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Some old recordings
Mosolov: Steel Foundry (Zavod) op.19
The title is variously translated as "Steel Foundry", "Iron Foundry", "Mechanical Ballet" or simply "The Factory". The title given on the disc is Steel Foundry, which is a translation from the French title Fonderie d'acier. The piece received its first performance in France on 1st February 1931 and first in the USA (as a ballet) at the Hollywood Bowl on 28th July the same year. This recording, in which the metal sheet is clearly audible, is played by the Orchestre Symphonique de Paris conducted by Julius Ehrlich. According to the original label, Ehrlich was from the State Opera in Leningrad, but he later moved to Milwaukee. The recording comes from a 10" light blue label Columbia disc, LB17, released in late 1934. LB16, its companion, contained the Russian Dance and Polka from The Age of Gold by Shostakovich - or Szostakowicz as it was spelt then. Alexander Mosolov (or Mossolov) was born in in Kiev in 1900 and studied composition with Glière in Kiev, composition with Myaskovsky and piano with Prokofiev at the Moscow Conservatoire between 1922-5. His early songs had newspaper advertisements as texts. He was among the first proponents of Soviet realism under the name "constructivist music". He died in 1973. To quote a review of a later recording, "this is music of a metallic nightmare". Click here to downloadMeytuss: Dnieprostroi (Dnieper Water Power Station)
Completed in 1932, the 167 foot high dam which supported the largest single hydro-electric plant in Europe was a source of immense pride to the Soviet state and to the thousands of workers who had helped to regulate the 1,400 mile-long river Dnieper. This piece appears to depict the construction of the dam for the power station. Another piece of socialist realism, it is scored almost exclusively for percussion.
Click here to downloadGrainger: Shepherd's HeyA single-sided disc dating from 1908 of the great Australian pianist Percy Grainger playing his own work, Shepherd's Hey. The original disc had very heavy surface noise, but it's been possible to filter much of it out without affecting the piano tone. The volume level is very low—this comes from the original—but I think the result is listenable to, wrong notes, masses of energy, and all. In 1906, Grainger heard three fiddlers in the Bedford Morris-Dance Team, and notated the tune which he arranged for piano in 1908, which was first published in 1911 in chamber and solo-piano settings. The recording comes from a 10" black label HMV disc. Click here to downloadAyer: The Bing Boys on BroadwayA hit show from the Great War by Nat D. Ayer, this is an orchestral selection recorded in 1918. Opening on 16th February 1918 at the Alhambra Theatre, London, The Bing Boys on Broadway (1918) had been preceded by The Bing Boys are Here (1916) and The Bing Boys are There (1917). Nat D. Ayer was born in 1897 in Boston, USA, and died in 1952 in Bath, England. In 1911 his hit song "Oh! You Beautiful Doll" appeared and this was followed in 1916 by his greatest hit (from The Bing Boys are Here) "If You Were The Only Girl In The World". Ayer moved to England shortly afterwards and stayed for the rest of his life. The surfaces of the original disc are very worn so there is a significant amount of noise. Click here to download Side OneClick here to download Side TwoFrederic Hymen Cowen: The Language of Flowers
Two single-sided HMV discs of music by one of England's forgotten composers, conducted by the composer himself. Frederic Hymen Cowen's suite de ballet The Language of Flowers was first performed at one of the Saturday Orchestral Concerts at St James's Hall, London on 27th November 1880. It was immediately successful. It was followed thirty-four years later by a "Second Set" first performed at a Promenade Concert in Queen's Hall, London, on Saturday 19th September 1914. Each of the numbers depicts a flower and its symbolism as determined by the Language of Flowers. Yellow Jasmine, the gavotte from the First Set, symbolises "grace and elegance". Viscaria, the waltz from the Second Set, symbolises - what else? - "Will you dance with me?" Recorded in early December 1916, these two recordings were probably first released in May 1917 as part of an album containing eight single-sided recordings of British music conducted by the composers. Click here to download Yellow JasmineClick here to download ViscariaMy thanks go to Dan O'Hara for supplying the original transfers. Maeterlinck: The Burgomaster of StilemondeThis comes from another part of this site, but I thought it was worth including here. This is my ancestor, the actor-manager Sir John Martin-Harvey, playing the part of the Belgian burgomaster, Cyrille van Belle, from the very end of Maeterlinck's Great War drama, originally called Le Bourgmestre de Stilmonde. The female voice of Isabelle heard at the very end, is played by Sir John's wife, Lady Martin-Harvey. It was recorded in on 1st March 1933 by the BBC and first broadcast in the series The Stars in their Courses on 27 May. Click here to download
© Chris Goddard, 23 January, 2008
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A
rare piece of "socialist realist" music written in the USSR during the
1920s. Sources differ on the origin and dates, but the most convincing I
have found says that it was part of a ballet from 1926-8 called Stal (Steel) intended to glorify the time of
industrialisation. However, the label on this disc says it comes from a Symphony of
Machines. The score includes a part for metal sheet. It was later criticised for
being "decadent".
The
"B-side" of the Mossolov disc above, with the same forces. The title is
translated as "the Dnieper Water Power Station".
Yuli
(Julius) Meytus(s) was born in 1903 in Elisavetgrad.
In 1919-20 he was a pianist in the First Cavalry Army. In 1923-24 he was the leader in
Kharkov Opera Theatre and the manager of the musical part of Proletcult theatre. He died
in April 1997 in Kiev.
