Real Post Download: Fabian Sevitzky & ISO - Glazunov Suite from the Middle Ages (1948)

[Bill Anderson]

Hello All -

It has been several months since I have made any new 78
transfers...and it may be a bit more due to traveling and work
requirements. But in the meantime, I have reworked an older project by
cleaning the files up a bit with my declicking tool. So...

Here is Fabian Sevitzky and the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra
performing the "Suite from the Middle Ages" of Glazunov. Recorded by
RCA Victor in 1948, this transfer came from the 78 set DM 1222. Exact
recording date and venue are unknown to me. Movements are noted as:

I. Prelude
II. Scherzo
III. The Troubador's Serenade
IV. Finale: The Crusaders

The set was re-issued IIRC on an RCA LP (Camden?) in the early
fifties, but has never been commercially transferred to CD.

This performance will not make you forget the Golovanov reading, or
some of the more recent recordings of the work for that matter. But it
is I think an interesting document from a conductor who was an
important musician of his age, and one of the few pre-LP recordings we
have of the Indianapolis Symphony.

Zip File using VBR Mono 256 kbps maximum.

http://www.mediafire.com/?ntwt3hnlh3n

Enjoy

- Bill

[harpsichordian]

Hey Bill, great to have another transfer from you! I've always
enjoyed Sevitzky's recordings. Doubtless you know that his original
name was Koussevitzky, but his uncle Serge (so the story goes) forced
him to change his name!

I'm currently reading a biography of one of my favorite authors,
Indianapolis-born novelist Booth Tarkington (Penrod, The Magnificent
Ambersons, etc.), whose wide circle of friends, late in his life (he
died in 1946), included Sevitzky.

Best wishes,
Bryan Bishop

[Bill Anderson]

Hi Bryan -

Thanks for the encouragement. This is an older transfer and it needs a
bit more work (the transfer is a bit 'boomy' in places)

Just this morning, a collector of Sevitzky's recordings has given me
some additional data on these sides. I deeply appreciate this
individual's sharing of important information:

"It was recorded in Indianapolis in the Murat Theatre on the 8th
(Sides 1, 2, 3 and 6) and 9th (Sides 4 and 5) February 1945. Both
sides 4 and 5 had originally been recorded on the 8th also but those
takes (-1 and -1A) were not passed for issue and new takes (-2 and 2A)
were made on the 9th. Seventy-nine musicians were employed."

"The suite was reissued on RCA Victor Bluebird Classics in 1953 on
both 45 and 33 1/3 editions where it was backed with Sevitzky's
recording of the Haydn Symphony no. 73 which had also been recorded on
8 February 1945. Probably to get the suite on one side of the 33 1/3
rpm disc, the reissues on both speeds omitted the Scherzo. The 78 rpm
edition is the only "complete" edition."

- Bill

[El Klauso]

Bill,

Thanks for another transfer of interesting Midwestern material.

Sevitsky brought some musical dash and style to the cornfields - Good
literature, solid playing, and a lifestyle that upon ocasion raised
Hoosier eyebrows. Perhaps it was the presence of the rather sizible
RCA pressing opeation in Indianapolis that secured FS and the ISO a
place on the roster.

As to the Murat Shrine Temple, as it was known in the days of my
residency in Naptown, it's a big carnival monster of a building - The
RCA engineering team showed some real skill in getting fairly focused
sound from the hall, which - from the evidence of a few visits during
my residency - could be quite boomy and ill-defined.

The ISO and Sevitsky also had a broadcast series, which some of our
senior participants may remember. The ISO/Sevitsky recorded legacy is
largely successful in terms of worth of product and avoidance of those
repertoire paths too often trod.

[Dontait...@aol.com]

On Apr 11, 10:53�pm, harpsichordian <bryan52...@juno.com> wrote:

[various editing]

> Hey Bill, great to have another transfer from you! �I've always
> enjoyed Sevitzky's recordings. �Doubtless you know that his original
> name was Koussevitzky, but his uncle Serge (so the story goes) forced
> him to change his name!

> Best wishes,
> Bryan Bishop

That's true. Moses Smith, in "Koussevitzky" (Allen, Towne, and
Heath, 1947) says that like his uncle, Fabien became a double-bass
player and was so good that, as his uncle had before him, he began to
give solo double-bass recitals. Presumably in order to avoid
confusionabout which Koussevitzky was going to play the double-bass,
Uncle Serge demanded that Fabien shorten his name. It happened before
they both left Russia after the Revolution.

Don Tait

[Dontait...@aol.com]

Here's an amusing postscript to the Koussevitzky/Sevitzky name
business concerning this recording of From the Middle Ages.

Sometime last year Larry Jones, the proprietor of Polyphony (he
sells LPs, pre-recorded tapes, and some used CDs through mail-order
auction lists) sent me a photocopy of two pages of the RCA Victor
Record Review. That was a "puff piece" about each month's new Victor
releases, available at dealers. The page for August 1948 reads, in one
column,

"From the Middle Ages

Koussevitzky conducts Glazounoff Suite"

There is no further identificaction of the performers.

The other page Larry copied is from the November 1948 issue. In the
lower right-hand corner is a box that says

"CORRECTION PLEASE!

"On page 9 of the August Review there is a headline slip to the
effect that 'Koussevitzky Conducts Glazounoff Suite.' We apologize to
everybody --and particularly to conductor Fabien Sevitzky who was
responsible for the performance in album M/DM-1222 of the *Moyen Age*
Suite. It's *Sevitzky and the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra*. Please
forgive the error." A photo of Sevitzky's head accompanies the notice.
It's almost like a Freudian slip.

By the way, the Record Review lists the following prices for the 78
sets: M-1222 [manual sequence], $5.75; DM-1222 [automatic sequence],
$4.75. The use of record changers had become so prevalent by 1948 that
Victor was able to charge a premium price for the little-selling
manual-sequence sets.

Don Tait

[Dontait...@aol.com]

On Apr 12, 11:51�am, El Klauso <Klau...@verizon.net> wrote:
> Bill,
>
> Thanks for another transfer of interesting Midwestern material.

{snip}

> Sevitsky brought some musical dash and style to the cornfields - Good
> literature, solid playing, and a lifestyle that upon ocasion raised
> Hoosier eyebrows. Perhaps it was the presence of the rather sizible
> RCA pressing opeation in Indianapolis that secured FS and the ISO a
> place on the roster.

Their presence could well have been due to RCA Victor's effort to
sign up and record American orchestras after about 1940, when it
became apparent that the war in Europe might make any new recordings
from HMV in Britain and Europe scarce or, at least, difficult to
obtain (since the matrices for pressing came by ship and U-boats were
attacking the convoys). Victor eventually signed and made recordings
with the Cincinnati SO (Goossens), St. Louis SO (Golschmann), National
SO [Washington, DC] (Kindler), and the ISO (Sevitzky). They had
contracted the San Francisco SO (Monteux) a little earlier.

That followed, and might have been stimulated because of competition
by, Columbia's effort in 1939 and 1940 to sign American orchestras:
they contracted the Chicago SO (Stock), Pittsburgh (Reiner),
Minneapolis (Mitropoulos), Cleveland (Rodzinski), got Stokowski to
record for them with his All-American orchestras, and took the NY
Philharmonic away from Victor. Then Columbia lured the Philadelphia
Orchestra away from Victor during the 1942-44 Musicians' Union
recording ban. (Victor lured Stock and the CSO back in 1941/42 and the
CSO remained with Victor until 1948.)

Another thing about Sevitzky, unrelated to records: I have read that
throughout his tenure in Indianapolis, which lasted into the 1950s, he
put a work by an American composer on every one of his programs.

Don Tait

[El Klauso]

Don,Thanks for the additional interesting Sevitsky background. I do
remember seeing a playlist of the broadcast series, and I seem to
recall that there were a good many American 'bon-bons' offered. (Not
to mention his recorded output, which includes the remarkably un-PC
"Negro Heaven" by Otto Cesana - RCA Victor 18921)For those un-versed
in his recordings, I hope I remember correctly that you related to me
Sevitsky's/ISO Tchaikovsky "Manfred" was uncut on 78s, but that the
RCA engineers cut the LP issue to be more in accordance with
Toscanini's cut version.

[abac...@att.net]

On Apr 11, 10:50 pm, Bill Anderson <william.ander...@sap.com> wrote:

the name Sevitzky brings back REAL old memories. While in high school
in the late 40s at Music and Art, NYC, the senior orchestra played
Kalinikof's (sp) symphony in G. The only recording we heard on the
radio was Sevitzky and the IO!!!

AB

[Lawrence Chalmers]

Didn't some Mitropoulos/Minneapolis recordings appear on RCA?
Ormandy/Minneapolis too?

[harpsichordian]

On Apr 12, 10:28 pm, law...@webtv.net (Lawrence Chalmers) wrote:
> Didn't some Mitropoulos/Minneapolis recordings appear on RCA?
> Ormandy/Minneapolis too?

Yes, you're right, Mitropoulos' last recordings with Minneapolis were
on RCA (among them, Rachmaninoff 2nd, and a Tchaikovsky Concerto with
Rubinstein), then, Dorati's first recordings with them were on RCA as
well, before they switched to Mercury.

The Ormandy/Minneapolis records were all from the 30s, were all on
Victor, and included some big works, Mahler 2nd, Bruckner 7th, and
another Rach 2nd among them.

Best wishes,
Bryan Bishop

[Bill Anderson]

Hello AB -

Well, as they used to say in radio - don't touch that dial! I plan to
transfer the Sevitzky Kalinnikov soon...

- Bill

[francis]

Wonderful thread on a wonderful conductor and orchestra. I hadn't
known about Sevitsky's policy of playing an American work on every
program, but I'm not surprised. Sevitsky first came to my attention
at the onset of my interest in the music of Leo Sowerby forty years
ago. In 1953, Sevitsky and the Indianapolis played the first and, to
date, only performance of a relatively late Sowerby orchestral work,
Fantasy: Portrait in Tryptich. There's a healthy reward from the Leo
Sowerby Foundation for anyone who has a recording of THAT performance!
(A similarly fine conductor and orchestra laboring in similar
obscurity, the Albany Symphony under Julius Hegy, had the same policy
during the late 60s through the mid 80s--and in the process "built" one
of the most sophisticated and cosmopolitan subscription concert
audiences I've ever encountered.)

Don, it's been 40 years since I read the Moses Smith Koussevitsky
biography. Does Smith indicate just how Koussevitsky forced his
nephew to shorten his name? My understanding is that it was more on
the order of a bribe than demand/intimidation--both money and opening
doors. I just heard a rather nasty dig at Sevitsky--in a taped
interview with Halina Rodzinsky--she indicated her husband thought him
a second rate hack and implied that her husband's circle of
influential friends--including Toscanini--thought the same. The set-up
for the dig was Rodzinsky tuning in to a broadcast in progress of a
live New York Philharmonic concert from Lewisohn Stadium on which
Sevitsky was to conduct the Shostakovich 5th. Mrs. R. does a rather
good job of imitating her late husband ooing and aahing in ecstasy
over the performance, that he'd misjudged Sevitsky, that he was a
major talent and should be engaged for the Philharmonic's winter
season etc. etc. The punch line of Mrs. R's story was that at the end
of the symphony they heard no applause--the concert had been rained out
and in place of it the station substituted Rodzinsky's commercial
recording of the Shostakovich 5th. Apocryphal? Probably!

Meanwhile, here's an Indianapolis Symphony/Fabien Sevitsky broadcast
of March 19, 1949 from the Murat Theatre entitled "Masters of
Impressionism" and an encore from my Sowerby collection:
Debussy: Nuages & Fetes
Delius: Brigg Fair
Griffes: The White Peacock
Ravel: Daphnis and Chloe Suite No. 2
Sowerby: Money Musk: Country Dance Tune for Orchestra (broadcast
3/12/1943)

http://rapidshare.com/files/107057807/Sevitsky_Indianapolis_Symphony.rar

PS Bill, great to have you and your splendid transfers back among us!
Any chance you might have that Sevitsky Haydn Symphony No. 73?

[Bill Anderson]

Hello Francis -

"Any chance you might have that Sevitsky Haydn Symphony No. 73?"

As a matter of fact I do! It is in a 45rpm boxed set I found last fall
in Milwaukee. I have neither cleaned nor played it as of yet. I will
put it in the queue after that project you an I discussed a few weeks
back...

- Bill

[Dontait...@aol.com]

On Apr 12, 11:32�pm, francis <sowerby...@aol.com> wrote:

[edited]

> Don, it's been 40 years since I read the Moses Smith Koussevitsky
> biography. �Does Smith indicate just how Koussevitsky forced his
> nephew to shorten his name? �My understanding is that it was more on
> the order of a bribe than demand/intimidation--both money and opening

> doors. �

Smith isn't specific. He writes of Fabien's excellence as a double-
bass player and says "When he joined the Bol'shoi Imperial Theatre
Orchestra in 1910 his uncle was conducting it in concerts. Some years
later, when Fabien began to appear as a solo double-bass performer, he
was 'ordered' to change his name. The assigned and plausible reason
was the likelihood of public confusion between the two Koussevitzkys."
Smith gives no details about the character of the "order." Fabien came
to the USA in 1923, the year before his uncle became conductor of the
Boston Symphony. Smith goes on for almost four pages about the
subsequent uncle/nephew relationship, how it was initially good but
how it gradually soured as Fabien tried to do more as a conductor (in
Boston, no less) with what Koussevitzky thought were poor performers
(the "People's Symphony Orchestra") in 1933 and Koussevitzky's
possible fear that he would be accused of nepotism. Smith wrote about
the confrontation that it "was conducted on an emotional, rather than
rational, level, and quickly reached the stage of altercation. It
ended with Sevitzky's dismissal from his uncle's house." The quarrel
became public. Smith writes "While the quarrel was going on the most
casual incident might make Koussevitzky boil. Once he was driving
[being driven by a chauffer, no doubt] in the White Mountains when a
large building loomed ahead. 'Vat is dat?' he asked. 'Fabyan House' (a
summer hotel) was the answer. 'I hate dis name,' snarled
Koussevitzky." Sevitzky went to the Indianapolis SO in 1937. Smith
writes that he and his uncle weren't reconciled until the spring of
1944, in Symphony Hall's Green Room.

Don Tait

[Dontait...@aol.com]

Hi Chuck --

That's what I've read about the versions of Tchaikovsky's Manfred
Symphony with Sevitzky. I'd have to check various comments to know
whether it was completely uncut or not, but a few reviews did say that
the LP had been abridged. I own a copy of the Camden LP but played it
only once. I seem to remember that the 78 set was on six records,
twelve sides, which would add up to roughly 53 minutes of playing
time, more than the circa 45 of Toscanini's cut version. Still,
completely uncut versions run to around 60 minutes. Frankly, I
remember thinking from the Camden LP that Sevitzky's performance was
nothing impressive. I should play it again. I probably have a copy of
the 78s in my basement. Maybe some day I'll try them.

I thought Sevitzky's Indianapolis RCA Victor recording of
Tchaikovsky's First Symphony was no great shakes as a performance,
either.

Don Tait

[Damian R]

><Dontait...@aol.com> wrote in message
>news:3150d0a7-b62f-4dca-bb4d->569646...@2g2000hsn.googlegroups.com...

>On Apr 12, 6:49?pm, El Klauso <Klau...@verizon.net> wrote:
>> For those un-versed
>> in his recordings, I hope I remember correctly that you related to me
>> Sevitsky's/ISO Tchaikovsky "Manfred" was uncut on 78s, but that the
>> RCA engineers cut the LP issue to be more in accordance with
>> Toscanini's cut version.
>
>Hi Chuck --
>
> That's what I've read about the versions of Tchaikovsky's Manfred
>Symphony with Sevitzky. I'd have to check various comments to know
>whether it was completely uncut or not, but a few reviews did say that
>the LP had been abridged. I own a copy of the Camden LP but played it
>only once. I seem to remember that the 78 set was on six records,
>twelve sides, which would add up to roughly 53 minutes of playing
>time, more than the circa 45 of Toscanini's cut version. Still,
>completely uncut versions run to around 60 minutes. Frankly, I
>remember thinking from the Camden LP that Sevitzky's performance was
>nothing impressive. I should play it again. I probably have a copy of
>the 78s in my basement. Maybe some day I'll try them.
>
> I thought Sevitzky's Indianapolis RCA Victor recording of
>Tchaikovsky's First Symphony was no great shakes as a performance,
>either.
>
> Don Tait

I've got the 78 set of Manfred - it actually runs to 7 records, 14 sides.
The raw transfers of the 14 sides (which I haven't joined up yet) run to
just over an hour. I seem to recall from following the score as I played the
discs, that it is uncut - I just had a quick flick through the score, and I
don't appear to have noted any cuts anywhere. I'll get a better feel for the
performance once it's all joined up. I was unfamiliar with the work, and I
found it an impressive piece on first hearing.

Damian

[Bill Anderson]

Damian -

Thanks for the info - I thought I had the Manfred, but I came up empty
handed. Could we persuade you to put it up on your site in the near
future?

I do have the Winter Dreams, which I transferred a couple of years ago
with the Middle Ages. I can do some additional declicking with the
algorithmix program and post it next weekend. Sevitzky's reading may
not be the most inspired, but at the time it was one of the earliest
recordings of the work in the West (along with the Rachmilovich set on
ASCH)

- Bill

[Damian R]

"Bill Anderson" <william....@sap.com> wrote in message
news:ea4b1067-ac55-4c31...@l42g2000hsc.googlegroups.com...

> Damian -
>
> Thanks for the info - I thought I had the Manfred, but I came up empty
> handed. Could we persuade you to put it up on your site in the near
> future?
>
>

> - Bill

I'll work on it, but it may take a while. I've just done a bit more
declicking and initial eq on it, before I get on to the side joins and a bit
of dehiss and more eq.

But I'm currently prioritising 2 Rosamunde Overtures, both conducted by
Malcolm Sargent - with the Royal Albert Hall Orchestra in 1928 on 2 sides,
complete (not issued in the UK but issued by Victor) and the 1929 LSO
version, on 3 sides, complete (issued in the UK) They should be an
interesting pair to compare.

Damian

[Dontait...@aol.com]

On Apr 13, 3:03�pm, "Damian R" <theseu...@hotmail.com> wrote:

[snip]

> I've got the 78 set of Manfred - it actually runs to 7 records, 14 sides.
> The raw transfers of the 14 sides (which I haven't joined up yet) run to
> just over an hour. I seem to recall from following the score as I played the
> discs, that it is uncut - I just had a quick flick through the score, and I
> don't appear to have noted any cuts anywhere. I'll get a better feel for the
> performance once it's all joined up. I was unfamiliar with the work, and I
> found it an impressive piece on first hearing.

Thanks for this. 7 records, 14 sides is probably another reason that
I never took this set when I used to run across it. Big, clunky,
heavy. 14 sides might well have been the entire, uncut work. One hour
would fit with the various recordings of the uncut score by Silvestri
and others on CD. (And Toscanini is so stupendous, so overwhelming!
Yes?)

Keep us posted, Damian.

Don Tait

[thoren...@yahoo.com]

I believe I have it on the Bluebird Lp.I was aware of his relation to
old Serge,but who was that "Igor Koussevitzky",that popped up on Crown
Records in the late 50s ?

Roger

[thoren...@yahoo.com]

Did he ever record as a soloist ?

Roger

[Dontait...@aol.com]

On Apr 14, 10:35�am, "thorenstd...@yahoo.com" <thorenstd...@yahoo.com>
wrote:

> I believe I have it on the Bluebird Lp.I was aware of his relation to
> old Serge,but who was that "Igor Koussevitzky",that popped up on Crown
> Records in the late 50s ?
>
> � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � Roger

A pseudonym, probably. Phony. No such performer has been reported to
exist.

Don Tait

[Dontait...@aol.com]

On Apr 14, 10:55�am, "thorenstd...@yahoo.com" <thorenstd...@yahoo.com>
wrote:

<snip>

> Did he ever record as a soloist ?
>
> � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � �Roger

No, Fabien Sevitzky did not (with the double-bass). Serge
Koussevitzky, his uncle, did make solo double-bass records during the
late 1920s, some of which were issued by Victor on 78 and LP and some
of which (the earlier versions) were not issued until recent years,
only on CD.

Don Tait

[Dontait...@aol.com]

A bit belatedly, I have played the Camden LP of Manfred with
Sevitzky (CAL-184, masqueraded in typical Camden fashion as the
"Sussex Symphony Orchestra"). I found that it isn't cut. I don't
recall where I read the comment(s) that the LP was, but I was either
mis-remembering or the comments were incorrect. (I'm *sure* that I
read it somewhere, though.) So: here are the timings for the movements
on CAL-184:

I ---- 14:07
II --- 10:30
III --- 18:50
IV -- 13:55

Which adds up to roughly 58 minutes, which 14 78 rpm sides could
contain (Damian was correct in his April 13 post that 7 records were
involved, not the 6 I had said. That could represent the complete
work; Damian wrote that he noticed no cuts when following the records
with the score). I'm pleased to correct the misinformation about the
Camden transfer that I guess I've spread. I have no idea where I read
it, but I know it was a critic during the 1950s. And by the way, the
Camden sounds pretty good.

Don Tait