Even more duplication

Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 6 in B minor, 'Pathétique'

3. Allegro molto vivace -abridged

The New Symphony Orchestra 

conducted by Landon Ronald

HMV 0757

(Matrix Nos.al5864f)

Saturday 6th January 1912

One Flac files , Here at Mediafire. [about 21Mb]

I meant to add one more tract to my last post but entirely forgot.

Thought I would also try out Soundcloud to see how it worked and indeed if it worked!  I have however left my usual link to the recoding for download by ye olde tried and tested method as it has probably better fidelity.

Not much to say really other than this is Ronald's first attempt at recording a part of the Symphony. Same orchestra but before the name change a few years later.  This recording lasted an even shorter period in the catalogues that the 1923 'full' version posed a few days ago. HMV decided to re-record the excerpt in 1915 with another attempt under the same issue number. Clearly a much smaller orchestra than the forces used in 1923 but still Ronald and his 'band of merry men' managed to pack a lot in all the same. 

You will hear through this recording a bit of 'rumble' that is prevelent usually when the trombones are playing. I have a feeling that the lower harmonics may have mechanically vibrated the recording machine, either through the floor or to some part of the machine was exposed to their blast - anyway I have left this in the transfer as a sort of curiosity.

Landon Ronald & the New Symphony Orchestra c. 1912

I just love the wording from the October 1912 HMV New Records supplement below. At 19 years of age the work was indeed a 'landmark of modern orchestral music.' I can't think the adjective 'barbaric' would be used today though.

I can't help wondering what the public of 1912 felt about these recordings. Ernest Newman article ‘The Essential Tchaikovsky’ [published in the Contemporary Review, June 1901] succinctly summed up the general opinion a few years early  'It cannot be said that our ordinary musical audiences know Tchaikovsky very well...for the great majority of people Tchaikovsky may be said to be represented by the Sixth Symphony, the '1812' Overture, and the Casse-Noisette Suite - the first earning him the reputation of a hopeless pessimist, the second that of a semi-barbarian, the third that of an adept in graceful trifling.

Barbarian and Tchaikovsky synonymous then.

Yet more duplication

Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 6 in B minor, 'Pathétique'

1. Allegro non troppo

2. Allegro non grazia

3. Allegro molto vivace

4. Finale, adagio lamentoso

The Royal Albert Hall Orchestra 

conducted by Landon Ronald

HMV D 713-D 717

(Matrix Nos.Cc2463-4; Cc2916-2; Cc2917-2; Cc2918-2; Cc2919-4; 

Cc2920-1; Cc2921-1; Cc2984-2; Cc2985-4 & Cc2986-7)

Side 1 on 30th January 1923 ~ Sides 2,3,4 6 & 7 on 1st May 1923 ~ side 8 on 15th May 1923

 sides 5 & 9 on 29th May 1923 ~  side 10 on 23rd June 1923 : [see chart below]

Zip of 4 Flac files , Here at Mediafire. [about 99Mb]

Oh no! not another Pathétique I hear you say, and yes it has been done before by others, but as I was doing this for my own selfish interest anyway, I thought I could also bore others with my enthusiasm. It is not quite complete as the two repeats in the second movement and fourteen bars at the end of the final movement are cut, plus a couple of notes of timpani between the third and fourth sides of the first movement.

It might seem curious that Landon Ronald was chosen to conduct the 'Pathétique' rather than Albert Coates the new conductor on the roster of HMV, however Ronald's association with the piece had a long gestation period. In his two autobiographical works he makes several references to the piece and more than did his part in popularising it in the UK.

Ronald began conducting in 1892 but it was really from 1904 that he started to conduct larger orchestral works. His career really took off as a byproduct from Henry Wood and Thomas Beecham's  fall out over the deputy system that was then prevalent with orchestras. Basically a time honoured substitution system that allowed another player to deputise during rehearsals.  Henry Wood sacked the Queen's Hall Orchestra in 1904 because he could no longer tolerate the deputy system, with the member reorganising themselves into the London Symphony Orchestra  Ronald became one of their conductors. The orchestra employed Nikisch and Richter for special concerts with Frederick Cowan, Edward Elgar, Alexander Mackenzie, Max Fiedler, Felix Weingartner Wilhelm Mengelberg, and Ronald taking a half dozen or so concerts each. 

Landon Ronald & Henry Wood, 1909

Beecham at this time was also beginning his path to fame and created his own orchestra, he too fell out with his players and so his New Symphony Orchestra became a self governing orchestra from 1909. Ronald was asked if he would conduct some concerts with this orchestra and found himself conducting both the LSO and the New Symphony Orchestra from 1909. The policy of the LSO was not to have a permanent conductor, Ronald wanted to advance his career and although he never sought any permanent position he was disappointed that the orchestra restricted him to between six and eight Sunday concerts per year. 'Had they had any foresight they would undoubtedly have realised that an ambitious young man like myself would not be content to sit down and take crumbs thrown him by the the Directors of the London Symphony orchestra.' (see Landon Ronald: Myself and others [1931]) So it was that Ronald became the chief conductor of the New Symphony and conducted for forty Sundays each year at the Royal Albert Hall.

The New Symphony had quite an amazing group of players for the time, now alas for the most part all but forgotten; the leader was  John Saunders with his pupil Albert Sammons, deputy leader; Waldo Warner lead the violas; Jean Prewvenners the cellos (until 1911 when succeeded by Warwick Evans); Charles Draper first clarinet; Arthur Forman, first oboe; Aubrey Brain, first horn; Peter Anderson and H. Goddard, trumpets; Eli Hudson first flute and chairman of the orchestra; and F.C. Barker, harp. 

With the series of concerts every Sunday at the Albert Hall with the New Symphony Orchestra Ronald was able to bring his orchestra to HMV and pioneer a number of orchestral recording experiments. This is why this orchestra and a number of its players individually began to be employed by HMV around this time. When the New Symphony Orchestra renamed itself the Royal Albert Hall Orchestra in 1915 Ronald was named as its permanent conductor, a position he held until the orchestra ceased to exist after 1928. Under Ronald it also became the first orchestra in Britain to have a recording contract, naturally enough with The Gramophone Company.

Ronald in 1920

Now why the Pathétique? Well quite simply he played it more often than anyone else between about 1910 and 1920. According to his autobiography Ronald relates 'It had been our custom to give the audience a voting paper during the season, and ask them to place a cross against any particular item which they would care to have performed at the last concert. I always counted the votes most carefully myself, and the program was duly advertised in the papers two or three days before the concert. As a matter of interest I may mention that nearly all the Plebiscite programmes I have conducted in London and the Provinces as a rule contained the same items. The Symphony receiving the greatest number of votes was either Tchaikovsky's Pathétique or Beethoven's No. 5 the Overture chosen was generally Tannhäuser,  Meistersingers or Leonora No. 3, and the two most popular suites were the Casse Noisette of Tchaikovsky and the Peer Gynt of Grieg - The Delibes Suite de Ballet Sylvia running the two very close.'

All of the above compositions were recorded by Ronald and the New Symphony or Royal Albert Hall Orchestra. 

This advert from The Times of 27th April 1919 clearly shows all the other items on the bill were also recorded by Ronald. I presume that these were 'Ronald's' pieces and although quite a number of them were the plums of the concert repertoire it would seem he had first pick not only because of his position in the Gramophone Company but was one of the few conductors prepared to take on the arduous task of recording them.

The recording of such a long piece was fraught with difficulties. Side 1 took four takes on the 30th of January 1923. I have a gut feeling that these four takes, the only waxes  recorded by Ronald and the Orchestra, were all sound tests. They would have worked out various different positions for the players at this session and probably many more takes were cut than the four which were mastered. Only these four proved technically, or at least visually, alright when the waxes were examined before processing. This supposition seems to be born out by the general clear run of recordings on the 1st of May. 

The last movement though proved to be a bit of a problem. The sheer volume of sound produced by trombones, trumpets, horns, timpani etc. not to mention the tuba replacement for double-bass all playing over long sections of the recording must have been just a bit too much for the small recording diaphragm and the wax grooves. HMV were not happy until a 7th take was made on the 23 June 1923 although it appears that they initially passed the 4th take of 29th May that lasted only a month or so before being replaced, it would be quite interesting to hear this take too. The sound scape changes a bit on this last side indicating some form of damping taking place although I have ameliorated this in my transfer.

Anyway for the lunatics like me around the world I have charted the recording session takes with blue = issued and green = initially issued but then withdrawn. Interesting also to note that Tuesday seemed to been the main free day for recording of this orchestra. 

The set was marketed in July 1923 but was effectively replaced by Albert Coates and the 'Symphony Orchestra' (actually the LSO) new electrical recording issued on HMV D1190-1194 in March 1927, Ronald's version still lingered on until June 1927.   

Being topical

Well as topical as one can be about something made and played long ago:-

Landing through my letterbox today was the Spring 2014 edition of Classical Recordings Quarterly. An article on violinist Marie Hall (1884-1956) has prompted me to make a few transfers of her playing. Her late recordings are scarce and I don't think these discs have ever been made available except in their original format.

Marie Hall violin

Sinding: Romance, Op.9

Sinigaglia: Capriccio all'antica, Op.25 No.2

Goossens: Old Chinese Folk Song, Op.4, No.1

Holst: Valse-Etude, H.56

HMV E340  (Bb 4227-1; Bb 4238-3)

HMV E348  (Bb 4236-3; Bb 4237-1)

All recorded on 20 February 1924 with  Marguerite Tilleard, piano excepting the

Sinigaglia which was recorded on the 21st February 1924 with Charlton Reith, piano.

Zip of 4 Flac files , Here at Mediafire. [about 35Mb]

These four pieces must have been part of her repertoire in 1924, coincidentally a recent post on another blog Land of Lost Content transcribes a letter from Marie Hall in which she encourages British music. As is pointed out, the three pieces she played at a Wigmore Hall recital in 1922 have disappeared. The other correspondent, John Ireland no less, suggests several other piece that have subsequently stood the test of time. I wonder if Marie Hall career was leaning towards modern music but unfortunately for her the wrong sort of 'modern' music.

Marie Hall about 1904

What of the pieces, the Sinding and the Sinigaglia were both fairly standard repertoire in their day and do crop up from time to time on record and probably formed part of Hall's concert material. The Goossens was played by Marie Hall on the 19th September 1922 at a concert in Portsmouth, so this too was maybe also in her repertoire. Apparently Goossens researched authentic material from London’s Chinese quarter in Limehouse, I wonder what else he got up to in that quarter of London in his youth. Imogen Holst in her article on recordings of her father Gustav Holst for Recorded Sound (No. 59, 1975 p. 440) noted that ‘The early violin solo, Valse-Etude, was recorded by Marie Hall, the dedicatee, in 1924 (HMV E348), and as she had first performed it in 1903 she would have known his wishes.’ I might add that Marguerite Tilleard was apparently Marie Hall's accompanist from 1902 so would all likelihood have premiered the work with Hall.

Gustav Holst in 1923

These records come from what appear to be Hall’s last recording sessions. Fascinating for they show them juxtaposed with four remakes of La précieuse (Couperin-Kreisler); Humoreske (Dvořák); Minuet in G No. 2 (Beethoven) and Le cygne (Saint-Saëns) made in order to replace sides on HMV E16, E17 & E18. I think the deal may have been to re-record replacement masters and see if there was a market for her newish repertoire. Apparently the new records did not sell very well as E340, issued in May 1924, and E 348. issued in August 1924, were both deleted in December 1925. Only her Humoreske, survived any length of time until finally discarded in 1934. She was not asked back to make electric recording, maybe HMV just had too many already violinists on the books already.

Christian Sinding in 1890

There are only a few contemporary reviews of these discs:

For E340 only 'Discus' gave a review in The Musical Times for June 1924. 'A first-rate violin record is a 12-in. d.-s. of Thibaud in a couple of Granados's Spanish Dances, arranged by Kreisler and the player himself. Less good, because of the poorer quality of the music, is a 12-in. [sic] d.-s. of Marie Hall-Sinding's Romance and Sinigaglia's Catriccio all' antica.'

Leone Sinigaglia

For E348 there are two reviews  'Discus' again The Musical Times for September 1924 'The only violin record received is above the average of interest - Marie Hall playing Holst's 'Valse-Etude' and Goossens's 'Old Chinese Folk- Song' (10-in. d.-s.). The former gives us an unfamiliar aspect of Holst, and an engaging one.  The playing is delightful in freedom and delicacy.  I don't know whether the Goossens piece deals with a genuine Chinese folk-song, or whether it is just the composer's idea of what such a song might be; but  the result - especially in regard to some of the pianoforte harmonies - is excellent.' 

Also Alex Robertson in The Gramophone for August, 1924. 'The names of Goossens and Holst suggest an outburst of modernism, but you need have no fears. Holst's piece is just what its title tells us, and completely unambitious; and Goossens' nice “travelling" tune (pace Walford Davies) never originated in China and is cousin to some of Madame Butterfly. Both pieces are fastidiously and well played.'

Eugene Goossens in 1920

I have included a couple of scans from the HMV Supplements for May, 1924 and August, 1924 too. I just love the statement ‘It was daring of Marie Hall to choose for her records pieces of modern British music whose work is so widely and hotly discussed as is that of Goossens and Holst.’ That the pieces were inked in 1912 and 1903 respectively they may have been just  'daring' enough for the recording executives to take a risk, sales however were poor but at least they tried to extend the taste of a rather conservative record buying public. Also note the issues coincided with more expensive red-label issue of Jacques Thibaud

Three contemporary articles on Marie can be found at the blog Song of the Lark. Well down the page you have to search for it!

 Stradivarius 1709 ex “Viotti-Marie Hall”