1928 HOLLYWOOD BOWL CONCERT Symphonies under Stars EUGENE GOOSSENS Victor M40

$

50

A series of great  Orchestra Records by great conductors  on 78 rpm records

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Great on-location recording of EUGENE GOOSSENS and theHOLLYWOOD BOWL ORCH

A real milestone in the history of orchestral recordings, the first recordings made of the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra and the very first commercial recordings made of music at an outdoor event. Recorded mostly in early September 1928 by a crack East Coast team of expert sound engineers, the discs of Hollywood Bowl Concert (1928) were marketed by Victor Records as "Symphonies under the Stars." In reality, Victor made these recordings during the day, and through the week, when the Bowl's audiences were at their workaday jobs. The sound quality is excellent for the time -- it is surprising that an outdoor amphitheater, with all of its inherent problems of atmosphere and unpredictable elements, should yield such outstanding results in 1928 as would compare favorably to indoor venues.

In April 1928, the Hollywood Bowl Association announced its summer season. In heralding the “world-famous conductors and soloists” signed to appear, the Los Angeles Express of the 3rd referred to Goossens as “the brilliant British conductor, who will marshal the orchestra for the last two weeks of the series.”


Hollywood Bowl Orchestra Conducted By Eugene Goossens – A Hollywood Bowl Concert: "Symphonies Under The Stars"

Label: Victrola – M 40
Series: Musical Masterpiece Series
Format: 
5 x Shellac, 12", 78 RPM, Album
Released: Jan 1929
Genre: Classical
Style: Romantic
Carneval Overture, Op. 92
Composed By – Dvorák*
A  Part 1 
B  Part 2 
C  The Fire Dance
Composed By – Manuel De Falla
D  Fantastic Symphony, Op. 14a - March To The Scaffold (4th Movement)
Composed By – Berlioz*
Islamey (Tone Picture)
Composed By – Mili Balakirew*
E  Part 1 
F  Part 2 
The Sleeping Beauty Ballet Suite, Op. 66a
Composed By – Tschaikowsky*
G  Part 1 - La Fée Des Lilas 
H  Part 2 - Adagio. Pas d'action. 
I1  Part 3 - Pas de Caractère (Le Chat Botté et la Chatte Blanche) 
I2  Part 3 - Panorama 
J  Part 4 - Valse 
Record Company – Victor Talking Machine Co.
Pressed By – Victor Pressing Plant, Oakland
Conductor – Eugene Goossens*
Orchestra – Hollywood Bowl Orchestra

Musical Masterpieces on Victor Records (Orthophonic Recording).

Recorded September 2, 3, 5 & 6, 1928 in Hollywood.


Complete 5x12"  Orig issue Victor Scroll 78 rpm records w orthophonic style album with patterned sleeves 

EXCELLENT PRISTINE,  Plays very quiet lightest hiss

ALBUM close to new, binding and sleeves sound, tiny roughing top of bottom of spine, tiny label remnant top of spine

A CHOICE COPY

Eugene Goossens was conductor of the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra on this occasion. One thing immediately apparent from these recordings is that Goossens liked his tempi fast -- the Dvorák Carnival Overture takes off like a shot, and the "Ritual Fire Dance" from Manuel de Falla's El amor brujo is so intense that it's almost scary. The recording equipment really is not up to the fire of Goossens' reading of "The March from the Scaffold," but Balakirev's Islamey (in Alfredo Casella's orchestration) and the first ballet suite from Tchaikovsky's Sleeping Beauty are reproduced in warm and surprisingly realistic sound. Engineer Lance Bowling has done a superb job with the transfers of these vintage shellac discs, capturing their sonic essence without compromising their natural qualities.


Sir Eugene Aynsley Goossens (26 May 1893 – 13 June 1962) was an English conductor and composer.

Biography
He was born in Camden Town, London, the son of the Belgian conductor and violinist Eugène Goossens (fils, 1867-1958) and the grandson of the conductor Eugène Goossens (père; 1845-1906). (Note: His father and grandfather spelled Eugène with a grave accent; he himself did not.) He studied music at the age of ten in Bruges, three years later in Liverpool, and in 1907 in London on a scholarship at the Royal College of music under composer Charles Villiers stanford and the violinist Achille Rivarde among others. He won the silver medal of the Worshipful Company of musicians and was made associate of the Royal College of Music.

He was a violinist in Thomas Beecham's Queen's Hall Orchestra from 1912 to 1915 and performed in the philharmonic Quartet before coming to attention as Beecham's assistant conductor with a performance of Stanford's opera The Critic (1916). In 1921 he decided to make conducting his career and founded his own orchestra; with this ensemble he made a number of gramophone records for Edison-Bell's "Velvet Face" label. He gave the British concert premiere of Igor stravinsky's The Rite of spring on 7 June 1921 at the Queen's Hall with the composer present.

For nearly a quarter of a century, he accepted positions at U.S. orchestras. At the invitation of George Eastman he was conductor of the Rochester philharmonic orchestra from 1923 to 1931. This post also involved teaching at the Eastman school of music. During the late 1920s he often conducted for Vladimir Rosing's American opera Company, an organization which grew out of the Eastman School. From 1931 to 1946 he succeeded Fritz Reiner as the conductor of the Cincinnati symphony orchestra. In a tribute to Goossens on his departure for Australia, nine American composers collaborated on Variations on a Theme by Eugene Goossens, for orchestra. The composers were Ernest Bloch, Aaron Copland, paul Creston, Anis Fuleihan, Roy Harris, Walter piston, Bernard Rogers, Roger sessions and Deems Taylor, with Goossens himself writing the finale.[1]

Goossens spent nine years in Australia, from 1947 to 1956. He conducted the sydney symphony orchestra and other groups, and was the director of the NSW State Conservatorium of Music. He held these positions concurrently until March 1956, when he was forced to resign after a major public scandal, only a year after being knighted.

Scandal
In the early 1950s, Goossens met Rosaleen Norton, the so-called "Witch of Kings Cross". Norton was known as an artist of the grotesque and for her interest in the occult and erotica, which Goossens secretly shared. They conducted an intense affair, exchanging a number of passionate letters; although Goossens asked Norton to destroy all of them, she kept a bundle hidden behind a sofa.[2]

In early 1956, Goossens visited Europe, unaware that sydney police were already in possession of his letters to Norton and photographs of her occult activities, which had been stolen from her flat by Sydney Sun reporter Joe Morris, who had infiltrated her supposed "coven". When Goossens returned to Australia on 9 March 1956, he was detained at sydney Airport, following a tip-off by informants in London; his bags were searched by Customs officials, who found a large amount of what was then considered pornographic material, which included photographs, prints, books, a spool of film, some rubber masks, and sticks of incense.

Although he was not immediately arrested or charged, Goossens naively agreed to attend a police interview a few days later, where he was confronted with photographs of Norton's "ceremonies" and his letters. Faced with the evidence of his affair with Norton — which left him open to the serious charge of "scandalous conduct" — Goossens was forced to plead guilty to the pornography charges. He paid a fine of £100; more significantly, the scandal ruined his reputation and forced him to resign from his positions. He returned to England in disgrace.

The scandal was the basis of a novel, Pagan (1990), by Inez Baranay; it also inspired a play, The Devil is a Woman, by Louis Nowra and an opera, Eugene & Roie, by Drew Crawford. The scandal is documented in the film The Fall of the House, directed by Geoff Burton.[3] [4]