Liner Notes

Classical Music from a Classical Town

Talk about your complete coincidences. The numbers 2-1-6 come up three times in regards to this episode. It’s the episode number. It’s the date this episode drops. The US version of dating things. And it’s the area code of where this music was performed and recorded. Yes, I bought a lottery ticket today.

Recordings of the Cleveland orchestra date back to 1928. Discogs.com has them credited for well more than 800 either old 78 RPM records or 33 ⅓ Vinyl LPs.

So, get ready to hear this 1967 recording of virtuoso showpieces from a virtuoso orchestra in Volume 216: The Classical 216.

Video Intro

Listen here or on my PodBean Podcast Episode page:

You can check out the video version here or on YouTube:

Credits and Copyrights:

See information from the Discogs.com page here

The Cleveland Orchestra, George Szell – One Hundred Men And A Perfectionist
Label: Columbia – SOG-5
Series: The Sound Of Genius
Format: Vinyl, LP, Compilation, Sampler, Stereo
Released: 1967 I believe
Genre: Classical
Style: Classical, Romantic

We will hear 6 of the 9 pieces on this album.

Divertimento No. 2 In D Major, K. 131-Menuetto No. 2
Composed By – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

L’Arlesienne Suite No. 2-Farandole
Composed By – Georges Bizet

Symphony No. 4 In A Major, Op. 90, “Italian”-Saltarello Presto
Composed By – Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy

“Die Meistersinger” Prelude
Composed By – Richard Wagner

Concerto For Orchestra-Intermezzo Interrotto
Composed By – Béla Bartók

Overture To “The Marriage Of Figaro,” K.492
Composed By – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

I do not own the rights to this music. ASCAP, BMI licenses provided by third-party platforms for music that is not under Public Domain.

#clevelandorchestra #classicalmusic #vinylcollecting

Here is the Episode Script!

Thanks sweetie and thank YOU for tuning into episode 216 of Spinning My Dad’s Vinyl.

Talk about your complete coincidences. The numbers 2-1-6 come up three times in regards to this episode. It’s the episode number. It’s the date this episode drops. The US version of dating things. And it’s the area code of where this music was performed and recorded. Yes, I bought a lottery ticket today.

Recordings of the Cleveland orchestra date back to 1928. Discogs dot com has them credited for well more than 800 either old 78 RPM records or 33 ⅓ Vinyl LPs.

So, get ready to hear this 1967 recording of virtuoso showpieces from a virtuoso orchestra in Volume 216: The Classical 216.

[Music: Divertimento No. 2 In D Major, K. 131-Menuetto No. 2]

The Cleveland orchestra under the direction of George Szell with
Divertimento No. 2 In D Major, K. 131-Menuetto No. 2
Composed By – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
He composed it in 1772 as a 16-year old.

We will finish with a Mozart piece as well.

Ok…Why this record for this episode?

This is the second of two Cleveland orchestra records my dad had. I was getting ready to schedule it anyway sometime during this season when I came upon the aforementioned 2-1-6 coincidence.

As I will fill you in on a little more detail on the concert hall later, I had the pleasure of watching the Cleveland orchestra twice last year. It had been several decades since the previous times.

This orchestra has alway been rated as one of the best in the nation and the world. Those two performances included two of my favorite pieces, Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony and Gershwinn’s Rhapsody in Blue.

So, you are in for a real treat with the music on this entire album.

Next up is incidental music used in an 1872 drama.

[Music: L’Arlesienne Suite No. 2-Farandole]

Oh my…wasn’t THAT stirring!

L’Arlesienne Suite No. 2-Farandole
Composed By – Georges Bizet

Now let me tell you about my dad’s vinyl I am spinning for this episode.

The Cleveland Orchestra, George Szell – One Hundred Men And A Perfectionist
Label: Columbia – SOG-5
Series: The Sound Of Genius
Format: Vinyl, LP, Compilation, Sampler, Stereo
Released: 1967 I believe
Genre: Classical
Style: Classical, Romantic

We will hear 6 of the 9 pieces on this album.

There are two parts to the liner notes. The left part is a review of the final concert of the Cleveland orchestra’s 1967 New York season. It was written by Winthrop Sergeant in the New Yorker.

The other section is a review from the New York World Telegram and sun entitled The program: a revelation in the hands of a master conductor and a master orchestra.

That’s the section I will read.

The quick stepping dance rhythms of Bizet’s Farandole and Mendelsson’s Saltarello are articulated with breathtaking clarity without sacrificing power and energy. Dvorak’s Slovonic Dance number 8 is performed with a hearty exuberance that fairly leaps out of the grooves. “No Mozart symphony, writes High fidelity, could evoke from Szell greater refinement in balance and color, greater sensitivity to phrasing and nuance.”

In the fanfares from Janacek’s Sinfonietta, the Cleveland’s brass choirs sound forth in glowing splendor. Szell is a supreme Mozartean. The wit, grace and sparkle of the Cleveland orchestra’s playing in The Marriage of Figaro overture is an object lesson in the Fine Art of Mozart playing. The second minuet from Mozart’s delightful Divertimento number 2 spotlights the orchestra’s superb horn quartet.

Bartok’s concerto for orchestra is a spectacular showpiece. In the interrupted intermezzo, the plaintive winds, announcing a theme that surely has its roots in Hungarian folk music, are interrupted by a rowdy hurdy-gurdy tune amusingly punctuated by the brass and percussion. Szell and the Cleveland (I think it’s meant to include the word orchestra here) illuminate the rich textures of the Brahms and Wagner overtures. High Fidelity wrote quote the Meistersinger Overture was played by American orchestra’s more frequently than any other work. Perhaps one time in a hundred it was as well played as it is here. unquote

Let’s see what prices this record is being sold at on discogs dot com.

$5.00 High
$1.12 Low

$2.62 Average
$2.00 Median

Last sold on Jan 03, 2025 for one Euro 19 or $1.23 in the US.

My dad’s record was Virgin Vinyl. It was ever opened. While the cover was bare, it was still in a sealed plastic internal sleeve.Which was a pain to get into.
So, this record had never been played until I digitized it. WOW…what a clean sound.

My first and probably only mint condition rating for one of my dad’s records.

The cover is also in extremely good condition. That means none of my dad’s usual markings on the back or his address label on the front.

So I’ll value my dad’s vinyl at that high of 5 bucks.

Next up is one of those dance rhythms the liner notes mentioned.

[Music: Symphony No. 4 In A Major, Op. 90, “Italian”-Saltarello Presto]

Symphony No. 4 In A Major, Op. 90, “Italian”-Saltarello Presto
Composed By – Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy

Now let’s learn a bit about this famous orchestra and the man who is leading them in this recording near the end of his 24 year tenure with the baton.

The Cleveland Orchestra was founded in 1918 by music-aficionado Adella Prentiss Hughes, businessman John L. Severance, Father John Powers, music critic Archie Bell, and Russian-American violinist and conductor Nikolai Sokoloff, who became the orchestra’s first music director. A former pianist, Hughes served as a local music promoter and sponsored a series of “Symphony Orchestra Concerts” designed to bring first-class orchestral music to Cleveland. In 1915, she helped found the Musical Arts Association, which presented Cleveland performances of the Ballets Russes in 1916 and Richard Wagner’s Siegfried at the Cleveland Indians’ League Park a few months later. After a great deal of planning and fundraising, The Cleveland Orchestra’s inaugural concert was performed on December 11, 1918, at Grays Armory.

The orchestra is one of the five American orchestras informally referred to as the “Big Five”.

In 1946, George Szell was appointed as the orchestra’s fourth music director. From the start of his tenure, Szell’s intention was to transform the orchestra into “America’s finest” symphonic ensemble and developing an orchestra that was “second to none.” He spent much of his early time in Cleveland changing personnel in an effort to find musicians who were capable of creating his ideal orchestral sound. Szell’s stringent standards and expectations for musical precision were reflected in his contract with the Musical Arts Association, which gave him complete artistic control over programming, scheduling, personnel, and recording.

In the 1950s and 1960s, Szell was instrumental in the achievement of several orchestra milestones:

He led the orchestra on its first European tour, in 1957, across Europe and behind the Iron Curtain.

Szell pushed to change Severance Hall’s acoustic properties, which he considered to be too “dry.” Major renovations were made during the 1958–59 season, including the construction of the “Szell Shell”, which was designed to project the orchestra’s sound in a manner that created better balance among musicians and a clearer string section.

Szell was born June 7, 1897 in Budapest, Hungary and died in Cleveland, Ohio July 30, 1970 at the age of 73.

Two days after Szell’s death, the orchestra played its scheduled program at Blossom Music Center with Aaron Copland taking the podium as guest conductor.

Next up…As Klinger in an episode of MASH once told Major Winchester. It says Wagner. Can’t you read your own handwriting?

[Music: “Die Meistersinger” Prelude]

“Die Meistersinger” Prelude
Composed By – Richard Wagner

Time now for this episode’s interesting side note and it has to do with the home of the Cleveland Orchestra since 1931.

Severance Hall, now known as Severance Music Center, is a 2,000 seat concert hall in the University Circle neighborhood of Cleveland, Ohio, and is home to the Cleveland Orchestra. Opened in 1931 to give the orchestra a permanent home, the building is named for patrons John L. Severance and his wife, Elisabeth Huntingdon DeWitt Severance. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as part of Cleveland’s Wade Park District.

That’s an area my girlfriend and I spend a lot of time at. The Botanical Garden, Art and History Museums are adjacent to Severance.

After encouragement from Cleveland Orchestra founder Adella Prentiss Hughes and music director Nikolai Sokoloff, plans for Severance Hall began to emerge based on a plot of land offered by Western Reserve University, now Case Western Reserve University at a leasing cost of $1.00 per year and potential funds contributed by the general public and local philanthropists. During a gala concert celebrating the Orchestra’s tenth-anniversary, Dudley Blossom, an early benefactor, announced that John L. Severance, president of the Musical Arts Association, and his wife, Elisabeth, had pledged $1 million to the construction of a new hall. In support of an associated fundraising campaign, Blossom, who got the summer home of the orchestra named after him, and his wife donated $750,000 the following day. Though Elisabeth Severance died in 1929, John Severance was determined to see the project through to its completion and intended for the concert hall to serve as a de facto memorial to his late wife. Despite a collapse of the United States’ economy in 1929, the groundbreaking for Severance Hall was held on November 14, 1929 and Severance’s contribution eventually ballooned to more than $2.6 million. The concert hall was designed by the Cleveland firm of Walker & Weeks, which had also built Cleveland’s Federal Reserve Bank and Public Library. Severance Hall opened on February 5, 1931, hosting a gala concert broadcast live across the radio to mark the occasion.

While I had seen the Cleveland Orchestra a couple of times at the outdoor Blossom Music Center in my youth, I had never stepped foot inside Severance Hall until last year.

What a beautiful facility, and I’m sure I will be visiting again soon.

OK…time to interrupt this interlude.

[Music: Concerto For Orchestra-Intermezzo Interrotto]

Concerto For Orchestra-Intermezzo Interrotto (Interlude Interrupted)
Composed By – Béla Bartók

Well, I hope you enjoyed this episode as much as I enjoyed bringing it to you.

Talk about your stars aligning. Music from the 2-1-6, on 2/16 for episode 216. C’mon Pick Three.

I don’t think I remember this album cover from my growing up days in the house.

Even though it was released in 1967, there’s a possibility my dad got his hands on it after I left the house.

The front cover is four tiers of blocks almost in a pyramid. Each holds a black and white photo of George Szell while directing. Each photo is encased in a blue block. The Sound of Genius Series is stamped on the top left corner. The title of the album One Hundred Men and a Perfectionist spans the top, with the subtitle, Nine Virtuoso Showpieces for a Virtuoso Orchestra underneath.

To the right and left of the pyramid are nine headlines of reviews from different newspapers and magazines, like A Wonder of Elegance, Discipline, and Response from Time Magazine or “Rare fusion of precision and poetry” from Newsweek.

In addition to the liner notes, the back cover includes images of 16 other album covers from the Cleveland Orchestra under the direction of George Szell.

And now to bring us home, this last song will be indelibly linked to Rodney Dangerfield and the movie Back to School.

[Music: Overture To “The Marriage Of Figaro”]

Overture To “The Marriage Of Figaro” K.492
Composed By – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

And there you have selections from one of the preeminent orchestras in the world…and they’re only an hour drive away.

So thanks for tuning into Volume 216: The Classical 216

however you did. If you want more information about this SHOW, head over to spinning my dad’s vinyl dot com.

I’ll be back next week with all my skips, scratches, and pops

FOR Volume 217: Gerry and Chet

Until then,
Go with the flow my friends.