A Weblog of Curious Things.
Media referred to by suffix as follows:
Sunday, 1st January, 2006, am
210.D: G. Cukor: A Star is Born, 1954, 167'33" from 23rd Century poundstore DVD
The version of A Star is Born which is in the PD is the 1932, non-musical, black and white version starring Janet Gaynor. Seeing the title on lists of Public Domain movies, someone seems to have gone bananas and ripped the 1954 musical, starring Judy Garland & James Mason. Someone somewhere will be very cross with the mysterious 23rd Century poundstore label. Though the font of the logo suggests an Asian source, I am informed the duplication is done in Eastern Europe. These are sold at 59p each to dealers so they can still make a 40% mark-up on the sale.
There is something badly wrong with the 23rd Century DVD, however. In ripping the content from a legitimate disc, the aspect ratio has been mangled. It is presented as 16:9 but this was a Scope picture so the figures are stick-insects unless you adjust the screen-geometry to suit the disc. Something similar happens to the schlocky horror The Devil's Rain. Once you have done that and if your conscience will let you enjoy it, you have a very good version of the movie. Stereo soundtrack too.
Ignore the running time of c 90' cited on the slimline case too, for this is the 168 minute version with partial reconstruction of all the lost scenes. Cheapskate Friends of Dorothy rejoice!
Despite the great cinematography and big budget, this is really a very claustrophobic musical. The only thing that matters is the central relationship and if you think that's essentially rot, you are stuffed - for nearly three hours.
Still, here is a piece of cinema history, like it or not. It belongs with Sunset Boulevard and All About Eve as one of the quintessential showbiz myths. I got my poundsworth.
Monday, 2nd January, 2006, am
229.D: Chaplin in The Fireman & The Adventurer, 1916 - 17, 23'59" + 23'21"
183.D: C. Reed: The Third Man, 1949, 104'26"
A label called Sun arose late last year and dumped a lot of curious boxed sets on the market, mainly via The Works outlets. It originates in Holland with a company called Weton-Wesgram. The five-disc sets, available originally at £9.99 each, later reduced to about £6.99 covered some familiar Public Domain stuff and broke some new ground in the UK. Two Chaplin boxes entitled The Tramp and King of Comedy contain pretty much the whole of the Mutual and Essenay two-reelers together with a few Keystone pictures. The quality of the two-reelers is generally very good but the long running-times reveal that they have been transferred at 16 fps.
The speeds of silent movies are as variable as the speeds of early disc-recordings. The hand-cranked cameras and projectors allowed a certain flexibility. It was later worked out that the average speed of silents was around 16 fps and that speed was put on projectors for old films, when electric motors came in. It seems likely that no one in the early days was terribly concerned with natural speed of movement - it was one of the expressive variables of the new medium. Projectionists were instructed to speed up at certain points for maximum effect.
With some timings here at over 30 minutes for a two-reeler, I think we can say no flea-pit manager would have had the patience! Speeding up the show, you could fit in an extra showing. Not that it can necessarily be assumed that the footage itself was a measure of the time: directors often instructed their photographers to over-crank the camera, just so that they could deliver the promised length of footage without setting up new stunts!
I know of a horrible videotape of Metropolis which runs a mammoth 139 minutes by choosing a stately speed of projection. It lacks certain scenes which are complete in "shorter" versions. I'd be sorry for anyone who bought this fraudulently-labelled director's cut thinking they were going to see more than before.
The Third Man comes over well on DVD. I would have liked to have seen the complete Selznick edition alongside the UK print. As it is, we get the main difference - the voice-over by Joe Cotten at the start as an extra fragment. Selznick trimmed the film by several minutes and it would be interesting to see which bits went. It would still be hard to fashion an American hero out of the footage.
Apart from this classic, Reed does not always get his due. I hardly know his other work at all and it is a gap in my filmic education.
Suggested double-bill for The Third Man: Ealing's Hue & Cry - the black-market theme treated closer to home with a comic touch.
Monday, 2nd January, 2006, pm
130.XCD: Gramophone on CD, October, 2005, 62'15"
I play these things to stay informed but I can seldom be bothered to buy anything recent in the classical line. What was on this one which resonates in memory? An old snatch of Marilyn Horne in Rossini and a morsel of Barenboim in Bach. I doubt if a three-minute sample of anything will do anything other than annoy. Properly catalogued, I'd like to think these odd compilations will amount to a miniature history of music. I have about a hundred and forty of them now. They're a good test of cataloguing powers. I bet the Olde Musicke bits cover at least as much ground as the 1950s History of Music in Sound, which likewise dealt in bits the length of 78 sides! All a matter of awaiting the right context!
Tuesday, 3rd January, 2006, pm
212.D: H. King: The Song of Bernadette, 1943, 151'25"
A blast from the past. We were taken to see this as a school ritual about the age of eight. The local Odeon would give itself over to the wee-scented Catholic school population to see Henry King's 1943 picture. Despite which the film is very watchable still. It reminds me what a wicked thing it was for de Sica to have Jennifer Jones shagged in a railway carriage! Terminal Station, in case you are wondering. Cut to about an hour for the USA and retitled Indiscretion of an American Wife. Now there's a name to conjure with.
Wednesday, 4th January, 2006, pm
2 x CDs bought Cheetham Hill:
308.CD: Tippett: A Child of our Time, RPO, Previn, IMP, 1986
309.CD: Canteloube Auvergne Songs Vol II etc. Te Kanawa, ECO, Tate, Decca, 1984
The Tippett I had as an LP but this may be better sound. The long sides for this work suggest that digital for once may be better. The Cantaloube was a good find as it completes the set. Volume One is on LP. There were two of these songs that I did not have in any other selection, so at last I can boast the complete set. It is said that Canteloube repeated himself but heard a set at a time that shouldn't be too onorous! The fill-up is the Villa-Lobos Bachiana Brasiliera No.5 for soprano & 8 celli. Lush stuff.
282.V: M. Elvey: Sally in Our Alley, 1931, 70'31"
Gracie Fields in her first film. She is a spirited but ungainly lass, transported here down to London, where she presides over a sort of musical café. Complications over a wartime romance and disappearance form the plot. Yet there is a darker edge to the film. A bad girl Gracie rescues from a brutal father turns out to be thoroughly wicked piece of work, adding to the misunderstandings. Very much a time-capsule but she soon became Britain's biggest-earning star and there were plans for a career in Hollywood. How that would have worked out, God knows!
Wednesday, 4th January, 2006, pm into Thursday, 5th January, 2006, am
233.V: B. Large: Verdi's Aïda, Verona Arena, 1981, 156'54" (141'18" music)
Stand and deliver style as ever in Verona. Chiara, Cossotto and Martinucci are the stars. All very effective in its way - and its way is best appreciated from about half a mile away.
Friday, 6th January, 2006, am
229.D: Chaplin in The Vagabond, 1916, 25'58"
216.D: G. La Cava: My Man Godfrey, 1936, 93'06"
The Vagabond is essentially melodrama and the comedy is served as a side-dish. Leo Black in drag as an evil gypsy must be worth the low price of admission. The painter who disrupts a romance here is a figure who haunts other pictures - notably rescuing the couple at the end of The Immigrant. It suggests that the happy ending of one picture may be the triangle of the next.
My Man Godfrey is sometimes cited as the quintessence of Screwball comedy. Certainly it features William Powell and Carole Lombard with a whole family of eccentrics and every scene is worth watching. Yet I didn't much laugh. Maybe because the picture sems to promise a social comment or two beyond what it dares to deliver. The dysfunctional rich are assumed to be automatically interesting - to make that work, the last thing you need is any social perspective! Still Gregory La Cava is regarded as one of the great forgotten men of Hollywood and everything about this picture makes it a quality production. Certainly a piece of history worth picking up if you find it in your local bargain bucket.
Friday, 6th January, 2006, pm
42 LP discs bought Oldham:
5270 - 72.M: Beethoven Piano Trios, volume two, Mannheim Trio, Vox, 1963;
5273a.M: Beethoven Piano Trios, volume one, disc one only, Mannheim Trio, Vox, 1963
[discs two and three were found in same place on 3rd February, 2006]
5274.M: Beethoven: 3 Piano Quartets, G. Lemmen, Mannheim Trio, Vox, 1963;
5275 - 80.S: Haydn: Symphonies 1 - 19, Philharmonia Hungarica, A. Dorati, Decca, 1973;
5281 - 86.S: Haydn: Symphonies 20 - 35, Philharmonia Hungarica, A. Dorati, Decca, 1972;
5287.S: Haydn: Symphony 22, alt version & Symphonies A & B, Dorati, Decca, 1973;
5288 - 93.S: Haydn: String Quartets Opp.20 & 64, Aeolian Quartet, Argo, 1976;
5294 - 99.S: Haydn: String Quartets Opp.33, 42 & 50, Aeolian Quartet, Argo, 1976;
5300 - 02.S: Haydn: String Quartets Op.3 & 7 Last Words, Pears, Aeolian Quartet, Argo, 1977;
5303.S: Haydn: 7 Last Words, piano version, J. Mc.Cabe, Decca, 1977;
5304 - 09.M: Delius: Delius Trust Recordings, 1946 - 52, HMV-WRC, issued 1979;
5310 - 11.S: Verdi: Attila, RPO, Gardelli, Philips, 1972.
A few gaps filled for 10p a disc. Can't complain too loudly if the condition is a bit iffy and most of the Haydn booklets have gone AWOL. I now have all the Aeolian Quartet Haydn series, which I began collecting back in1974! Just a half dozen or so of the Haydn Symphonies are now to be found. The Mannheim Trio Beethoven sets were pure nostalgia, though having sampled them, they seem warmly musical and authentic, not just the Vox run-throughs I had feared. The person who owned these had added some extras to the boxes, so that volume II of the Symphonies gets parts of the supplementary set, which featured the Symphonies A & B etc. I think one of these is one of the missing quartets from Op.2. The 7 Last Words set gets the John McCabe piano version as a bonus. The Attila set is a bit mucky and ex-libris but I think the booklet was worth having with full libretto & translation.
DVD bought Sale, HMV, Oldham, £2.99:
240.D: H. Ashby: Harold & Maude, 1971
Saturday, 7th January, 2006, am
240.D: H. Ashby: Harold & Maude, 1971, 87'45" with trailers, 2'35" + 2'54"
Flower-power comedy with old-lady love thrown in. Ruth Gordon and Bud Cort are the oddest couple in screen history. Interestingly, one of the trailers features a deep snog which the actual print of the film omits!
Sunday, 8th January, 2006, pm into Monday, 9th January, 2006, am
131.XCD: Gramophone on CD, November, 2005, 57'48"
Monday, 9th January, 2006, am
132.XCD: Gramophone on CD, December, 2005: 11 Great Singers compilation, 38'59"
A hotch-potch but I wish the Gramophone would feature records of lasting value every month rather than profiling whatever their advertisers want. Fat chance!
Monday, 9th January, 2006, pm into Tuesday, 10th January, 2006, am
132.XCD: Gramophone on CD, December, 2005: 10 Records of the Month, 33'12"
Tuesday, 10th January, 2006, am
154.CD: Jade CD: Echoes, Fantasies, Music by Australian Composers, 66'32"
Part of a consignment of discs sent by my cyber-chum, Australian composer Derek Strahan. His own works are spread across lots of these compilations made by Robert Allworth. These mainly Sydney-based composers often seem to pulling in very different directions so the assembly of works on these discs can be strange. This disc for example contains some sine-tone tape doodles by Ian Shanahan, a local popular hit tune for the Sydney Mandolines - the Fandango by Ann Carr-Boyd and some fragrant pastorals by Dulcie Holland, a John Ireland pupil. Derek's own contribution is China Spring, for cello & piano, his 1989 tribute to the brave student who defied the tanks in Tianenmen Square. Incorporating the Internationale and The Star Spangled Banner, it ought not to work but the live performance by Georg Pedersen carries an electric charge.
Wednesday, 11th January, 2006, pm
3 cheap DVDs bought Harpurhey poundshop:
241.D: M. Gilhuis: Bloody Wednesday, 1985
242.D: R. Danton: Crypt of the Living Dead, 1972
243.D: M. Hellman: The Shooting, 1967
Only The Shooting might merit a buy at a higher price. The others were tripe as expected. Though I quite liked the beginning and end of Crypt. Bloody Wednesday was scripted by Philip Yordan whereby hangs a tale: it seems likely he was a front for writers who had fallen foul of HUAC. This one is mainly a cheap re-run of The Shining. The prolonged bloody massacre at the end has been massively abridged by the bbfc in this cut, though I suspect this was the selling point but least interesting part of the film. Belongs in the bad-good category.
134.XCD: Gramophone on CD, February 2006, bought W. H. Smith, Middleton
Thursday, 12th January, 2006, pm
133.XCD: Gramophone on CD, January, 2006, 62'55"
3089.S: Barbirolli Conducts Leonore III, Hebrides & Force of Destiny Overtures, Pye, 1957, 31'47"
Pye Golden Hour 1970s reissues promised your money's worth from their back catalogue. Here you get around 10% more on top. These were early stereo, probably recorded in the FreeTrade Hall in around 1957. Sometimes the balances are odd. Verdi fares best here - there is a touch of the grease-paint and a relish in the playing which otherwise seems less special.
Friday, 13th January, 2006, am
3088.S: Joan Sutherland sings scenes from Lucia, Ernani, Sicilian Vespers, Linda di Chamounix,
Decca, 1959 reissued 1966, 47'22"
3089.S: Barbirolli Conducts Tannhaüser, Magic Flute & Semiramide Overtures, Pye, 1957, 34'31"
Barbirolli comes to life in the profane aspects of Tannhaüser and Semiramide appeals to his Italianate side - -it is not his fault the overture is twice the length it should be. Sutherland's first major LP was well-produced in Paris - they even employed a chorus! The cut in Lucia was customarily made even in stage productions. At this point, the voice was bright and fresh. Sautereau sounds thin and shrill though.
Friday, 13th January, 2006, pm
134.XCD: Gramophone on CD, February, 2006, 58'32"
3098.M: Brahms Clarinet Quintet, Delcluse, Pascal Quartet, Classics Club, c 1950, 32'04"
3090.M: Profofiev 2nd Quartet & Roussel Quartet, Loewenguth Quartet, DGG, 1955, 22'14" + 20'16"
Far from new when it was issued here by Classics Club around 1960, the Brahms Quintet was probably recorded for US Concert Hall about 1950. It certainly sounds quite frail and distant. Yet there is a real old-world inwardness to the playing which makes this a strangely magical disc. I do not much like the Prokofiev Quartet but the Roussel is wonderfully astringent, avoiding the obvious to the point of perversity. A rare old DGG, not in perfect condition but nice to have.
Saturday, 14th January, 2006, am
3105.M: Callas in Excerpts from Traviata & Gioconda, Oriole-Cetra, c 1952, 18'46" + 14'15"
I expected this cheap Oriole-Realm disc to sound horrid. They were made for Woolworths to sell for a few shillings. In fact, it comes over loud and clear. The voice of Callas is always liable to distortion but I have heard far worse on old Columbias. The Traviata is not highly regarded. It was her only commercial stab at Violetta but various live accounts have surfaced since and are thought more mature. The Gioconda is atmospheric still and made me wish there was more music on this good old disc.
242.D: R. Danton: Crypt of the Living Dead, 1972, 81'48"
Starts like a Wicker Man variant - a man goes to a Greek island to investigate the death of his father. Oh dear, there is then some plot. By the end the pot has been stirred so the vampire is whizzing around. One good late moment is sort-of worth waiting for. I gather this was a Turkish movie with some additional footage for American audiences. It is very well suited to those occasions when a good movie just won't do!
Saturday, 14th January, 2006, pm
Free with Independent newspaper:
244.D: J. Menzel: Closely Observed Trains, 1966
LP discs bought Swinton:
5312.S: Bruckner: Symphony No.4, Boston SO, Leinsdorf, RCA, 1965;
5313.S: R. Strauss: Don Quixote & Don Juan, Cleveland, Szell, Columbia, 1962, silver label;
5214.S: Rachmaninov: 1st Symphony, USSRSO, Svetlanov, HMV-Melodya, 1967.
The Bruckner was missed by the Gramophone on first issue. I have Leinsdorf in a tape of his own peculiar edition of Bruckner's Third - he returned to the first version, with the Wagner quotes but then got cold feet and started to cut and substitute. I doubt if this commercial recording of The Romantic has any such vagaries, though he came to be a conductor who was routinely disparaged for mere efficiency. The Boston orchestra should be worth hearing however. The Szell Strauss record is a nice copy of the original English Columbia pressing with the earliest label. Priced at around £80 online. Does anyone actually get that sort of price? The sleeve of this copy is a bit tired. My CBS reissue missed out Don Juan, so this is a good find. The Rachmaninov is a stray singleton from a Rachmaninov box, not the original ASD issue. I heard it back in 1973, when the Finale was well-known as the theme to Panorama!
LP discs bought Prestwich:
5215.S: Tchaikovsky: 3rd Symphony, USSRSO, Svetlanov & Lyadov, HMV-Melodya, 1960s;
5216.E: Wieniawski & Lalo Concertos, Heifetz, RCA, 1951 - 54, reissue, fake stereo;
5217.M: Beethoven: 4th Symphony, VPO, Furtwängler, 1952, 1967 reissue.
More Svetlanov gathered from four miles away. The Heifetz is a reissue but two concerto recordings of the great man I did not have - late 78, early LP period. Sadly this reissue is from the seventies and has undergone reprocessing for stereo. The Furtwängler fetches fancy prices in its original HMV livery. This 1967 MFP pressing isn't so collectable but probably sounds better or the same. I used to think they did not recut MFP issues but experience of several pressings of the Gioconda de Vito Brahms Concerto has shown they did. In that case, the later pressings are at a lower level than the earlier ones, confirming the notion of a downgrading of sound for bargain issues. The aim was probably to make the records easier for cheap pickups to track without distortion. See the Ace of Clubs Trumpet Concertos disc for confirmation: later white label pressings were at a much lower level than the earlier green ones.
Sunday, 15th January, 2006, am
3108.M: Lemnitz sings Schubert, Cornelius & Wolf, r. 1945 c, Raucheisen-Classics Club, 40'05"
There has been a massive CD issue of Raucheisen's pioneering Lieder recordings recently. Some of them had trickled onto the market in odd issues. This Classics Club pressing dates from around 1960 but the tapes were probably from wartime Germany. The quality varies but the repetoire here is unusual - Schubert's Viola Blumenballade had the honour of a note by Tovey but isn't often done on record. The Cornelius songs are charming. One Wolf song might give some cataloguers a headache - it turns out to be an arrangement by Humperdinck of a Wolf piano piece. The words are by Miss Wette, librettist of Hansel und Gretl.
Sunday, 15th January, 2006, pm
241.D: M. Gilhuis: Bloody Wednesday, 1985, 88'16"
The screen-writer Philip Yordan has a curious history. Associated since the nineteen fifties with marginal and exploitaton cinema, he had one major film to his credit. It looks likely he was used as a front as his own work has been . More about this odd figure here [link] The story may be more interesting than the movies he has made. I usually find that this kind of fringe material can be made to sound enticing but actually watching the stuff can be a chore. This one is certainly odd - the story of a man who suffers a nervous breakdown, goes to live at his brother's expense in a derelict urban hotel. A bathtub murder and a burger-joint massacre ensue. To add to the murk, the massacre was based on a real event but the film's events seem to owe a lot to Kubrick's The Shining. As it is most unlikely to turn up on any mainstream television channel, the poundstore DVD might be worth investigating, though the quality is fully down to expectations and the final over-the-top massacre is hacked to shreds.
Monday, 16th January, 2006, am
3104.M: Schwarzkopf in Mozart Opera Arias, Prithcard, Columbia-WRC, 1953, 39'40"
3103.M: Beecham conducts Delius: Sea Drift & Hassan, CBS, 1954 - 56, 24'18" + 28'12"
Beecham's records were made in unusual circumstances. Since he underwrote some of the expenses himself and had his own orchestra at his beck and call, discs were held up for years while he delayed approving single movements or planned retakes. So it can be that recordings span several years. I gather that the Serenade from Hassan was made a year or two later than the rest of the score. Beecham's Delius is so often held up as a model that I feel a little shy about admitting that where the choice exists, I prefer Collins.
I sometimes think Delius knew the early Debussy scores. I heard La Damoiselle Eloue recently and it brought Sea Drift to mind.
Schwarzkopf attracted criticism at the time for her vainglory in tackling several of the rôles in Figaro & Giovanni. Her Zerbinetta raised eyebrows for its arch sophistication. This sixties World Records pressing comes over very loud and clear - it is certainly a quality item, though the rationale behind such a recital is hard to fathom, apart from being a profile of the singer.
Tuesday, 17th January, 2006, am
3091 - 96.S: Beethoven: 1st Symphony, BPO, Karajan, DGG, 1975, 23'05"
3101.S: Tchaikovsky: 1st Piano Concerto, Argerich, RPO, Dutoit, DGG, 1970, 35'19"
3097.S: Sibelius: 2nd Symphony, BPO, Kamu, DGG, 1970, 47'00"
Karajan has suffered from an inevitable backlash. For years his well-manicured discs were lapped up by legions of admirers. His were the safe choices, the Record Club Introductory Offers, the versions at the front of the displays in the stores. Yet a sense of fatigue had already set in by the time Karajan made this second integral set of the Beethoven Symphonies in the mid seventies. There was to be a third Digital set from DGG. Before any of them, there had been a series of EMI discs with the Philharmonia and a Ninth with the VPO, recorded at the end of the 78 rpm period. These days, a fine set of the DGG records just provokes a yawn from the collector: too smooth, too safe, too multi-miked, too narcisstic in its presentation materials and above all just too bloody common to be worth picking up.
The main criticism of Karajan's Beethoven is the same one made of his Rite of Spring. Too perfumed a savage. The quest for euphony has ironed out the sublime cragginess of the scores. The many ugly moments we have come to expect in a Beethoven symphony get smoothed out. He stands accused of a life-denying Teutonic mechanisation of the awkward humanity of Beethoven.
I think this leaves out of account Karajan's evident joy in the rhythmic vitality of the music. Tempi tend to be brisk and he has scant patience with the pieties of endless repeats. There are very few movements which don't move along. Has the endless rehearsal ruined the spontaneity? Only in some cases - I think this Ninth is a joyless thing. Mainly the attention paid to accurate chording and intonation - especially by the wind provides many pleasures and suggests that much of what passes for the sublime elsewhere is simple inaccuracy. This care in balancing the parts is the sort of attention to detail which we might take for granted in a great pianist. Perhaps the meliflous style here makes Karajan the Kempff of the orchestra rather than the Schnabel. Egotist he may have been but Karajan does not commit the cardinal sin of Beethoven interpretation, which is to approach his scores on his knees.
Argerich's Tchaikovsky has the crystal glitter of a pianist who knows her Bartok. Details which are normally submerged in the welter of notes are here given a microscopic profile. It certainly knocks the dust off the old war-horse in order to give us something like an X-ray. Certainly a version to hear.
Kamu's Sibelius was very opulently recorded and few conductors can have had such a red-carpet debut on disc. Yet it is other later Finns who seem to have broken through the Sibelius barrier and won through to more general world fame. There is a tendency towards the Allargando style here which seems to inflate the piece, overlaying it with more romanticism than it can take. Some days the processes of the Sibelius Symphonies seem to carry me along unresisting on other occasions the silences bother me and I wonder if there is an underlying process at work at all. When you find yourself awaiting the next great moment, a Sibelius record has failed to carry you over the gaps. The acoustic and balance may matter almost as much as the conductor's contribution here. I suspect the great admiration which has been expressed for the Collins Decca cycle derives to a large extent from the warmth of the Kingsway Hall sound and the homogenizing effect of mono. It hold things together which otherwise threaten to fly apart.
Tuesday, 17th January, 2006, pm
3091 - 96.S: Beethoven: 2nd Symphony, BPO, Karajan, DGG, 1977, 30'10"
3100.S: Elgar Violin Concerto, Chung, LPO, Solti, Decca, 1977, 49'18"
3109.E: Walton: Façade, Pears, Sitwell, Collins, Decca, 1954 reissued 1970, 37'02"
Though I used to enjoy Solti's account of the First Symphony, I wasn't drawn into this account of the Elgar's Violin Concerto with Kyung Wa Chung. It seemed to be several degrees cooler than the confiding intimacy of much of this score demands.
Façade comes up splendidly on Eclipse. The much-derided electronic-stereo label is usually avoided by serious collectors. I have a certain nostalgic liking for the corny old National Trust picture sleeves and the long list of issues to collect on the back. A pity the room left for a sleeve-note was often miniscule. Decca had recorded excerpts from Façade under the composer when it was just about half a dozen years old. Then the recitations on the two red-label 78s were done by Constant Lambert and the poetess. This 1954 version is therefore the most authentic complete version. The surprise was how good the recording sounds. Electronic processing was often kinder to small ensembles than to massed strings. This is very vivid and the short sides allow the sounds to project well clear of the surface. It was not unusual for Eclipse sides to exceed the thirty minute line and to sound horribly constricted over and above any boxy-weediness imparted by the process.
Actually Decca's processing was far inferior to the best examples of the technique. Some of the Electrola Breitklang issues were carefully engineered as were some of the DGG efforts which appeared on Heliodor. It is hard to believe that some of those were not genuine stereo!
Wednesday, 18th January, 2006, am
230.D: Chaplin in The Immigrant, 1917, 23'58"
253.D: M. Hellman: The Shooting, 1967, 75'27" atrocious print on 23rd Century bootleg
The iconic subject matter of Chaplin's movie has made it a great favourite and one of the most frequently reissued. In fact similar routines can be found in many of these two-reelers. Poverty, fear of authority, exploitation and winsome romance remind us that these subjects must have had personal resonances for many of the early viewers.
It was the machinery of film-making which demanded that where one rock-bottom budget Western was to be shot in the Philippines, they might just as well make two. Opinions differ as to which of Monte Hellman's 1967 twins is the finer. The Shooting seems to be an exercise in mythic generation, taking a party of mysterious characters into the desert and leaving them there. A Ride in the Whirlwind on the other hand seems to wish to deconstruct the myths and imagine a more uncomfortable reality - one which may well strain the patience of some traditional audiences.
The 23rd Century label is very cheap but The Shooting is one of the worst DVDs ever made. Clearly from a sub-standard video source, there are jumps in continuity, missing titles and horrible faults on the soundtrack. the picture exhibits tracking errors, blurred colour etc. It all adds a kind of Blair Witch level of a film found in a bottle to the mysteries of this picture.
Wednesday, 18th January, 2006, pm
1723.S: Beethoven: Eroica Symphony, BPO, Karajan, DGG, 1976, 47'55"
Friday, 20th January, 2006, am
219.D: R. Whorf: Till The Clouds Roll By, 1946, 135'00"
Jerome Kern put through the musical biopic mill in a lavish MGM colour musical. It has lapsed into the public domain so the film costs a pound. The musical numbers are all well staged but the drama is fluffy and Robert Walker is miscast. Still, it is a very good way to acquire a crop of vintage Hollywood corn.
Friday, 20th January, 2006, pm
3091 - 96.S: Beethoven: 4th Symphony, BPO, Karajan, DGG, 1976, 31'59"
3106.S: Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto, Morini, RPO, Rodzinsky, Westminster-HMV, 1957, 31'54"
3099.S: Beethoven: Pathétique Sonata, Lupu, Decca, 1970, 22'17"
3110.M: Schumann: 8 Lieder & Liederkreis, Op.39, Souzay, Bladwin, Philips, 1966, 17'55" + 25'52"
3099.S: Beethoven: Moonlight Sonata, Lupu, Decca, 1970, 17'13"
Female fiddlers are a collector's cliché on the black disc market. The renamed RPO - billed as The Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra of London, as frequently on Westminster - was still Beecham's Royal family at this period. The disc would have appeared initially on Westminster in the States. Did it ever come out on Associated Recordings, when they briefly and disasterously expanded in the early sixties? Westminster ended up with their wares rebadged on HMV Concert Classics or on World Records. My copy of this on has a horrible water and mould-damaged sleeve but the disc is not bad and Morini was certainly a fine player. Lupu was heavily promoted for a brief period when he surfaced as a competition winner but his was an intimate and withdrawn art which can seem perverse. The three popular Beethoven Sonatas on the Decca disc were an unimaginitive calling-card from his early career but the performances were the opposite of routine.
Some sleeve-photographs of Souzay are unnervingly like Peter Mandelson. His best discs are certainly from the earlier part of his career and the beauty of the voice was already showing some blemishes by the mid sixties. This Philips pressing was mono but the songs are all interesting and the Cycle especially well done.
Saturday, 21st January, 2006, pm
230.D: Chaplin in Easy Street, 1917, 23'24"
Chaplin gasses the bully in the street-lamp and wins the neighbourhood back by an injection of dope! Such are the things you can find with a U certificate, if they are ninety years old and in a comedy classic.
Saturday, 21st January, 2006, pm into Sunday, 22nd January, 2006, am
218.D: Preminger: The Man with the Golden Arm, 1955, 118'53"
Sinatra made a lot of films but his reputation as an actor rests on three or four. He certainly did not hold out for cuddly rôles. As a drug-addicted musician and card dealer here and as a deranged war vet and would-be presidential assassin in Suddenly, he seemed to be intent on scum-bagging. He is certainly effective in both. The Preminger film is over-long but this Public Domain DVD is cheap and of reasonable quality.
Sunday, 22nd January, 2006, pm
230.D: Chaplin in The Knockout, 1914, 25'05" [nodded off during this]
The appalling quality of the print may have been responsible for me nodding off but this is a unlovely film mainly featuring Fatty Arbuckle. A fragment is featured in Cinema Paradiso.
Monday, 23rd January, 2006, am
1698.S: Beethoven: 5th Symphony, BPO, Karajan, DGG, 1976, 29'55"
3107.S: Schumann Piano Concerto, R. Serkin, Philadelphia, Ormandy, CBS, 1964, 30'31"
1618.Z: BBC Comedy Special, 1970s, Readers' Digest from BBC, 45'47"
Serkin did not seem to be inspired by the Schumann Concerto - this is a brusque and uncaring account. The strange mix on items on the BBC tape includes one of my bêtes noirs - Peter Ustinov! There is the famous Hoffnung excerpt featuring Letters from Foreign Hotels, which was included in the famous Oxford Union Speech. A pity they did not use something from the BBC's own material. I find The Two Ronnies clever but oddly cringeworthy. Familiar bits of the far better Porridge, a poor bit of Frankie Howerd and a morsel of Julian and Sandy from Round the Horne. At the time it was issued, it may have been a novelty to own a few snippets of these shows. Now they are widely repeated and available on tapes and DVDs in full.
Monday, 23rd January, 2006, pm
3091 - 96.S: Beethoven: Pastoral Symphony, BPO, Karajan, DGG, 1976, 38'18"
3107.S: Schumann: Introduction & Allegro, Op.92, R. Serkin, Ormandy, CBS, 1964, 15'34"
155.CD: Jade CD: Lines of Light, Australian Composers, compliation, 76'03"
Tuesday, 24th January, 2006, pm into Wednesday, 25th January, 2006 am
213.D: J. Ford: The Grapes of Wrath, 1940, 123'50"
Wednesday, 25th January, 2006 pm
7 x VHS tapes, bought Heywood @ £1 each:
290.V: M. Powell: A Matter of Life & Death, 1946
291.V: C. Crichton: The Lavender Hill Mob, 1951
292.V: F. Zinneman: The Nun's Story, full screen, 1959
293.V: D. Lean: Lawrence of Arabia, restored widescreen version, 1962
294.V: W. Herzog: Nosferatu, dubbed English version, full screen, 1979
295.V: S. Spielberg: Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Special Edition, widescreen, 1977
296.V: R. Altman: Short Cuts, widescreen version, 1993
Friday, 27th January, 2006, pm
3091 - 96.S: Beethoven: 7th Symphony, BPO, Karajan, DGG, 1976, 33'16"
3107.S: Schumann: Introduction & Allegro, Op.134, R. Serkin, Ormandy, CBS, 1964, 14'33"
3125.S: Brahms 1st Symphony, Columbia SO, B. Walter, CBS, 1960, 43'56"
I had known Walter's 1960 Brahms Second since I was a kid but the First from the same series had eluded me till now. I did not find it anything near as sympathetic. Walter takes an unaffectionate line but does not seem to find any greater strength to compensate.
Friday, 27th January, 2006, pm into Saturday, 28th January, 2006, am
230.D: Chaplin in The Knockout, 1914, 25'03"
Saturday, 28th January, 2006, am
193.D: A. Hitchcock: Notorious, 1946, 97'07"
I saw this on video last year and was underwhelmed. That was a very grainy presentation and the running time reveals it was an NTSC conversion. This DVD is a lot better, though the process shots on the balcony and in the square are if anything more glaringly artificial. This time I loved the film and relished the performances. This is Bergman at the top of her game and Hitchcock near the top of his.
Sunday, 29th January, 2006, pm
214.D: F. Feist: The Big Trees, 1952, beginning, 41'29"
Nodding during this so it was resumed next day. This was an alternative version, bought in the hope it might preserve the original ratio. It doesn't - looks much the same as that on the Classic Entertainment Triple Bill.
Monday, 30th January, 2006, pm
214.D: F. Feist: The Big Trees, 1952, conclusion, 47'46"
What an unbearable character Kirk Douglas plays in this woody drama! The history lesson over a giant redwood's rings is taken over in Vertigo. Not necessarily a lift from this movie - I imagine any California tourist could seize the idea from any National Park there. Douglas is given a sort of catch-phrase, which he repeats whenever he is being especially obnoxious, "But you like me, don't you?" No! is the short answer. Douglas is said to have done the film for nothing to be rid of his onorous Warner Brothers contract. It can be found for next to nothing in bargain bins all over. I guess it has been seen by more people in the last few years than it ever was on first release. There are a lot of ingredients swimming around in the pot - some of them seem familiar from Abilene Town, where the town Sherriff is similarly torn between sacred and profane girls. That was Randolph Scott, long in the tooth but opting in the end for vice. It's a much better movie than this one.
Tuesday, 31st January, 2006, pm
CD bought Sale, Cheshire:
310.CD: Cherubini: Requiem in D minor etc, Czech PO, Markevitch etc, Supraphon, 1962 - 67;
The Requiem was a co-production with Markevitch's more usual label DGG and it first appeared on that label in the UK. The Symphony and the Overture to Medea came off a later Supraphon disc by the conductorless Prague CO
5 x 10" LPs with booklets bought Sale, Cheshire:
42a.GM: Mozart: Symphonies 22 & 38, Kehr, Pitamic, Fabbri Great Musicians, issued 1970;
30.GM: Haydn: Trumpet Concerto & Lark Quartet, various, Fabbri Great Musicians, issued 1970;
59.GM: Schubert: Rosamunde & 2 Impromptus, Hurst from Saga & Demus from DGG, Fabbri, 1970;
77.GM: Delibes: Ballet excerpts etc, Smetacek etc, Fabbri from Supraphon etc, 1970;
84.GM: Beethoven: Finale, 9th Symphony, Horenstein from Vox, 1956, issued 1970.
Nearly all the first 45 or so of these 84 issues of The Great Musicians are now in my possession. Sheer nostalgia really for a series that appeared when I was still eking out my pocket-money. Though 12/6d or 13/11d - -about 65p or 70p today - seems absurdly cheap for a 15" high booklet with a 10" disc in a pocket at the back - these did not always seem irresistable bargains at the time. In fact, I only bought a few of them when they were remaindered and sold off in their thousands from various bargain outlets.
For at the time you could buy a complete 12" disc for as little as 50p. Quite a good range of titles were available for under a pound. What is more, the 10" sides meant that works like The Symphonie Fantastique, The Eroica and the Pathétique Symphony were spread over three sides. Beethoven's Ninth took five or six! The texts were good, though as ever with music writing, they veered between simple World Around the Music details and pictures which were attractive but not always illuminating. On the other hand, the musical analyses would have gone over the heads of many beginners. For 40p 50p or 60p you could buy the Pelican Histories of Music and other biographies, if you wanted to cover some composers in depth. Part Works are usually a very expensive way to be drip-fed.
Part Works tend to drastically cut back their print-runs after initially flooding the market with opening offers. There must have been hundreds of thousands of the first ten or twenty in The Great Musicans. Those titles turn up in every charity shop slush-pile. The urge to collect a complete series may tend to deter anyone from starting to subscribe once the series is underway, even though most publishers would offer a back-issues service. Anyway complete sets are rare in comparison to short runs of the early numbers. They are also an awkward shape to house on regular shelves. And they pose filing dilemmas: do you keep all issues by each composer together or keep them in their numerical order? Do you keep the discs separate from the magazines? The discs were certainly very light on the vinyl - they boasted that they came from the most advanced record factory in Europe. Usually they sound OK, if they are in good condition, though the paper sleeves make dust a problem.
The recordings were licenced from a number of sources - Vox, Supraphon and presumably some of the Italian performances were owned by Fabbri, Milan. For this was the UK edition of an Italian project. The company had started its life selling art portfolios in post-war Italy, when no one had much cash for bound books. Hence the awkward shape of The Great Musicians - it used formats suitable for prints of the great masters. Tucked away somewhere among the credits for the British edition you will find the name of Michael Nyman.