesco Malipiero (Summer 2023) were so compelling. We now journey with him to the magical world of Nielsen’s Aladdin (p. 120). Second is Tom Wolf, who penned profiles of piano duo Luboshutz and Nemenoff (Summer 2022) and flutists Marcel Moyse and William Kincaid (Fall 2022). He now returns with a piece on Carlos Salzedo and his Harp Colony in Camden. Tom and his family had close connections to Salzedo: they were neighbors during summers in Maine and Wolf was himself coached by the Maître (p. 33).
Salzedo is also the focus of this quarter’s Performer-as-Composer Dept, written by the Australian harpist Alice Giles. Among today’s top players, Giles has recorded Salzedo’s music, and much else, and is a leading authority on him (p. 225). After a brief intermission, we resume our survey of Peter Rosen’s films with his 2003 Khachaturian, still the only documentary on the great composer and one that might never have been made without the advocacy of virtuoso Dora Serviarian-Kuhn (p. 215).
A Mitropoulos double-bill. In “From the Archives”, we present his 1946 Columbia set of Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 3, the first after the composer’s own, and still among the only accounts led from the keyboard (p. 70). During most of the CD era the Greek conductor was little represented in the catalog. That changed with the appearance of a small independent label called Nickson Records, which ultimately issued some 71 titles, much of it rare broadcast material. We tell its story here (p. 87).
In this quarter’s “Curiosity Shop”, our writer emeritus Alan Sanders appraises that most tantalizing of rarities, the unreleased recording. In this case it is a late Brahms recital by Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, of which only two copies survive (p. 203).
I would like to give a warm welcome to a very special guest, Donald Isler, whose book Afterthoughts of a Pianist/Teacher is a classic of its kind and will be of unfailing interest to pianophiles in its discussion of great keyboard artists past and present. See our profile and interview of him, beginning on p. 153. A pupil of Bruce Hungerford, Donald is also the founder of KASP Records, which has issued several CDs of the legendary Australian pianist – see our Label Focus on p. 161. Finally, Donald is this quarter’s Castaway, drawing our attention to six “Desert Island” piano recordings (p. 196).
In “Rarissima” we examine Prokofiev’s 1938 78rpm set of the Suite No. 2 from his own Romeo & Juliet, a somewhat mysterious recording, the only document of him conducting on record (p. 54).
In “The Art of Cover Art” you will meet the extraordinary Miriam Schottland, now age 89, and among the very last to have done album cover art during the heydays of the 1960s LP boom. A remarkable life, she flew in combat missions during Vietnam, worked on commission from NASA and ultimately became one of the Washington, D.C. area’s premier anti-terrorism driving instructors. She also designed many very recognizable covers for Concert Hall, Vanguard, RCA and other labels (p. 169).
The rest of the usual suspects are also here. I hope you this finds you well. As always, thanks for staying with us. Your support is deeply appreciated.
— Warm wishes, Joe Moore