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Tag: Richard Yardumian

Yardumian Ormandy Philly Rediscovered

Every year on Richard Yardumian’s birthday, I reflect on my days in community radio. I remember well playing his music from vinyl during my apprentice years, and I wonder at how those recordings – by the Philadelphia Orchestra, no less – have somehow dropped off the face of the planet.

Yardumian served as the orchestra’s composer-in-residence from 1949 to 1964. During that period, Philly gave first performances of no less than ten of his works, beginning with “Desolate City” in 1945. Eugene Ormandy recorded six of them. The music is attractive, well-crafted, and often deeply felt, with insights into the composer’s spiritual convictions and Armenian heritage.

Okay, maybe there was no financial incentive for Sony to reissue recordings of a dimly-recollected “niche” composer, when Ormandy’s “Scheherazade” continues to rake it in no matter how many times it is re-released. Then why not license the Yardumian recordings to another label?

In the 1990s, Albany Records briefly revived some of Ormandy’s lesser-known American classics – among them, works by the equally neglected Louis Gesensway and John Vincent – so my hopes were high that I would finally be able to acquire Yardumian on CD. Alas, the series petered out after only three volumes.

Well, after nearly 35 years in radio, it appears my thinly-worn patience is finally about to be rewarded, as I only just learned of an impending box set on Sony Classical (the modern incarnation of Columbia Records) that is to comprise the orchestra’s complete mono recordings made under Ormandy from 1944 to 1958.

This will include all the staples, of course – Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Rachmaninoff, and Sibelius – but also much American music, including everything on the Albany series, but also recordings of Norman Dello Joio, Roy Harris, Leon Kirchner, William Schuman, and another composer closely associated with the orchestra, Harl McDonald. None of these have ever before been officially reissued.

Interestingly, Virgil Thomson’s “Five Blake Songs” is also listed, which would suggest the set will include even the long-suppressed “The Little Black Boy.”

In all, 152 of the recordings are said never to have appeared on compact disc. Philadelphia was responsible for some of the works’ first U.S. performances. Some of them were world premieres. There are simply too many highlights and curios to itemize. The list of vocal and instrumental soloists is also self-recommending.

On the one hand, it makes me happy to know I will finally be able to access so many of these recordings easily in pristine copies. On the other, I realize that the value of my LP collection continues to plummet.

The set, EUGENE ORMANDY/THE PHILADELPHIA ORCHESTRA: THE COLUMBIA LEGACY, runs to 120 CDs and will be issued on April 9!

You can find the press release, with more information, here:

https://www.jensenartists.com/single-post/sony-classical-releases-eugene-ormandy-and-the-philadelphia-orchestra-the-columbia-legacy

April 5, 2021
Yardumian Centennial Philadelphia Composer

Today is the 100th anniversary of the birth of Philadelphia composer Richard Yardumian. Yardumian served as The Philadelphia Orchestra’s composer-in-residence from 1949 to 1964. The orchestra gave first performances of no less than ten of his pieces, beginning with “Desolate City” in 1945. Eugene Ormandy recorded six of them. I remember well playing these during my apprentice years in community radio. The music is attractive, well-made, and often deeply felt, with insights into the composer’s spiritual convictions and Armenian heritage. Why, why, why, Sony, have you never reissued these recordings?

In the 1990s, Albany Records briefly revived some of the lesser-known American classics that had been championed by Ormandy – among them, works by the equally neglected Louis Gesensway and John Vincent – so my hopes were high to finally acquire those Yardumian recordings on CD. But it was not to be. The series petered out after only three volumes.

Yardumian, who was largely self-taught as a composer, was 19 when he wrote his most popular piece, the “Armenian Suite.” We’ll hear it this afternoon, alongside “Veni Sancte Spiritus” (“Come, Creator Spirit”), another orchestral work, from 1959. In addition, we’ll mark the birthday anniversaries of composers Louis Spohr and Albert Roussel and conductor Herbert von Karajan.

At 4:00, I will be joined by Lyn Ransom, founder and music director of VOICES Chorale, now in its 30th season. Ransom will be directing Brahms’ “Ein Deutsches Requiem” in its rarely-heard London edition, performed on four-hand piano, this Saturday at 7:30 p.m., at The College of New Jersey’s TCNJ-Mayo Concert Hall in Ewing Township; and then again, with orchestra, in collaboration with Riverside Symphonia, at Princeton University’s Richardson Auditorium, on June 16th at 8 p.m. Tune in this afternoon to learn more, or check the organization’s website, at http://www.voiceschorale.org.

I’ll be sharing the music, from 4 to 7 p.m. EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and at wwfm.org.

April 5, 2017
Paul Freeman A Musical Celebration

Paul Freeman has always been a conductor after my own heart. A champion of unusual and neglected repertoire, Freeman recorded prolifically – some 200 albums. I won’t get into whether or not the color of his skin had a negative impact on his career. Freeman was a positive force who always found a way.

He held posts with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, the Detroit Symphony, and the Helsinki Philharmonic. He was music director of the Chicago Sinfonietta, the Czech National Symphony Orchestra, and the Victoria Symphony in British Columbia.

Freeman retired from conducting in 2011. He died on July 21, at the age of 79. We celebrate his artistry and love of music this week on “The Lost Chord,” by way of his extensive and varied discography.

From his series, “Paul Freeman Introduces,” on the Albany label, we’ll hear music by Richard Yardumian, former composer-in-residence with the Philadelphia Orchestra . “Veni, Sancte Spiritus” was one of a number of Yardumian works to be documented by Ormandy and the Philadelphians during the LP era. Atonishingly, none of them ever made it to compact disc. Leave it to Freeman to fill in the gap.

Adophus Hailstork, one of the artists Freeman favored as part of his landmark “Black Composers Series,” set down for Columbia Records back in the 1970s, will also be represented. His “Sonata da Chiesa” for string orchestra grew out of Hailstork’s love for cathedrals.

Freeman was always an enthusiastic champion of new music and works by African-American composers. He was also a sensitive and sympathetic accompanist, as borne out by his many concerto recordings. Of those, we’ll hear what is probably the strangest of them all – Morton Gould’s “Tap Dance Concerto.”

Finally, we’ll have selections from the “African Suite,” by Nigerian composer Fela Sowande, a work Freeman recorded twice, for Columbia in the 1970s, and decades later for Cedille Records, as part of the three-volume “African Heritage Symphonic Series.”

It’s a nice assortment, though of course it only scratches the surface. It is with mixed emotions that I bid “Farewell to Freeman,” tonight at 10 ET, with a repeat Wednesday evening at 6. You can also listen to it later as a webcast, at wwfm.org.

August 9, 2015

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