20,000 vinyl LPs 388: Redhead ~ Bob Fossie & Gwen Verdon

 ~  

Albert Hague  ~ Redhrad

vinyl LP front cover detail 

 cover design by Rouben Ter-Arutunian

detail photo of album cover by Styrous®

Today is the birthday of American choreographer, dancer, filmmaker, and stage director Bob Fosse who was known for his work on stage and screen; he is one of the most influential figures in the field of jazz dance in the twentieth century.  He revolutionized musicals with his distinct style of dance and was on a par with Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly.       

 

Fosse started his career acting in the musical productions of Call Me Mister (1947), Billion Dollar Baby (1951), and Pal Joey (1952). He transitioned into directing and choreographing musical works, winning Tony Awards for choreographing The Pajama Game (1954), Damn Yankees (1955), Redhead (1959), Little Me (1963), Sweet Charity (1966), Pippin (1972), Dancin' (1978), and Big Deal (1986), as well as for directing Pippin. He also worked on Bells Are Ringing (1956), New Girl in Town (1958), How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (1961), and Chicago (1975).           

 

Albert Hague  ~ Redhrad

vinyl LP front cover 

 cover design by Rouben Ter-Arutunian

photo of album cover by Styrous®

    

 

 

 

Albert Hague  ~ Redhrad

vinyl LP front cover detail 

 cover design by Rouben Ter-Arutunian

detail photo of album cover by Styrous®

 

 

Fosse forged an uncompromising modern style, characterized by finger-snapping, tilted bowler hats, fishnet stockings, splayed gloved fingers, turned-in knees and toes, shoulder rolls and jazz hands. His third wife was dancer and actress Gwen Verdon, whom he met choreographing Damn Yankees, in which she starred and with whom he collaborated on a number of theater and film projects.          

 

Fosse's extramarital affairs put a strain on the marriage and by 1971 they were separated, although they remained legally married until his death in 1987. Verdon never re-partnered. During their joint career, Fosse would continually take blame from critics while Gwen Verdon would get praise. However, Verdon always looked out for him and was Fosse's personal press secretary throughout their marriage.        

 

  

Albert Hague  ~ Redhrad

vinyl LP back cover 

 cover design by Rouben Ter-Arutunian

photo of album back cover by Styrous®

In Redhead, Fosse used one of the first ballet sequences in a show that contained five different styles of dance: Fosse's jazz, a cancan, a gypsy dance, a march and an old-fashioned English music hall number. Set in London in the 1880s, around the time of Jack the Ripper, the musical is a murder mystery in the setting of a wax museum.         

 

Albert Hague  ~ Redhrad

vinyl LP back cover details 

 cover design by Rouben Ter-Arutunian

photo of album back cover by Styrous®

 

Gwen Verdon & Richard Kiley 

Albert Hague  ~ Redhrad

vinyl LP back cover detail 

 cover design by Rouben Ter-Arutunian

detail photo of album back cover by Styrous®

 

 

Albert Hague  ~ Redhrad

vinyl LP back cover detail 

 cover design by Rouben Ter-Arutunian

photo of album back cover by Styrous®

Albert Hague  ~ Redhrad

vinyl LP back cover detail 

 cover design by Rouben Ter-Arutunian

photo of album back cover by Styrous®

In 1961, Fosse's epilepsy was revealed when he had a seizure onstage during rehearsals for The Conquering Hero. He died of a heart attack on September 23, 1987, at George Washington University Hospital while the revival of Sweet Charity was opening at the nearby National Theatre. He had collapsed in Verdon's arms near the Willard Hotel. As he had requested, Verdon and Nicole Fosse scattered his ashes in the Atlantic Ocean off Quogue, Long Island, where Fosse had been living with his girlfriend of four years.  A month after his death, Verdon fulfilled Fosse's request for his friends to "go out and have dinner on me" by hosting a star-studded, celebrity-filled evening at Tavern on the Green with Verdon, Reinking, Jessica Lange, Roy Scheider, Ben Vereen, and E. L. Doctorow attending.          

 

Albert Hague  ~ Redhrad

vinyl LP side 1 

photo by Styrous®

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

Albert Hague  ~ Redhrad

vinyl LP side 2 

photo by Styrous®

 

 

 

Tracklist:
       
Side 1:

        

A1 - Orchestra* – Overture
A2 - Patrons* –    The Simpson Sisters' Door
A3 - Gwen Verdon – The Right Finger Of My Left Hand
A4 - Gwen Verdon, Richard Kiley, Leonard Stone – Just For Once
A5 - Gwen Verdon – Merely Marvelous
A6 - Leonard Stone – The Uncle Sam Rag
A7 - Gwen Verdon – Erbie Fitch's Twitch
A8 - Richard Kiley, Leonard Stone – She's Just Not Enough Woman For Me
A9 - Gwen Verdon, Cynthia Latham, Doris Rich – Behave Yourself

       
Side 2:
       
B1 - Gwen Verdon, Richard Kiley – Look Who's In Love
B2 - Richard Kiley – My Girl Is Just Enough Woman For Me
B3 - Orchestra* – Essie's Vision
B4 - Bob Dixon (17) – Two Faces In The Dark
B5 - Richard Kiley – I'm Back In Circulation
B6 - Joy Nichols, Pat Ferrier – We Loves Ya, Jimey, Arranged By Sid Ramin
B8 - Gwen Verdon, Richard Kiley – I'll Try
B9 - Entire Company* – Chase And Finale
        
Companies, etc.
       
    Pressed By – RCA Records Pressing Plant, Indianapolis
    Recorded At – RCA Victor Studios, New York
        
Credits:
       
    Arranged By [Dance Music] – Roger Adams
    Choreography [Associate Choreographer] – Donald McKayle
    Design Concept – Rouben Ter-Arutunian
    Directed By, Choreography – Bob Fosse
    Lighting – Jean Rosenthal
    Lyrics By, Liner Notes – Dorothy Fields
    Music By – Albert Hague
    Music Director, Arranged By [Vocal Arrangements] – Jay Blackton
    Orchestrated By – Philip J. Lang, Robert Russell Bennett
    Presenter – Lawrence Carr, Robert Fryer
    Production Manager – Robert Linden
    Vocals [Essie Whimple] – Gwen Verdon
    Vocals [George Poppett] – Leonard Stone
    Vocals [Maude Simpson] – Cynthia Latham
    Vocals [May] – Joy Nichols
    Vocals [Sarah Simpson] – Doris Rich
    Vocals [Tilly] – Pat Ferrier
    Vocals [Tom Baxter] – Richard Kiley
    Written-By [Book By] – David Shaw (23), Dorothy Fields, Herbert Fields, Sidney Sheldon
        
Notes:
       
Original 1959 Broadway Cast recording of the murder mystery stage musical starring Gwen Verdon and Richard Kiley.
Recorded Feb 8, 1959

       
Barcode and Other Identifiers
 

    Matrix / Runout (Side A Runout): K2 PP1128-3S A2 I
    Matrix / Runout (Side B Runout): K2 PP1129-4S I A2

 

Gwen Verdon, Richard Kiley – Redhead (An Original Cast Recording)
Label: RCA Victor – LOC-1048
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album, Mono
Country: US
Released: 1959
Genre: Stage & Screen
Style: Musical        

         

Viewfinder links:        

         

Fred Astaire            

Bob Fosse         

Albert Hague              

Gene Kelly           

Richard Kiley           

Jessica Lange         

Rouben Ter-Arutunian        

Gwen Verdon         

        

Net links:        

        

Britannica ~ Bob Fosse         

Dramatics ~ Why Bob Fosse’s influence never fizzles        

Masterworks Broadway ~ Bob Fosse        

PBS ~ Bob Fosse          

Play Bill ~ Bob Fosse         

Senses of Cinema ~ Bob Fosse                

        

YouTube links:        

         

Damn Yankees ~  

     Whatever Lola Wants (Gwen Verdon & Tab Hunter)      

     Who's Got the Pain (Bob Fosse & Gwen Verdon)               

Bob Fosse dance numbers              

Bob Fosse Dancing            

Bob Fosse, Debbie Reynolds, Bobbby Van & Barbara Ruick          

Bob Fosse (documentary) (1 hr.)           

Kiss Me Kate ~ From This Moment On          

Redhead ~ complete recordings         

Rockettes All That Jazz Fosse Dance Tribute              

Sweet Charity ~ Hey Big Spender        

Tommy Tune & Ann Reinking                 

        

         

        

        

        

Styrous® ~ Monday, June 23, 2025        
       

 

 

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20,000 vinyl LPs 387: Jacques Offenbach - Gaite Parisienne

 ~  

Jacques Offenbach  ~ Gaite Parisienne

vinyl LP front cover 

 cover illustration by Steinweiss 

photo of album cover by Styrous®

Today is the birthday of French composer, cellist and impresario, Jacques Offenbach who was born on June 20, 1819. He wrote 100 operettas of the 1850s to the 1870s, and his uncompleted opera The Tales of Hoffmann (link below). He was an influence on later composers of the operetta genre, particularly Franz von Suppé, Johann Strauss II and Sir Arthur Sullivan. 

 

In 1858 Offenbach produced his first full-length operetta, Orphée aux enfers (Orpheus in the Underworld), with its celebrated can-can; the work was exceptionally well received and has remained his most played. 

 

His works from the 1860's include La belle Hélène (1864), La Vie parisienne (1866), La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein (1867) and La Périchole (1868). The risqué humour (often about sexual intrigue) and mostly gentle satiric barbs in these pieces, together with his facility for melody, made them internationally known, and translated versions were successful in Vienna, London, elsewhere in Europe and in the US            

Gaite Parisienne is a ballet in one act choreographed by Léonide Massine with a libretto and décor by Comte Étienne de Beaumont and costumes executed by Barbara Karinska, it was first presented by the Ballet Russe de Monte-Carlo at the Théâtre de Monte Carlo on April 5, 1938.        

 

Gaite Parisienne features various dances: ballet, waltz, bolero, gavotte, Barcarolle (which resembles ), etc., but the infamous Can-Can is  the gem and hilight of the work! The word  Can-Can in french originally meant "scandal," or edge, because the dancers performed on the edge of the stage. Very few people are aware that the 'X-Rated' construction of the gowns worn was what caused the furor! In the 19th century, women wore pantalettes, which had an open crotch, and the high kicks were intentionally revealing (links below).         

 

Jacques Offenbach  ~ Gaite Parisienne

vinyl LP back cover 

photo by Styrous®

 

 

This recording features Efrem Kurtz who conducted the original performance of Gaite Parisienne in 1938.                

 

Jacques Offenbach  ~ Gaite Parisienne

vinyl LP sides 1 & 2 

photos by Styrous®

   

Tracklist:
       
Side 1:

        

    Offenbach*    Gaite Parisienne    
A1 – Overture; Tortoni    
A2 – Gallop; Valse; March    
A3 – Grand Valse; Can Can No. 1    
A4 – Can Can No. 2; Quadrille    
        Russian Music    

       
Side 2:
       
B1 Prokofiev* – March, Op. 99, Arranged By Efrem Kurtz
B2 – Rimsky-Korsakov* –    The Flight Of The Bumble Bee    
B3 – Glinka* – Life Of The Czar-Mazurka    
B4 – Shostakovich* –The Age Of Gold-Polka    
B5 – Shostakovich* – Waltz (No. 2 Of "Les Monts D'Or" Suite)    
B6 – Tchaikovsky* – Eugen Onegin-Entr'acte And Waltz    
         

Credits:
       
    Conductor – Efrem Kurtz
    Cover – Steinweiss*
    Liner Notes – Morris Hastings
    Orchestra – Columbia Symphony Orchestra (tracks: A1 to A4), Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra Of New York (tracks: B1 to B6)        

 

Barcode and Other Identifiers
        

    Matrix / Runout (A side label): XLP 1490
    Matrix / Runout (B side label): XLP 1491
    Matrix / Runout (A side runout stamped): XLP 1490 B 2B
    Matrix / Runout (B side runout stamped): XLP 1491 2C G A

Offenbach*, Efrem Kurtz, Columbia Symphony Orchestra, The Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra Of New York* – Gaite Parisienne Ballet & Russian Music
Label: Columbia Masterworks – ML 4233
Format: Vinyl, LP
Country: US
Released: 1949
Genre: Classical

         

Viewfinder links:        

         

Ballet Russe de Monte-Carlo              

Comte Étienne de Beaumont                  

Efrem Kurtz           

Léonide Massine            

Jacques Offenbach        

        

Net links:        

         

Come To Paris ~ A History of the French Can-Can 

Comte Étienne de Beaumont         

Weebly ~ The Can Can Dance       

        

YouTube links:        

        

Jacques Offenbach -      

      Gaite Parisienne (2022) (43 mins., 21 secs.)       

      Gaite Parisienne (Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo)  

      Can-Can (dance)         

      Can-Can (instrumental)           

        

         

        

        

        

Styrous® ~ Friday, June 20, 2025        
       

 

 

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20,000 Vinyl LPs Archive
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20,000 vinyl LPs 289: Damn Yankees & Gwen Verdon

 ~  

Richard Adler ~ Damn Yankees

vinyl LP front cover   
cover photo by Gene Cook 

photo of album cover by Styrous®

 

Sixty-six years ago today the Broadway musical Damn Yankees opened in 1955. I have loved this show for decades; the songs have become classics because of their beauty, creativity and even humor.          

Goodbye Old Girl is among my top favorite songs; it is one of love and hope for the future with a touch of wistfulness. The plot is based on the legend of Faust. Robert Shafer (Joe Boyd) sells his soul to Mr. Applegate, (really the Devil) played by Ray Walston who is billed as the star of the musical, in exchange for youth; Stephen Douglass (Joe Hardy) is the youth he becomes (plot below). The song is occurs during the transformation scene. In the 1958 film version, Walston & Shafer reprise their roles but Joe Hardy is played and the song sung (slightly off key) by Tab Hunter. Who wouldn't sell their soul to look like him?    

 

 

Tab Hunter
 photo by Herbert Dorfman

 

Another reason I love this show is Gwen Verdon. What a treasure she was. In Yankees she plays the role of Lola, with a capitol LA. She is the devil's familiar sent by him to seduce Joe so he won't break his bond; she sings and made a huge hit of the song, Whatever Lola Wants. Can-Can made her a star but Lola made her a legend!         

Stephen Douglass & Gwen Verdon

Damn Yankees - 1955

photographer unknown

The dance numbers choreographed by Bob Fosse are a bunch of fun. There is Shoeless Joe from Hannibal, Mo., a rollicking hoedown led by Rae Allen, with the Baseball Players cast. 

 

Verdon and Fosse team up on the song, Who's Got the Pain (When They Do the Mambo)?.  Then there is Two Lost Souls both with gestures that would become signature Fosse moves.          

 

 

Damn Yankees - Two Lost Souls
photographer unknown

 

 

Fosse met Verdon in this show; they would go on to become a fantastic dance team known as the "Dynamic Duo of Broadway" and they even married.         

 Gwen Verdon & Bob Fosse

Damn Yankees -Who's Got the Pain 

photographer unknown

  

The songs are great! Heart is a bouncy, joyous and inspiring tune sung by baseball team members, Russ Brown, Jimmie Komack, Nathaniel Frey and Albert Linville.        

 

 

Russ Brown, Jimmie Komack, Nathaniel Frey and Albert Linville 

Damn Yankees - 1955

photographer unknown
 

 

Damn Yankees - entire cast 1955
photographer unknown

 

            

Damn Yankees won the Tony Award for Best Musical, both Douglass and Walston for Best Performance By a Leading Actor in a Musical, Verdon for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical and Fossie for Best Choreography; it won many other awards as well as.          

Richard Adler ~ Damn Yankees 

vinyl LP back cover

photo by Styrous®

Damn Yankees ran for 1,019 performances in the original Broadway production. Adler and Ross's success with it and The Pajama Game (link below) seemed to point to a bright future for them, but Ross suddenly died of chronic bronchiectasis at age 29, several months after Damn Yankees opened.   

Richard Adler ~ Damn Yankees 

vinyl LP, side 1

photo by Styrous®

 

Richard Adler ~ Damn Yankees 

vinyl LP, side 2

photo by Styrous®

   

Tracklist:

Side 1:

A1 - Shannon Bolin, Robert Shafer, Baseball Fans*, Baseball Widows* – 

               Overture: Six Months Out Of Every Year - 4:40
A2 - Robert Shafer, Stephen Douglass – Goodbye, Old Girl - 3:12
A3 - Russ Brown (3), Jimmie Komack*, Nathaniel Frey, Albert Linville – Heart - 4:34
A4 - Rae Allen, Baseball Players* – Shoeless Joe From Hannibal, Mo. - 3:40
A5 - Gwen Verdon – A Little Brains - A Little Talent - 3:35
A6 - Stephen Douglass, Shannon Bolin – A Man Doesn't Know - 3:07

Side 2:

B1 - Gwen Verdon – Whatever Lola Wants - 3:05
B2 - Jean Stapleton, Ronn Cummins, Jackie Scholle, Cherry Davis – Heart (Reprise) - 1:22
B3 - Gwen Verdon, Eddie Phillips (2) – Who's Got The Pain? - 2:50
B4 - Jimmie Komack*, Nathaniel Frey, Baseball Players* – The Game - 4:24
B5 - Stephen Douglass, Shannon Bolin – Near To You - 5:27
B6 - Ray Walston – Those Were The Good Old Days - 2:32
B7 - Gwen Verdon, Stephen Douglass – Two Lost Souls - 2:15
B8 - Shannon Bolin, Robert Shafer – A Man Doesn't Know (Reprise) - 1:22
B9 - The Entire Company* – Finale - 0:55

Companies, etc.

    Copyright © – RCA
    Pressed By – RCA Records Pressing Plant, Indianapolis

Credits:

    Arranged By [Dance Music Arrangements] – Roger Adams
    Choreography – Bob Fosse
    Directed By [Production Directed By] – George Abbott
    Leader [Musical Direction By], Written-By [Book by] – Hal Hastings*
    Lyrics By – Richard Adler
    Music By – Jerry Ross (2)
    Orchestrated By [Orchestrations By] – Don Walker (3)
    Other [Based On The Novel, "The Year The Yankees Lost The Pennant" By], Written-By [Book by] – Douglass Wallop
    Other [Lola] – Gwen Verdon
    Other [Starring] – Ray Walston, Stephen Douglass
    Other [with] – Eddie Phillips (2), Jimmie Komack*, Jean Stapleton, Nathaniel Frey, Rae Allen, Richard Bishop (3), Robert Shafer (6), Russ Brown (3), Shannon Bolin
    Photography By [Cover Photo] – Gene Cook
    Presenter – Frederick Brisson, Harold Prince, Robert E. Griffith
    Presenter [in association with] – Albert B. Taylor
    Set Designer [Scenery], Design [Costumes Designed By] – Jean Eckart, William Eckart (2)

Notes:

 

 
Barcode and Other Identifiers

    Matrix / Runout (Side A label): F2PP-3748
    Matrix / Runout (Side B label): F2PP-3748
    Matrix / Runout (Side A stamped [var. 1]): F2 PP3748-17S
    Matrix / Runout (Side B stamped [var. 1]): F2PP-3749-14S
    Matrix / Runout (Side A stamped [var. 2]): F2 PP3748-12S A2
    Matrix / Runout (Side B stamped [var. 2]): F2 PP 3749 6Ⓢ E1
    Pressing Plant ID (Both sides stamped; RCA Indy): I

 

Various – Damn Yankees - Original Cast Recording
Label: RCA Victor – LOC-1021
Format: Vinyl, Album, LP, Mono
Country: US
Released: 1955
Genre: Stage & Screen
Style: Musical

 

   

         

Viewfinder links:        

         

Stephen Douglass         

Bob Fosse        

Tab Hunter        

The Pajama Game ~ the musical        

Gwen Verdon         

Ray Walston               

        

Net links:        

        

         

        

        

Plot        

        

        

YouTube links:        

        

Damn Yankees ~               

Cast ~ Shoeless Joe from Hannibal, Mo. (original cast)        

Shafer & Douglass ~ Goodbye Old Girl (original cast)   

Shafer & Douglass ~ Goodbye Old Girl (film version)        

Gwen Verdon ~ Whatever Lola Wants, Lola Gets (original cast)   

Gwen Verdon ~ Whatever Lola Wants, Lola Gets (film version)    

Verdon & Fosse ~ Who's Got the Pain? (film version)              

Verdon & Hunter ~ Two Lost Souls (film version)              

        

        

        

        

        

        

        

        

Styrous® ~ Wednesday, May 5, 2021       
       

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20,000 Vinyl LPs Archive
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20,000 Vinyl LPs 114: Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky ~ 1812 Overture & Arthur Fiedler

Tchaikovsky ~ 1812 Overture 

Arthur Fiedler & The Boston Pops Orchestra 

vinyl LP album cover detail 

 detail photo by Styrous®

On this date, November 6, in 1893, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (/ˈpjoʊtər ɪˈljɪtʃ tʃaɪˈkɒfski/; Russian: Пётр Ильи́ч Чайко́вский) often anglicized as Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, died. He was a Russian composer of the late-Romantic period, some of whose works are among the most popular music in the classical repertoire. He was the first Russian composer whose music made a lasting impression internationally, bolstered by his appearances as a guest conductor in Europe and the United States.  

The first classical music album I bought was this recording of the 1812 Overture by Tchaikovsky, so, I have chosen it to commemorate him. The recording was conducted by the funky, fun and marvelous Arthur Fiedler.    

 

Tchaikovsky ~ 1812 Overture 

Arthur Fiedler & The Boston Pops Orchestra 

vinyl LP album cover

photo by Styrous®

I would go to the Civic Center Auditorium (now called the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium) on Grove Street in San Francisco in the late fifties to hear him as he led the San Francisco Pops Orchestra on wild and thrilling orchestral rides (link below).      

 

Tchaikovsky ~ 1812 Overture 

Arthur Fiedler & The Boston Pops Orchestra 

vinyl LP album back cover

 photo by Styrous®

Fiedler was born in Boston, Massachusetts; he died on July 10, 1979. Composer John Williams succeeded Fiedler as the orchestra's nineteenth director (Pop King link below).         

Tchaikovsky ~ 1812 Overture 

Arthur Fiedler & The Boston Pops Orchestra 

vinyl LP album back cover detail

 detail photo by Styrous®

 

Fiedler was fascinated by the work of firefighters and would travel in his own vehicle to large fires in and around Boston at any time of the day or night to watch the firefighters at work. The biography of Fiedler reports that the conductor once helped in the rescue efforts at the tragic Cocoanut Grove fire in Boston in 1942 (link below).                 

         

Tchaikovsky ~ 1812 Overture 

Arthur Fiedler & The Boston Pops Orchestra 

vinyl LP album back cover detail

 detail photo by Styrous®

 

Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky was born on May 7, 1840, in Votkinsk, a small town in Vyatka Governorate (present-day Udmurtia) in the Russian Empire, into a family with a long line of military service. Although musically precocious, he was educated for a career as a civil servant.

He entered the new Saint Petersburg Conservatory and graduated from it in 1865. The formal Western-oriented teaching he received there set him apart from composers of the contemporary nationalist movement embodied by the Russian composers of The Five: Mily Balakirev (the leader), César Cui, Modest Mussorgsky, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and Alexander Borodin all of whom lived in Saint Petersburg,     

Tchaikovsky ~ 1812 Overture 

Arthur Fiedler & The Boston Pops Orchestra 

vinyl LP album back cover detail

 detail photo by Styrous®

Tchaikovsky's training from the conservatory set him on a path to reconcile what he had learned with the native musical practices to which he had been exposed from childhood. From this reconciliation, he forged a personal but unmistakably Russian style; not an easy task. The principles that governed melody, harmony and other fundamentals of Russian music ran completely counter to those that governed Western European music; this seemed to defeat the potential for using Russian music in large-scale Western composition or for forming a composite style. Russian culture exhibited a split personality, with its native and adopted elements having drifted apart increasingly since the time of Peter the Great. This resulted in uncertainty among the intelligentsia about the country's national identity—an ambiguity mirrored in Tchaikovsky's career.       

Tchaikovsky ~ 1812 Overture 

Arthur Fiedler & The Boston Pops Orchestra 

vinyl LP, Side 1

 photo by Styrous®

Tchaikovsky's life was punctuated by personal crises and depression. Contributory factors included his early separation from his mother for boarding school followed by his mother's early death, the death of his close friend and colleague Nikolai Rubinstein, and the collapse of the one enduring relationship of his adult life, which was his 13-year association with the wealthy widow Nadezhda von Meck. His homosexuality, which he kept private, has traditionally also been considered a major factor, though some musicologists now downplay its importance.

While his music has remained popular among audiences, critical opinions were initially mixed. Some Russians did not feel it was sufficiently representative of native musical values and expressed suspicion that Europeans accepted the music for its Western elements. In an apparent reinforcement of the latter claim, some Europeans lauded Tchaikovsky for offering music more substantive than base exoticism and said he transcended stereotypes of Russian classical music. Others dismissed Tchaikovsky's music as "lacking in elevated thought," according to longtime New York Times music critic Harold C. Schonberg, and derided its formal workings as deficient because they did not stringently follow Western principles.       

However, Tchaikovsky was honored in 1884, by Emperor Alexander III, and awarded a lifetime pension. So there!  

Tchaikovsky ~ 1812 Overture 

Arthur Fiedler & The Boston Pops Orchestra 

vinyl LP label, Side 1

 photo by Styrous®

Tchaikovsky's sudden death at the age of 53 is generally ascribed to cholera; there is an ongoing debate as to whether cholera was indeed the cause of death, and whether it was accidental or self-inflicted.     

There is a recording of Tchaikovsky's voice made in Moscow in January 1890, by Julius Block on behalf of Thomas Edison on Wikipedia (link below).     

Tchaikovsky ~ 1812 Overture 

Arthur Fiedler & The Boston Pops Orchestra 

vinyl LP, Side 2

 photo by Styrous®

The Festival Overture In E♭ major, Op. 49, popularly known as the 1812 Overture, was written in 1880 by Tchaikovsky to commemorate Russia's defence of its motherland against the Napoleon Grande Armée invasion  of 1812. The overture debuted in Moscow on August 20, 1882.

Some productions have chimes played and cannons fired in the finale. One famous version of this was performed and recorded by Antal Doráti in 1954 (link below).         

Tchaikovsky ~ 1812 Overture 

Arthur Fiedler & The Boston Pops Orchestra 

vinyl LP label, Side 2

 photo by Styrous®

Tracklist:

Side 1:

A1 - Capriccio Italien, Op. 45   

Side 2:

B1 - 1812 Overture, Op. 49   

Credits:

    Composed By – Tchaikovsky*
    Conductor – Arthur Fiedler
    Orchestra – Boston Pops Orchestra*
    
Notes:
  2nd cover version - Release with same cat # has different cover art and center labels thanks Capriccio Italien, 1812 Overture           

Tchaikovsky* - Boston Pops Orchestra*, Arthur Fiedler ‎– Capriccio Italien, 1812 Overture
Label: RCA Victor Red Seal ‎– LM 1134
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album
Country: US
Released: 1953
Genre: Classical


             
         
Viewfinder links:       
   
1812 Overture (Antal Dorati)       
1812 Overture (Arthur Fiedler)          
The Nutcracker        
Symphony #6: (Pathétique)         
Swan Lake       

Van Cliburn & Sputnik ~ 1958       
Arthur Fiedler articles/mentions        
Arthur Fiedler ~ The "Pop" King             
Arthur Fiedler, Mickey Alpert & the Cocoanut Grove fire 
The SF Civic Auditorium, Motorama & Arthur Fiedler       
John Willimas ~ A Soundtrack King                     
PIL (Public Image Ltd.)       
       

Net links:              

              

Scotty Moore ~ Civic Auditorium       

Tchaikovsky's voice on Wikipedia              

1812 Overture Instrumentation         

Recording history                       
      
YouTube links:             
           
Antal Doráti ~ 1812 Overture (w/chimes & cannons)          

Arthur Fiedler ~ Tchaikovsky: Overture 1812, Op.49                                
         
         
          
               

Styrous® ~ Monday, November 6, 2017       

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20,000 Vinyl LPs Archive

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