Nice to see a disc celebrating Eudice Shapiro. A pupil of the great Efrem Zimbalist, long-lived Shapiro (1914-2007) shines on this release. She was known as an orchestral and quartet leader, and here we hear her as soloist and, indeed, with her quartet, plus in a couple of Hollywood Studio tracks.
Buffalo-born, Shapiro studied initially at Eastman, then Curtis (here with Zmbalist). It was in Los Angeles that she flourished, however: she was the first female concertmaster of a Hollywood studio orchestra. She founded The American Art Quartet, who we also hear on this disc. But first, Shapiro’s only concerto recording …
Very much of its time, the performance of Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 5 in A, K 219 nevertheless showcases Shapiro’s expertise, including a fabulous first movement cadenza. There is something of the same focus in the 1944 Armed Services recording as we hear with Toscanini’s NBC recordings (although the conductor here is Frank Black). The opening Allegro aperto is nice and bright, and Shapiro’s tone on her entrance is lovely; she plays Joachim’s cadenzas. The slow movement is marked Adagio and this is very much an older-style reading of it: the magic really begins when Shapiro enters, her song line a silken thread. Here they are:
I very much like the grit of the finale, too, a Rondeau with many felicitous, even cheeky touches from Shapiro (plus a bit of portamtno, de rigeur at the time!). But listen to Shaprio’s articulation and accuracy in the Turkish episode in the finale!:
For the Quartet tracks, Shapiro is joined by the other members of The American Art Quartet: Robert Sushel, violins 2; Virginia Majewski, viola, and Victor Gottlieb, cello. It is lovely to hear a movement from the Mendelssohn E-Minor Quartet – not as famous as the F-Minor, it holds a Scherzo of huge energy: Scampering on steroids, one might say. Allegro di molto is the marking, and it is!:
A slower offering provides contrast: the famous Andante cantabile from Tchaikovsky’s D-Major Quartet (often heard in sting orchestra versions, too), itself contrasted with a characterful account of Wolf’s active Italian Serenade. Here’s the Tchaikovsky:
To my ears, the most touching track is an arrangement by Jaffé of Fauré’s mélodie, Après un rêve; it precedes a piece new to me, Turina’s 1925 La Oración del Toraro (The Bullfighter’s Prayer). Its as originally for ‘laud’ quartet (Spanish folk lutes). Here’s wha the composer had to say:
During an afternoon of bullfighting in the Madrid arena … I saw my work. I was in the court of horses. Behind a small door, there was a chapel, filled with incense, where toreadors went right before facing death. It was then that there appeared, in front of my eyes, in all its plenitude, this subjectively musical and expressive contrast between the tumult of the arena, the public that awaited the fiesta, and the devotion of those who, in front of this poor altar, filled with touching poetry, prayed to God to protect their lives.
And here it is, on string quartet, music drenched with Spain:
Th Rachmaninoff (to use the most recent accepted spelling!) is an arrangement by Hartman of the Serenade, the melody full of character:
Nice to have some Shostakovich here, the Polka from The Age of Gold:
The quartet captures the harmonic beauty of Bridge’s An Irish Melody “A Londonderry Air” as easily as they find the virtuosity of Molly on the Shore. Here’s the latter:
The two tracks from the Hollywood are pure schmaltz, music form a bygone era. It is a lot of fun, and Shapiro’s violin sings beautifully. Here’s Je vous adore:
The transfers are phenomenal, as on would expect from Biddulph recordings, Recommended.
This disc is available via Amazon here.
