Download: Hans Schwieger & the Kansas City Philharmonic - Wagner & Schubert
Bill Anderson
From Kentucky to Kansas City – and from 20th century American Music to
German staples…
Here is Hans Schwieger and the Kansas City Philharmonic performing the
Meistersinger Prelude and the Schubert Unfinished symphony. This is
from a private issue LP, apparently offered to contributors to the
Orchestra’s maintenance fund. Recording date is unknown (any info
would be appreciated). Recording was in mono but sounds as if it were
done in the very late 50’s / early 60’s.
Schwieger was the music director from 1948 to 1971. He made a handful
of recordings with the orchestra for the Urania label in the 50’s
(Glazunov’s 4th symphony, Prokofiev Suite of Waltzes)
Zip file mono VBR 320/160 kbps 35 MG. File includes images of the
record labels and some photographs of Schwieger & the KC Philharmonic
http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?dgdmy1nnmbw
________________________
A 1946 Time Magazine article on Schwieger conducting in Fort Wayne
Indiana (and a brief but unsettling paragraph of his early years in
America) can be found here:
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,792728,00.html.
FredT
This is a terrific posting. I will listen in the next day or two. I
have fond memories of the Glazunov 4th with Schwieger, however that
Urania CD was among the stolen when I was burglarized some 15 years
ago. It was a superb performance!
Fred
Jerry
A thousand thanks for this rare (and I don’t use that term lightly)
archival recording. I have long sought (with not much success) the
CD reissues of the 2 (if I recall correctly) Urania LPs that
comprised
the total of Hans Schwieger's recorded legacy.
In an unusual move, Urania managed to spread those two LPs out over
four CDs
with the Balakirev Overture on one, the Glazunov Symphony No. 4 on
another,
the Prokofiev Gypsy Fantasy and 3 of 6 Waltzes from the Waltz Suite
(Cinderella Waltzes) on yet a third, and the “War & Peace Waltzes” on
the fourth.
Does anyone know if that fourth disc contains the remaining 3 waltzes
from the
Suite not included on the third disc or just the two (I believe)
numbers derived from War & Peace?
Thanks again.
P.S. The Prokofiev Waltz Suite (all six numbers) was also included on
a Varese Sarabande CD,
even more difficult to find than the Urania CD issues. I've never,
ever seen a copy and
stumbled upon a reference to this disc in an on-line catalog from a
Dutch library.
Bill Anderson
Glad you enjoyed this LP!
In addition to the items you mentioned, Schwieger also made a
Westminster LP of various Handel arias (with Jan Peerce & the
VSOO).Also, an odd item with the Stuttgart Radio Symphony - Harmonica
concertos by Villa-Lobos and Tcherepnin (!) with John Sebastian
(Urania 5146).
A stray listing (uncorroborated) mentions a Mozart Symphony (no. 29)
on a Urania CD 5235, though no orchestra is listed.
There was reference to a few live fragments of him conducting opera in
the 1930's, recorded on in-house lacquers or 'sound sheets' at the
Vienna Opera, but I can't seem to find them this evening...
- Bill
M forever
The article I get when I click the link ends thus: "After Pearl Harbor
the FBI seized Schwieger as an enemy alien; he was held for 401 days
until friends got him out. The day he came home from jail, his wife
dropped dead."
That seems like a little odd way to end an article to me, so I am
wondering if this page is just a preview to the full article?
Bill Anderson
No, that is the end of the article, Like I mentioned, unsettling -
terse and oddly connected to the main thrust of the piece. I assume
the writer was trying to make a connection to the Requiem and
Schwieger's loss of his wife.
I was also unaware of his detention during the war years - I thought
that such overreaction was limited to our entry into WWI and the
treatment of conductors Muck and Kunwald...apparantly not!
Another interesting fact is that he (Schwieger) had come to the US
briefly before the war - assisting in preperations for a music
festival in South Carolina in 1939. That brief notice was found in
"South Carolina: the WPA guide to the Palmetto state" pg 121.
- Bill
Bill Anderson
> A stray listing (uncorroborated) mentions a Mozart Symphony (no. 29)
> on a Urania CD 5235, though no orchestra is listed.
>
the Brussels Radio Orchestra on Urania CD 5141. The Mozart 29
previously referenced, also in that CD, is conducted by Barshai, per a
google extract from Fanfare Volume 12, Issues 5-6 pg255.
M forever
> Hello Micheal -
>
> No, that is the end of the article, Like I mentioned, unsettling -
> terse and oddly connected to the main thrust of the piece. I assume
> the writer was trying to make a connection to the Requiem and
> Schwieger's loss of his wife.
>
> I was also unaware of his detention during the war years - I thought
> that such overreaction was limited to our entry into WWI and the
> treatment of conductors Muck and Kunwald...apparantly not!
Well, I am sure you knew about the mass internments of US citizens of
Japanese ancestry. So this shouldn't come as a surprise. Even more
tellingly, a lot of German and Austrian citizens of Jewish background
were interned by British and American authorities as well, and the
British did a pretty good job at rounding up and deporting such German
Jews back to Germany - where they were promptly picked up and shipped
off to concentration camps. That Jews were killed in those camps in
very large numbers may not have been completely known to the Western
allies during the early stages of the war, but that they were
persecuted in Germany from 1933 onwards obviously was common
knowledge. However, no matter what they said later, the allies
couldn't care less.
Bill Anderson
curtailment of Jewish immigrants - those unfortunate pieces of US
history has been documented adequately - but the overt persecution of
this conductor. The virulent anti-German sentiment of WWI in the US
was not fully repeated in the 1940's. Stereotypes of Nazis, yes... and
in a sense still reverberate today. But in the arts, German music was
still popular and performed regularly during the war years, and in
many cases by German and Austrian refugees.
Not too sure about the program changes in concert performances...or
performers...in the 'teens. But internments of musicians like Muck and
Kunwald, I thought, had not been repeated during WWII.
mic
Thanks for this file.
Schwieger and the KC Philharmonic were broadcast almost every weekend
on KXTR-FM during the 60s and very early 70s.
The "theme" to introduce the broadcasts was the Letter Scene Waltz
from Rosencavalier. Broadcast were announced by Steve Bell, a local
radio personnality.
I'd lay odds that broadcast tapes were the source of the Lp.
While I doubt any broadcast material survives, there are probably
private tapes made by individuals out there somewhere.
max
Hi all,
I'm glad to inform you that I have the following recordings you are
looking for:
- BALAKIREV: Overture on Themes of Russian Folksongs
- GLAZUNOV: Symphony n.4
from Urania LP
- Concerts for harmonica and orchestra of Villa-Lobos an Tcherepnin
from Heliodor LP
I'll post it as soon as my PC is working again...
Regards
Max
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
On 28 Set, 23:10, mic <jobri...@kc.rr.com> wrote:
> private tapes made by individuals out there somewhere.- Nascondi testo citato
>
> - Mostra testo citato -
Matthew�B.�Tepper
be typed in news:8d72bdb7-cdd7-48b2-b943-76c6c1951380
@v25g2000yqk.googlegroups.com:
> Hi all,
>
> I'm glad to inform you that I have the following recordings you are
> looking for:
> - BALAKIREV: Overture on Themes of Russian Folksongs
> - GLAZUNOV: Symphony n.4
> from Urania LP
>
> - Concerts for harmonica and orchestra of Villa-Lobos an Tcherepnin
> from Heliodor LP
>
> I'll post it as soon as my PC is working again...
I'd particularly like to have a recording of the Balakiriev, partly because
of the fun I had playing it in a community orchestra many years ago.
The harmonica concerti did make it to CD for a while.
--
Matthew B. Tepper: WWW, science fiction, classical music, ducks!
Read about "Proty" here: http://home.earthlink.net/~oy/proty.html
To write to me, do for my address what Androcles did for the lion
Opinions expressed here are not necessarily those of my employers
ddarn...@gmail.com
> One more tour project for this weekend!
>
> German staples...
> Here is Hans Schwieger and the Kansas City Philharmonic performing the
> Meistersinger Prelude and the Schubert Unfinished symphony. This is
> from a private issue LP, apparently offered to contributors to the
> Orchestra's maintenance fund. Recording date is unknown (any info
> would be appreciated). Recording was in mono but sounds as if it were
> done in the very late 50's / early 60's.
>
> Schwieger was the music director from 1948 to 1971. He made a handful
> of recordings with the orchestra for the Urania label in the 50's
> (Glazunov's 4th symphony, Prokofiev Suite of Waltzes)
>
> Zip file mono VBR 320/160 kbps 35 MG. File includes images of the
> record labels and some photographs of Schwieger & the KC Philharmonic
>
> http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?dgdmy1nnmbw
> ________________________
>
> A 1946 Time Magazine article on Schwieger conducting in Fort Wayne
> Indiana (and a brief but unsettling paragraph of his early years in
> America) can be found here:
>
> http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,792728,00.html.
I actually have this LP and it is great condition. Furthermore, Hans has autographed the label. It was in a stack of about a hundred others that I picked up from a house garage in Coweta, OK. The owners were removing some unwanted things so I thought why not.
I have quite a few LPs from this stack that are very old. The one for Hans was obviously taken well care of resting in a custom cover of brown leather-like material with no wording on front or back. This is what gave me interest to pull it out. When I saw the autograph in pen right along the side of the label in green ink.. very clean I might add.. I had to know more.
So thank you for posting this conversation.. it was meant to be for me to read on. If you have anymore to add, I would greatly appreciate it. Maybe I have something rare here. Who knows?
Thanks for your time.
Daniel
ddarn...@gmail.com
Jerry
Thank you again for your offerings on this site.
As I may have already said, though it bears repeating, this represents something of a "lost," or at least generally unrecognized, part of our recorded legacy. While many American orchestras were represented on disc during the LP era, a great many recordings were invisible to those of us who depended on Schwann catalogs, High Fidelity Magazine, or our local well-stocked record stores to know what was available. The internet has now exposed "private" recordings from St. Louis, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Baltimore, and there must certainly be more.
Is there someone still active who might be able to compile a "Discography of Private LP Recordings from North American Symphony Orchestras" for submission to JARSC or CRQ?
My own minor contribution would be the four private LP issues from the Buffalo Philharmonic. These were mentioned in Lee and Yadzinski's book and I've verified their existence through libraries in Buffalo and Niagara Falls, though I should caution that I do not have any of these in my possession.
JOSEF KRIPS, conductor
Beethoven: Symphony No. 1 (Side 4)
Beethoven: Symphony No. 9 [Gertrude Lutzi, sop.; Margaret Snow Roy, alto; John McCollum, ten.; Lorenzo Alvary, bass; Hans Vigeland, chorus master] (Sides 1-3)
2-LP set: BPO (Howell Recording Studio) HV-100 [Pressed on red, translucent vinyl]
JOSEF KRIPS, conductor
Vaughan-Williams: Sancta Civitas [Keith Falkner, bar., Milford Fargo, ten, Buffalo Schola Cantorum.]
LP: BPO (Howell Recording Studio) 112554
February 16, 1958 - Live
JOSEF KRIPS, conductor
Lockwood, Normand: Light Out of Darkness [Yi-Kwei Sze, bass-baritone; Buffalo Schola Cantorum (Augmented); Selected Choir from Fredonia State Teachers College, St. Mary of Sorrows Choir, and the Catholic Polyphonic Chorale.]
LP: BPO (Howell Recording Studio) Sides 5663-5664
FERDE GROFE, conductor
Grofe: Niagara Falls Suite
2-LP set: Power Authority - State of New York (Howell Recording Studio) Sides 5778-5781 (Side 4)
Bill Anderson
I am glad (and surprised) you found this project I did in 2009. I don't visit here much anymore and just happened to come across your post.
I don't know how rare that particular recording is... it was a special pressing, likely produced as a gift for contributing to the orchestra. I doubt if many were pressed.
If you have the equipment, it would be interesting to post a scan of the signed label here on the board. One more interesting piece of information regarding a significant musician from an earlier era.
- Bill
Bill Anderson
Thank your for these Krips listings (especially the Sancta Civitas...that could be the work's first recording of it, and I'd love to hear it!)
Tracking down these private (or more accurately, limited edition) LP recordings would be a true labor of love. The only close to comprehensive analysis that I am aware is David Royko's investigation of the Chicago Symphony / WFMT 'marathon' collaborations from the 1970/80's. That listing can be seen here:
http://www.davidroyko.com/csoindex.htm
FWIW - here are my transfer projects - still available as downloads - of a few of these limited edition LPs featuring 'regional' US orchestras:
Golschmann & Saint Louis SO - Beethoven PC 4 w Eloise Polk
http://www.mediafire.com/download/zzgyymemtjy
John Nelson & Indianapolis SO - New World Symphony (early digital recording)
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/aam4jwjaod5r4
Steinberg & Pittsburgh SO 1952 - Contemporary Music festival (3 lps)
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/6wceaw8rjoqeg
Massimo Freccia & Baltimore SO - Rachmaninov Sym #2
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/w8gg5xtpi1fsh
- Bill A.
Jerry
I too have not been visiting this newsgroup with any
regularity.
The Buffalo private recordings were presumably pressed
in limited numbers and available within a small circle
of insiders. They are rare and I've never seen copies
outside of library collections. The Buffalo and Erie
county public library on Lafayette Square has copies of
Vaughan Williams and Beethoven recordings in remarkably
great conditions (they do not circulate).
Jerry
P.S. Though Buffalo may not presently have a great deal to
offer visitors, the Buffalo & Erie County Public Library
is an exception. Check out the Mark Twain Room on
the second floor. Fabulous collection! Plus, if anything's
going on at Kleinhans Hall, that should be seen.