John McGlinn, RIP
AndrewJ
http://broadwayworld.com/article/John_McGlinn_Conductor_Musical_Archivist_Passes_Away_20010101
Various reports have indicated the sad news that American conductor
and musical theatre archivist John McGlinn passed away today, Saturday
February 14th, 2009.
There is not at present any other details regarding his death, but we
will update as more information becomes available.
He was one of the principal proponents of making authentic studio cast
recordings of classic musical theatre works.
McGlinn was the music director for the off-Broadway productions of
Jerome Kern's SITTING PRETTY (1989) and THE CAT AND THE FIDDLE (1990).
John McGlinn was active in the recording studio in the 1980's and his
complete recordings of Jerome Kern & Oscar Hammerstein's SHOW BOAT and
Cole Porter's ANYTHING GOES are considered to be the definitive
representations of those productions.
John McGlinn made his operatic debut in 1993 conducting for the
Juilliard Opera Theatre. He made his New York City Opera debut in
1996.
For many years he was active in the restoration and recording of
American stage works, recording with such artists as Frederica von
Stade, Thomas Hampson, Ruth Ann Swenson, Teresa Stratas, Jerry Hadley
and Roberta Peters, and recorded Fieber with Ian Bostridge and the
orchestra of NDR Hannover. He has performed and recorded with the
London Sinfonietta, the London Symphony, the Scottish Chamber
Orchestra, the Orchestra of the Bologna Opera, the Monte Carlo
Philharmonic and the BBC Concert Orchestra, among many others.
----
-- Andrew
Ed(NY)
was glorious and, significantly, one of the very (VERY) few musical theatre
recordings which effectively uses opera singers. There were far too many
abysmal recordings (not his) that followed.
"AndrewJ" <ajmi...@cavtel.net> wrote in message
news:30c065c8-1c03-48bb...@r41g2000prr.googlegroups.com...
Steve Newport
John McGlinn, Conductor and Musical Theatre Archivist, Dies at 55
By Robert Simonson
John McGlinn, a conductor and musical archivist who devoted himself to
finding and recording the restored scores of early works of the American
musical theatre, was found dead in his apartment on Feb. 14. It's
believed the cause of death was a heart attack.
In 1987, he helped bring to the public's attention the incredible
discovery, in a Seacaucus, NJ, warehouse, of the original versions of
the scores of many Broadway shows, written by the likes of Kern and
Gershwin.
Many of these original versions had been presumed lost. "It's like
opening the tomb of King Tut," he said at the time. "There are major
works here that had been presumed lost forever; shows that were never
revived and were assumed to have vanished off the face of the earth."
Mr. McGlinn's first album was a recording of Gershwin overtures and
dance music using their original orchestrations. It was released by EMI
in 1987.
After that, he made recordings of the complete scores (with original
orchestrations) for Show Boat, Anything Goes, Brigadoon, Annie Get Your
Gun, Kiss Me, Kate and Sitting Pretty, an obscure show by Jerome Kern, a
composer in which he took a particular interest.
The recordings were exhaustive; the Show Boat album was comprised of
three discs and three-and-a-half hours of music (including cut songs,
variants, revival music, film music and more). It is treasured by fans
of the groundbreaking Kern-Hammerstein show, which is considered to be
the launch of the modern American musical. A single disc of that McGlinn
recording was also released, representing the score as it would have
been heard on opening night in 1927.
Early in his career, in 1982, his interest in Kern brought him to the
Houston Grand Opera for a revival of Show Boat. On that production, he
acted as a musical editor in restoring the original orchestrations.
(Very often with early musicals, the orchestrations for the original
production were thought to be of little worth, and were lost or
discarded after the show ended.)
He also did some work for Ira Gershwin on original orchestrations for
several Gershwin projects and worked with orchestrateor Hans Spialek on
the 1983 Broadway revival of On your Toes.
His other studio recordings "Broadway Showstoppers," "Kurt Weill on
Broadway" and "Jerome Kern Treasury" showcased obscure and well known
songs from many Golden Age shows, letting modern listeners hear them as
originally intended, with the cream of today's theatre talent (Brent
Barrett, Judith Blazer, Judy Kaye, Rebecca Luker, Davis Gaines and
more).
Where else but on a McGlinn disc would you hear long sections of Kern's
Sweet Adeline, or Weill and Ira Gershwin's The Firebrand of Florence?
He also recorded Kern film music and overtures, Porter overtures and
dance music, and Warner Bros. movie-musical songs ("The Busby Berkeley
Album") — with complete dance music.
Mr. McGlinn — noted by the New York Times for "his ferocious tenacity
as an historical scavenger" — took his dedication to early musicals to
various corners of the entertainment world.
He conducted original 1925 No No Nanette at the Carnegie Recital Hall,
and made several radio appearances with the BBC Symphony Orchestra for
BBC Radio-3.
He conducted Cole Porter's Gay Divorcee at Weill Hall in 1993. He also
conducted revivals of Brigadoon and HMS Pinafore for New York City
Opera.
On many of his recordings, he made vocal cameos. On Show Boat, he was a
pianist at the Trocadero, when Magnolia is auditioning for a job.
Mr. McGlinn is survived by two sisters and a brother.