Julliard String Quartet Schuman No. 4 + Dahl Concerto a Tre Columbia ML4493 MONO

$

26

Up for sale is a very scarce early mono 12 inch, 33 RPM, vinyl record featuring two modern composers with performances by a famous string quartet and also by a very talented trio.  The is the original release and has blue center labels and deep grooves.

According to the jacket notes, this LP was one of six issued in the first year of the Modern American Music Series, which was designed specifically to address the issue of a significant backlog of unrecorded American music.  The choices for this series were made by a committee that contained some true all-stars:  Virgil Thomson (Chairman), Aaron Copland, Henry Cowell, Goddard Lieberson, and William Schuman.

Album Title:  Modern American Music Series:  William Schuman and Ingolf Dahl

Composers:  William Schuman and Ingolf Dahl

Performers:  The Julliard Quartet + Trio of Mitchell Lurie, Eudice Shapiro, and Victor Gottlieb

Record Label:  Columbia Masterworks

Number:  ML 4493

Released in 1953 (date is not on the album, year is cited in Discogs)

Side 1:  William Schuman, String Quartet No. 4 (1950)

     Julliard String Quartet (R. Mann and R. Koff, Violins; R. Hillyer, Viola; A. Winograd, Cello)

     Wax Matrix marks:  "XLP 6987" and "1F"

Side 2:  Ingolf Dahl, Concerto a Tre (1947)

     Trio (Mitchell Lurie, Clarinet; Eudice Shapiro, Violin; Victor Gottlieb, Cello)

     Wax Matrix marks:  "XLP 7251-1C"

William Schuman (1910 - 1992) was a distinguished composer and also a leading musical educator and administrator.  He was President of the Julliard School of Music.  Aaron Copland described his "String Quartet No. 4" as "one of Schuman's most mature works ... music written with true urgency:  compact in form, ingenious in its instrumental technique, quite experimental as to harmony."

Ingolf Dahl (1912 - 1970) was born in Germany but emigrated to the United States in the 1930s in advance of the Nazi threat.  (His father, Paul Marcus, was Jewish.  Ingolf dropped the name "Marcus" to disguise his Jewish heritage.  He actually denied this heritage even after emigrating.)  Although classically trained, he worked extensively in Hollywood, as a studio musician, and also arranged for Tommy Dorsey and Victor Borge.  His Concerto a Tre is a very playful composition, built on 6 notes.

The renowned Julliard Quartet was formed in 1946 (by William Schumann).  All four musicians in this recording are the ORIGINAL members of the Quartet:  Robert Mann, Robert Koff, Raphael Hillyer, and Arthur Winograd.

The musicians in the trio that plays Concerto were quite distinguished.  Clarinetist Mitchell Lurie was principal clarinetist for the Pittsburgh and Chicago Symphony Orchestras, before moving to Southern California where he performed for the studios and taught at USC.  Violinist Eudice Shapiro was the first female concertmaster for a Hollywood studio orchestra (at RKO and at Paramount).  She also taught at USC, for over 50 years.  Cellist Victor Gottlieb was the husband of Eudice Shapiro.  He also performed in studio orchestras and would go on to become the principal cellist for the Aspen Festival Orchestra.  Gottlieb died at the age of only 45, in 1963.  All three had studied at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia.

Please see above for detailed description of condition, which is nice, and for photos.  As noted there, there was a repeat on Side 1 the first time I play tested the record, but it did not recur on the next two plays.  Sold as is.

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