GOULD

This disc vividly showcases the many talents of Morton Gould. Brilliant conductor and pianist, composer of serious concert and ballet music, composer of Broadway shows, popular songs, and film and television scores, Gould’s body of work rivals and, in some ways, even surpasses those of say, Leonard Bernstein and Andre Previn, to name but two whose careers have been equally diverse. Yet the fame and accolade enjoyed by his more celebrated colleagues somehow eluded Gould. Despite winning numerous awards, including a 1994 Kennedy Center Honor and the 1995 Pulitzer Prize, Gould seems to have been somewhat dismissed within the classical music community as a highly skilled, but ultimately uninspired craftsman. Even the Pulitzer win (for his Stringmusic) was seen by many as being more of a “lifetime achievement award” than for the specific work receiving the prize. Yet an examination of his life’s work reveals a brilliant mind that produced exceptional music in a wide variety of genres.

Gould wrote several marvelous ballet scores, the best of which—Fall River Legend and Interplay—can hold their own with those of Aaron Copland. His serious orchestral music, written in a broad range of styles, is at least on par with that of Howard Hanson, Roy Harris, and Norman Dello Joio, while the best of his lighter works are the equal of those of Leroy Anderson. Perhaps Gould’s downfall may have been that he was just too gifted in too many different areas to concentrate on developing any one of them to the absolute highest level.

The original music on this disc represents the lighter side of Gould. Family Album is a wonderfully endearing piece of homespun Americana. Each of its five movements—“Outing in the Park,” “Porch Swing on a Summer Evening,” “Nickelodeon,” “Old Romance,” and “Horseless Carriage Galop”—is a charming vignette, perfectly evoking the nostalgia and simplicity of small town American life. Gould composed not one, but two concert works for tap dancer and orchestra. The first of the two, Tap Dance Concerto from 1952, is presented here. (A second, Hoofer Suite, came four years later.) Though the work contains some attractive music, the constant clatter of the dancer’s taps wears on one’s nerves after a bit. At a live pops concert, I can well imagine that Tap Dance Concerto might be a highly entertaining novelty, but as a pure listening experience, it just doesn’t work.

The disc opens with Gould’s masterful orchestration of Tchaikovsky’s delightful piano work The Months [usually called The Seasons]. Indeed, Gould’s brilliant transcription is so idiomatically “right” that one could be excused for mistaking the work for a Tchaikovsky original. Especially effective are the rustic reeds of “July, Song of the Reaper” and the blazing brass of “September, Hunter’s Song.” Gould even shows admirable restraint in his tasteful use of sleigh bells in “November, Troika” (Sleigh Ride). My only quibble is in Gould’s decision to include a prominent piano part in the orchestration, in effect turning the work into a 12-movement concerto. I would have preferred a purely orchestral treatment.

Morton Gould’s Orchestra and the Rochester “Pops” play splendidly; with Gould himself at the helm, as well as serving as his own piano soloist on the Tchaikovsky, one must assume these readings to be authoritative. The vintage 1950s mono recording sounds just fine, with a wide frequency range and vivid detailing. All in all, a very engaging and enjoyable disc that displays the extraordinary talents of this multifaceted American musician. Merlin Patterson

MENGELBERG—THE DAWN OF ELECTRICAL RECORDING • Willem Mengelberg, cond; Samuel Gardner (vn);1 New York P;1 BBC SO2 • PRISTINE 184, mono (50:12) Broadcast: New York 4/2/1924;1 London 1/18/1938.2 Available at pristineclassical.com

STRAUSS Death and Transfiguration: Excerpts.1 WAGNER Flying Dutchman: Overture (excerpt).1 MENDELSSOHN Violin Concerto: Excerpt.1 A Midsummer Night’s Dream: Overture; Nocturne; Scherzo.2 BERLIOZ Symphonie fantastique: Un bal (excerpt)2

This CD, also available as MP3 and FLAC downloads (www.pristineclassical.com), is unique in many ways. The New York Philharmonic items were recorded electrically by Bell Telephone from a telephone transmission line of a radio broadcast, as an experimental test of the system of electrical recordings that it was developing at the time. Along with three earlier broadcasts of Philharmonic concerts (December 3 and 17, 1923; January 21, 1924), they are the first live recordings of a symphony orchestra. Why doesn’t this disc include those earlier recordings? Because they were conducted by Willem van Hoogstraten, co-conductor of the Philharmonic—he led 37 concerts that season, Mengelberg 33—but forgotten today. The two Death and Transfiguration excerpts (a total of 11 minutes and 45 seconds) were first released in a New York Philharmonic 10-CD historical set; the other items on this disc are first releases, although they have long circulated in the tape underground.

Which brings us to other reasons why this disc is unique. Mengelberg recorded the Strauss and Wagner pieces in the studio, plus the Mendelssohn Scherzo, but the other works are new to his discography. For better or sometimes worse, his live performances were always wilder than his studio recordings. Pristine’s transfers of Tod und Verklärung excerpts (oddly, this French outfit uses English titles) are noisier than those in the New York Philharmonic’s own 10-CD historical set, but they seethe and surge with life. Anyone comfortable with historical recordings will be able to feel the dramatic power of this performance. It is upsetting to be dropped into the middle of an extensive piece (and then pulled out), as is the case with all the New York recordings. The orchestral playing is nowhere near as sophisticated as that in Mengelberg’s 1942 Telefunken recording with the Concertgebouw, however, and this Flying Dutchman is dreadful; Mengelberg and Toscanini would whip the New Yorkers into top shape over the next few years. The Violin Concerto is better, as the conductor is not pulling out all the stops, but the brass do make a few obnoxious intrusions. Samuel Gardner is not an exceptional instrumentalist, so the performance is merely decent.

The 1938 BBC concert was very well recorded, but damaged acetates have added to the distortion. Again Pristine gets more body and color to the sound than I could have imagined from multigenerational copies of analog tapes in the bad old days. But analog has still been in the mix, as there are (minor) signs of tape stretching. The playing is wonderful, except for the horns, which we used to be told were the Brains, father and son. The Mendelssohn Overture has a thrilling, unmatched vitality, although it has lost most of its gossamer subtlety. The Nocturne—both the playing and the sound—is unlistenable; I cannot believe it comes from the same performance. The Scherzo is back on track; it’s as fine as Mengelberg’s Columbia recording. The Fantastique excerpt (the first 3:25 of “Un bal”) is the finest performance and the finest sound on this disc. It is flat-out gorgeous, swinging as never since, making us wish that Mengelberg had recorded the whole symphony, and suggesting an additional reason why van Beinum’s three Concertgebouw recordings are so special. There were rumors for years that complete acetates of this Mengelberg performance exist, but I haven’t heard anything lately.

Ninety-five percent of our readership would hate this disc, but, for those who care, it is a revelation, a treasure to be savored. James H. North