Perchance To Dream - Westminster XWN 18735

 

Perchance To Dream

Perchance To Dream

Cover Photo: Paul Garrison from Shasta

Westminster Hi-Fi XWN 18735

1959

From the back cover: THE MUSIC – Perchance to Dream... Shakespeare makes these three words with their own gentle rhythm into one of the great moments among Hamlet's soliloquies. The unending alternatives envisaged by the Prince, for man to choose from, transcend at one time into the open spaces Beyond: "To sleep... perchance to dream..."

The Dream as the basic mood of many diversified pieces of music-this is the keynote of the music contained in this recording.

Always, the dream will soar above and beyond the horizon of reality, and it will always release us back to our daily lives enriched by some new concept of beauty.

The slow movement of Dvorak's New World Symphony evokes man's eternal dream of "going home"-back to one's own native land, and also back to a realm of the spirit where the wandering mind may come to rest. The great Czech composer's journey to the United States provided the incentive for the Symphony. His own genius made it a musical document of universal appeal.

In Solveig's Song, one of the pieces which Edvard Grieg wrote as incidental music to Henrik Ibsen's drama Peer Gynt, it is a Norwegian maiden who dreams a whole life long of her wayward lover to come back to her. "Spring will come, winter will go...

(Incidentally, Peer Gynt does come back to her at the very, very end. But then it is he who feels as though his entire life had been a dream. "Where have I been?" he asks in heart-rending anxiety. "With me," replies Solvejg. "All the time with me.")

By including a piece by Johann Sebastian Bach, the com- pilers of the present selection had a very specific purpose in mind: to remind the listener that the 19th Century and the era of Romanticism was by no means the only period where The Dream found its expression in music. Some way or other, we can find every mood expressed within every style encounter The Dream as often as in the 19th Century. But we can find it. To wit: the lofty and uplifting Air of Bach's Suite No. 3, which could just as well be entitled: Dream and Transfiguration.

This is a gentle sort of death, the death of Peer Gynt's old mother, Ase. Peer Gynt is at all times a teller o tall tales, and all through her life his Mother has been one of his most credulous listeners. Now Peer Gynt, holding his Mother close in his arms, dreams up a merry and wonderful voyage together, on a fast and smooth sleigh, through fabulous countries... Safely cradled in her son's arms and in the dreamy state of a vanishing consciousness, Mother Ase glides along the road and into the harbor of death. We may imagine that at the moment of her safe landing at the shore Beyond, the music sets in, sustained, dark, and full of peace.

The transparent mist of early morning lifting over the dense greens and calm waters of a Norwegian Fjord, the pleasant feel of a Dream before Sunrise, from which we awake into a morning full of hope and promise-this is the mood of Morning, also by Edvard Grieg.

A white Swan gliding by in remote majesty will always look to us like an apparition out of a Dream. That cunning and witty man, Camille Saint-Saëns, knew this so well that in his Suite otherwise so full of mockery, The Carnival of the Animals, he for once shed all sophistication and bowed to the lyrical power of dreams and fairy tales when he portrayed The Swan.

Rimsky-Korsakoff's Hymn to the Sun belongs to the world of the dream only through the intensity of its enchantment and the fairy tale content of Le Coq d'Or from which it comes. Otherwise it is a piece so bright, so firm-bodied that it al- most touches solid earth. Its tangential position at the rim of dream and reality is the very essence of its peculiar charm.

Tchaikovsky's Waltz of the Flowers, on the other hand, kingdom with the Nutcracker which she had received at a Christmas party a few hours before, the Nutcracker first having turned into a handsome young prince. This is the classic dream of childhood, and in one form or another it is often a pleasant day-dream for many persons long past childhood. For the finely spun Waltz of the Flowers, as indeed for all of the marvelous pieces which make up the Nutcracker Suite and the complete Nutcracker Ballet, Tchaikovsky wrote music which is as perfect an accompaniment for a wondrous, exciting dream as any music could be. Even after the last strains of the music have died away the spell of the world of the dream lingers on. – FRANZI ASCHER

THE RECORD 

This recording is processed according to the R.I.A.A. characteristic from a tape recorded with Westminster's exclusive "Panorthophonic"® technique. To achieve the greatest fidelity, each Westminster record is mastered at the volume level technically suited to it. Therefore, set your volume control at the level which sounds best to your ears and, for maximum listening pleasure, we recom- ment that you sit at least six feet from the speaker. Variations in listening rooms and playback equipment may require addtional adjustment of bass and treble controls to obtain NATURAL BALANCE. Play this recording only with an unworn, microgroove stylus (.001 radius). For best economical results we recommend that you use a diamond stylus, which will last longer than other needles. Average playback times: diamond-over 2000 plays; sapphire – 50 plays; osmium or other metal points – be sure to change frequently. Remember that a damaged stylus may ruin your collection.

SIDE ONE

1. DVORAK: Largo (Excerpt) (From the "New World Symphony")
Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra of London
Conducted by ARTUR RODZINSKI

2. GRIEG: Solvejg's Song (From "Peer Gynt Suite No. 2") Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra of London
Conducted by ARTUR RODZINSKI

3. BACH: Air (From "Suite No. 3")
English Baroque Orchestra
Conducted by HERMANN SCHERCHEN

4. GRIEG: Ase's Death (From "Peer Gynt Suite No. 1") Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra of London
Conducted by ARTUR RODZINSKI

SIDE TWO

1. GRIEG: Morning (From "Peer Gynt Suite No. 1") Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra of London Conducted by ARTUR RODZINSKI

2. SAINT-SAËNS: The Swan (From "Carnival of the Animals")
Vienna State Opera Orchestra
Conducted by HERMANN SCHERCHEN

3. RIMSKY-KORSAKOFF: Hymn to the Sun (From "Le Coq d'Or")
Vienna State Opera Orchestra
Conducted by ARMANDO ALIBERTI

4. TCHAIKOVSKY: Waltz of the Flowers (From "Nutcracker Suite No. 1")
Symphony Orchestra
Conducted by HERBERT WILLIAMS