01-16a: Toscanini Wax Windfall !! : Beethoven Bizet Brahms Dukas Dvorak Gershwin Mozart Prokofiev Schubert Schumann Tchaikovsky & Wagner !!

1957 – Arturo Toscanini (Italian conductor)

That wasn't too clever of me, was it? Twelve albums by the greatest Italian conductor of the 20th century, and I somehow managed to not include a single Italian composer.

01-13a: Donny Hathaway : Everything Is Everything 1970 - Tchaikovsky 4 / Szell 1962 - Andre Kostelanetz : Lure of Paradise 1959 - Ferdinand Ries Septet & Octet / Linos-Ensemble 2005 - Henri Tomasi : Wind Quintet / Rampal et al 1952

Not shown: Leonhard Trautsch, François-Joseph Krafft & Valentín de Zubiaurre y Unionbarrenechea

1762 – Leonhard Trautsch (German composer)
1795 – François-Joseph Krafft (Belgian organist, conductor & composer)
1828 – Alexandre-Auguste Robineau (French abbot & composer)
1838 – Ferdinand Ries (German composer & pianist, friend & pupil of Beethoven)
1864 – Stephen Foster (American popular songwriter, "The Father of American Music")
1892 – Charles Albert White (American composer & co-founder of music publishing firm White, Smith & Company)
1893 – Melitta Otto-Alvsleben (German operatic soprano)
1894 – Nadezhda von Meck [Надежда фон Мекк] (Russian businesswoman & patroness of Tchaikovsky)
1901 – Carlo Angeloni (Italian composer, organist & teacher whose pupils included Puccini)
1914 – Valentín de Zubiaurre y Unionbarrenechea (Spanish composer)
1917 – Albert Niemann (German operatic tenor)
1954 – Roland Diggle (English organist & composer, active in the U.S.)
1971 – Robert Still (English composer, teacher, conductor & amateur tennis player)
1971 – Henri Tomasi (French composer, conductor & pianist of Corsican descent)
1974 – Raoul Jobin (Canadian operatic tenor)
1979 – Donny Hathaway (American soul singer, songwriter & keyboardist)
1979 – Marjorie Lawrence (Australian operatic soprano)
1980 – André Kostelanetz [Андрей Костеланец] (Russian-born American pop & easy listening conductor & arranger)

Tchaikovsky dedicated his Symphony No. 4 in F minor to his wealthy patroness, Nadezhda Filaretnova von Meck. Von Meck also financially supported other composers, including the young Claude Debussy. But the relationship between her and Tchaikovsky is one of the most intriguing stories in music history, one worth reading about. So do! 

Just before Tchaikovsky died, he was actually cursing Nadezhda von Meck's name. Tchaikovsky's death is usually thought of as a suicide, but there are a few lingering doubts. When he drank that unboiled water at the height of a cholera epidemic, was it mere carelessness, or did he wish to make it appear like carelessness so that he could kill himself honorably? Or is the truth even stranger, that what appeared to be carelessness was his possession by some sort of death wish that compelled him to engage in such risky behavior unconsciously? We'll never know.

Even more mystery surrounds the suicide death of Donny Hathaway. At his final recording session, he appeared to have had a psychotic break, saying that white people were out to kill him and steal his musical ideas via a machine they'd connected to his brain. Hathaway was later found to have fallen from the window of his 15th-floor hotel room. Since there were no signs of struggle in the room, and the glass of the window had been removed neatly, investigators ruled his death a suicide. So, was he paranoid, or were they really out to get him? I mean, if whitey can read your mind through a machine, how much trouble is it for him to remove signs of struggle?

Boy, did I pick the wrong week to get let out of the looney bin.

12-21: Albert King Montreux 1977 - Milstein : Tchaikovsky 1940 | Bruch 1942 | Mendelssohn 1945 - Gade : Symphonies 2 & 8 / Hogwood 2001 - Mozart Exsultate Jubilate : Raskin / Szell 1964

Not shown: Philipp Hyacinth Lobkowitz, Caspar Ruetz & Charles-François Dumonchau

1734 – Philipp Hyacinth Lobkowitz (Czech nobleman, lutenist & patron of Arcangelo Corelli)
1755 – Caspar Ruetz (German cantor & composer)
1807 – John Newton (English sailor, minister & hymn writer)
1820 – Charles-François Dumonchau (French composer, pianist & cellist)
1843 – Edward Bunting (Irish folksong collector, author & organist)
1864 – William Henry Fry (American composer & music critic)
1890 – Niels Gade (Danish composer, conductor, violinist, organist & teacher)
1906 – Adalbert von Goldschmidt (Austrian composer)
1957 – Eric Coates (English composer, conductor & violist)
1964 – Thomas Nassi (Albanian composer, conductor, teacher & flutist, active also in the United States)
1965 – Claude Champagne (Canadian composer, teacher, violinist, pianist & organist)
1982 – Abu-Al-Asar Hafeez Jalandhari [ابو الاثر حفیظ جالندھری] (Pakistani writer, poet & composer of Pakistan's National Anthem)
1984 – Judith Raskin (American lyric soprano)
1987 – John Spence (American alternative rock singer, No Doubt)
1989 – Ján Cikker (Slovak composer, conductor & organist)
1992 – Albert King (American blues guitarist, singer & songwriter)
1992 – Nathan Milstein (Ukrainian-born American violinist)
1997 – Amie Comeaux (American country singer)
1998 – Karl Denver (Scottish pop singer)

You might find the fellow in the upper-right corner, William Henry Fry, to be a bit familiar. That's because I mistakenly already included him on September 21st, when he actually belongs in December... another example of my often-faulty sources failing me. But I suppose Fry is worth remembering twice, since was one of the more important American composers of the 19th century. I even had a download for him in that previous post in which he appeared, but don't bother looking for it... it was another Megaupload! So, an all-around FAIL, any way you look at it... but anyway, it's going to be another big day around here tomorrow, so I'd better catch up on my beauty sleep...

12-10: The Band : NY Palladium 1976 - Henry Cowell Piano Music : Cowell 1963 - Heifetz : Sibelius Concerto 1935 / Tchaikovsky Concerto 1937 - Il Giardino di Giulio Caccini 2003

Not shown above: Friedrich Franz Hurka, Dieudonné-Pascal Pieltain, Mariano Obiols i Tramullas & Pablo Hernández y Salces

1618 – Giulio Caccini (Italian composer, lutenist, gambist, harpist, singer, author & teacher, a pioneer of opera)
1665 – Tarquinio Merula (Italian composer, organist & violinist)
1805 – Friedrich Franz Hurka [František Václav Hůrka] (Czech tenor & composer, active in Germany)
1826 – Benedikt Schack [Žák] (Czech tenor & composer, active in Austria, friend of Mozart & creator of Tamino in Die Zauberflöte)
1833 – Dieudonné-Pascal Pieltain (Belgian violinist & composer)
1877 – Federico Ricci (Italian composer & teacher, brother of Luigi)
1888 – Mariano Obiols i Tramullas (Spanish composer)
1910 – Pablo Hernández y Salces (Spanish composer)
1921 – Viktor Jacobi (Hungarian operetta composer)
1938 – Mario Pilati (Italian composer, music critic & teacher)
1939 – Wilhelm Grosz (Austrian composer, pianist & conductor, active in the UK & US, "Red Sails in the Sunset")
1965 – Henry Cowell (American composer, music theorist, pianist & teacher)
1966 – Boris Koutzen (Russian-born American violinist, composer & teacher)
1967 – Brasílio Itiberê da Cunha Luz (Brazilian folklorist, composer & author)
1967 – Otis Redding (American soul singer, songwriter, producer, arranger & talent scout)
1967 – Ron Caldwell, Carl Cunningham, Phalin Jones & Jimmy King (members of American R&B group the Bar-Kays)
1969 – Franco Capuana (Italian conductor)
1969 – Leigh Harline (American film composer, "When You Wish Upon A Star")
1982 – Roy Webb (American film composer, The Magnificent Ambersons, I Walked with a Zombie, Notorious, Mighty Joe Young)
1986 – Kate Wolf (American folk singer, songwriter & guitarist)
1987 – Jascha Heifetz (Lithuanian-born American violinist)
1991 – Headman Shabalala (South African singer, Ladysmith Black Mambazo)
1994 – George van Renesse (Dutch pianist & conductor)
1995 – Darren Robinson [Buffy, Buff Love, DJ Doctor Nice] (American rapper & beatboxer, The Fat Boys)
1996 – John Duffey (American bluegrass singer & mandolinist, The Country Gentlemen)
1997 – Violet Carlson (American comedienne, actress, singer & dancer)
1999 – Rick Danko (Canadian rock & folk bass guitarist, singer, songwriter & multi-instrumentalist, The Band)
2008 – Didith Reyes (Filipino actress & singer)

This is getting really difficult. And I don't just mean finding links for you. (Some of the hosts have now gone into a kind of lockdown mode, where only those who uploaded a file can download it.) I'm talking about all the carnage, too! Heifetz, Otis Redding and most of his backing band, Henry Cowell... Rick Danko... it smarts something awful.

11-27a: RODZINSKI / REEDER ROUNDUP! Mussorgsky | Tchaikovsky | Sibelius | Richard Strauss | Shostakovich AND MORE...

The main post for 11-27 will follow, but first here are a bunch of transfers of Columbia 78s featuring the work of Artur Rodziński (d. Nov. 27, 1958), all made by the trusty F. Reeder over at the Internet Archive. A few of these I believe we've seen already, but at least a couple dozen we haven't, and I found it too difficult to choose from them... so I'll leave that up to you!

Rodziński is most famous for his legendary decade with the Cleveland Orchestra, from 1933 to 1943. Much of the credit usually given to the tyrannical George Szell for transforming that orchestra into the world-class organization it is today should really be reserved for Rodziński; for without the prior groundwork he laid the Clevelanders would not have been up to Szell's exacting demands. Rodziński also had four great seasons in New York with the Philharmonic, and as guest conductor for Toscanini's NBC Symphony, which Rodziński had helped to organize in 1936–37.

Rodziński's later years, first in New York, and then in an abortive stint at the Chicago Symphony in 1947–48, were characterized by a lot of personal wrangling with orchestra management. His reputation as a conductor was such that his resignation from the New York Philharmonic was actually a cover story for Time magazine in February 1947:

After Chicago, Rodziński had no further long-term positions in his career; he did do quite a bit of freelance work, especially in the opera pit, both in the United States and in Europe. And it's perhaps because of this somewhat sour end to his professional life that he isn't remembered as well as some of his contemporaries, even though he was certainly at least their equal as a musician.

He was tall; he used a big baton; he preferred brisk tempi; he was renowned wherever he mounted the podium for his muscular yet refined interpretations. Enjoy these recordings by this too-little-lauded master of the orchestra!

11-24a: Queen Buenos Aires 1981 - Big Joe Turner All the Classic Hits 1938-1952 - Tchaikovsky 5 Cantelli 1950 - Bülent Arel Electronic Works

1615 – Sethus Calvisius (German music theorist, composer, chronologer, astronomer & teacher)
1650 – Manuel Cardoso (Portuguese composer & organist)
1722 – Johann Adam Reincken (Dutch organist & composer, active in Germany)
1842 – Pehr Frigel (Swedish composer)
1944 – Václav Štěpán (Czech pianist, composer, music critic, musicologist & teacher)
1946 – Alfonso Broqua (Uruguayan composer)
1948 – Raoul [von] Koczalski (Polish pianist & composer)
1956 – Guido Cantelli (Italian conductor)
1970 – Evgeny Tikotsky [Яўген Цікоцкі ; Евге́ний Тико́цкий] (Belarusian composer & pianist)
1972 – Hall Overton (American composer, jazz pianist & teacher)
1985 – Big Joe Turner (American blues singer, "Boss of the Blues")
1990 – Bülent Arel (Turkish composer, teacher, painter & sculptor)
1991 – Freddie Mercury [Farrokh Bulsara] (Zanzibar-born British rock singer, songwriter & pianist of Parsi ancestry, Queen)

In this post we remember two awe-inspiring singers, Big Joe Turner and Freddie Mercury, as well as Guido Cantelli, the promising young conductor who might well have become music director of the New York Philharmonic in 1958 (rather than Leonard Bernstein) had he not been killed in a plane crash in 1956. It's said that the elderly and ailing Arturo Toscanini, who himself passed away only two months later, was somehow sheltered from the news of Cantelli's tragic demise in order to spare him the grief, in his last days, that this artist in whom Toscanini had placed so many hopes for the future had been taken away at such an early age.

Perhaps you'll remember that we already remembered Portuguese composer Manuel Cardoso, back when we were remembering a fellow pupil of Manuel Mendes, Duarte Lôbo, and Manuel Mendes himself, as well as Tomás Luis de Victoria, whom we've been remembering all year this year since it marks the 400th anniversary of his death.

Well, here's a strange coincidence: In that same previous post, we also remembered the great Turkish singer Zeki Müren, and via Zeki we touched on another Turkish singer with androgynous qualities, Bülent Ersoy. Well, in today's post, we remember another Turk by the name of Bülent, electronic composer Bülent Arel! I don't know how common a given name Bülent is in Turkey, but it's all making sense today here at YiDM...

11-06a: Tchaikovsky 6 Furtwängler 1938 - Busnois Missa O Crux Lignum / Orlando Consort 2005 - Schütz Geistliche Chormusik / Herreweghe 1987 - Чайко́вский Nutcracker Suite Stokowski 1934

1492 – Antoine Busnois (French composer)
1672 – Heinrich Schütz  (German composer)
1795 – Jiří Antonín Benda [Georg Anton Benda] (Czech violinist & composer)
1865 – Thérèse Wartel (French pianist, teacher, composer & music critic)
1893 – Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky [Пётр Ильи́ч Чайко́вский] (Russian composer)
1897 – Edouard Deldevez (French violinist, conductor, composer & teacher)
1912 – Mykola Lysenko [Микола Лисенко] (Ukrainian composer, pianist, conductor & ethnomusicologist)
1946 – Zygmunt Stojowski (Polish pianist & composer)

11-05a: Art Tatum 1932-1934 | Tatum / Hampton / Rich Trio 1955 - Vladimir Horowitz : Brahms Concerto 2 Toscanini 1940 | Pictures at an Exhibition 1947 | Tchaikovsky Concerto 1 Szell 1952

1933 – Texas Guinan (American saloon keeper, actress & musician)
1942 – George M. Cohan (American entertainer, songwriter & author)
1956 – Art Tatum (American jazz pianist & composer)
1960 – Johnny Horton (American country singer & songwriter)
1964 – Buddy Cole (American jazz pianist & orchestra leader)
1977 – Guy Lombardo (Canadian jazz orchestra leader)
1986 – Bobby Nunn (American R&B singer, The Coasters)
1989 – Vladimir Horowitz [Владимир Горови] (Russian-born American pianist)

See, now... this is what we like to see here at Yestermonth. The greatest pianist in jazz history, and the greatest classical pianist of the 20th century, both pooping on the same day, 33 years apart. Yes, it's all Tatum & Horowitz today on YiDM, Pianists Pooping Properly edition.

10-13: Earth, Wind & Fire 1971 - Tchaikovsky 4 Mengelberg 1929 - François Roberday : Fugues & Caprices / Fretwork 2002

1680 – François Roberday (French organist, composer & court musician)
1701 – Andreas Anton Schmelzer (German court composer at Vienna)
1777 – Dismas Hataš (Czech composer)
1805 – Johann Christoph Kuhnau (German composer, singer & academician)
1819 – Giovanni Battista Gaiani (Italian organist & composer)
1855 – Gottfried Rieger (Moravian-Czech composer & multi-instrumentalist)
1958 – Alexander Weprik [Александр Веприк] (Ukrainian composer, pianist & teacher)
1959 – Rudolf Mengelberg (Dutch composer, musicologist & CEO of Concertgebouw Orchestra, nephew of Willem)
1970 – Julia Culp (Dutch concert & art song mezzo-soprano, the "Dutch Nightingale")
1979 – Rebecca Clarke (English composer & violist)
1987 – Kishore Kumar [কিশোরে কুমার, किशोर कुमार] (Indian playback, Rabindrasangeet & rock singer, actor, songwriter & filmmaker)
1993 – Wade Flemons (American soul singer & keyboardist, Earth, Wind & Fire)
2001 – Peter Doyle (Australian pop singer & songwriter, The New Seekers)
2009 – Al Martino (American jazz & pop singer & actor, Johnny Fontane in The Godfather)

Hahahaha... you only get THREE today! HAHAHAHAHA!! What nerve I have! WHO THE HELL DO I THINK I AM?!?

STOKOWSKI SPECIAL !! | 36 tracks, 222 minutes! | Acoustic, Electric & Stereo recordings 1917-1975



"Leo-pold !!"

 I'm really only posting this because I'm hoping it will keep me from running out of label space for the next post! But I hope you enjoy this sampler of the remarkable and sometimes controversial but never boring and very creative Leopold Stokowski. It is the work of... many hands, shall we say? It's going up now...! In it, you'll hear him conducting:

The Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra
The Philadelphia Orchestra
The RCA Victor Symphony Orchestra
The Hollywood Bowl* Symphony Orchestra
The NBC Symphony Orchestra
The New Philharmonia Orchestra
The Symphony of the Air
and The All-American Symphony Orchestra

* the venue in which he's depicted above, in Warner Bros.' Long-Haired Hare (1948):

playing works by... those among The Dead and Dying... including Emmanuel Chabrier (who is also on the list with Leopold), and

~~~~~~~  ROMÂN  ~~~~~~~

compozitor George Enescu! And others I still didn't have room for in just this post's labels... such as Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, and Camille Saint-Saëns, and Alexander Glazunov, and Antonín Dvořák, and and Mikhail Mikhailovich Ippolitov-Ivanov.  Crap, that last guy's practically your whole label limit right there.