Michele Auclair: Tschaikovsky Violin Concerto, Remington RLP 199-20, Original

$

28

Up for sale is a very rare and desirable Remington LP featuring the great French violinist Michele Auclair in perhaps her very earliest recording for the Remington label.  This record is an original Remington, not a modern re-issue.  Auclair's performance is truly remarkable, full of fire and passion.

Title:  Violin Concerto in D Major (Recorded in Europe) [Concerto for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 35 in D Major]

Composer:  Pyotr Ilyich Tschaikovsky [Note:  His last name is more commonly spelled 'Tchaikovsky'.  I have used the spelling that appears on the album, which includes the 's' between the 'T' and the 'c'.]

Artists:  Michele Auclair, Violinist with The Austrian Symphony Orchestra, Conducted by Kurt Woss (Woess)

Label:  Remington RLP-199-20

Copyright 1951

A Side:  (RLP-199-20-A)

   1.  Allegro Moderato

B Side:  (RLP-199-20-B)

  2.  Canzonetta Andante

  3.  Finale:  Allegro Vivacissimo

The following features of this record are presented to assist buyers in their evaluation:

• A side wax marking is AV 33-203
• B side wax marking is AV 33-204-1
• The center labels are red.
• There is a deep groove near the outside of the center labels.
• This is a mono, not a stereo, recording.
• The back of the album has a list of other Remington releases.  The small photo in the center is of Michele Auclair herself.  There is no biographical sketch of the violinist.
• There is no inner sleeve.

Michele Auclair (1924 - 2003) was born to a cultured family in Paris.  She studied at the Paris Conservatoire with Jules Boucherit, Boris Kamensky, and Jacques Thibaud.  In 1943, she won first prize at the Marguerite Long-Jacques Thibaud Competition and in 1946 she was a laureate at the Concours International de Geneve.  In 1949, she came to the United States to study with Theodore and Alice Pashkus.  She made her American concert debut in January, 1951, at which time she played the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto (Opus 35).  My research indicates that she may have recorded this piece for the Remington record in 1950, but the copyright on the album jacket is for 1951 as well.  Auclair was not only an inspired violinist but also a master teacher.  After an auto accident ended her career as a performer, she was appointed, in 1967 as Professor at the Paris Conservatoire.  Over the next 20 years, her students won at least 45 international prizes.  Between 1990 and 2002, she also commuted from Paris to teach at the New England conservatory in Boston.

Of interest, for this recording, Auclair performed using the same Guarnerius violin that the 19th century virtuoso Adolf Brodzky had used to perform the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto, both at its world premiere in Vienna in 1881 and at the later (1890s) American premier at Carnegie Hall.  It is said that Tchaikovsky himself admired the singing tone of this Guarnerius.

Austrian born Conductor Kurt Woss (Woess) (1914 - 1987) studied at the State Academy of Music and the Performing Arts under Egon Joseph Wellesz, Robert Lach, Alfred Orel, and Robert-Maria Haas.  He also studied privately, including on the violin, with Felix Weingartner.  In 1938, he was appointed Professor at the Musik Academie in Vienna.  Coincident with this appointment, he joined the National Socialist Party (NSDAP).  At the conclusion of World War II, he was dismissed from his post.  Woss then associated himself with the Tonkunstler Orchestra, of which he was the principle conductor between 1948 and 1951.  This orchestra had been founded, before the war, by the National Socialist conductor Leopold Reichwein.  The Tonkunstler Orchestra's recordings were distributed under a variety of names including the "Orchestra of the Viennese Symphonic Society" and the "Austrian Symphony Orchestra" (as on this Remington release).  The different names were likely used because of the negative connotations associated with the Tonkunstler Orchestra.  Woss would later move on to positions with orchestras in Japan and Australia.  Eventually, he would return to his homeland as conductor of the orchestra in Linz, Austria.

[Note:  Some of the above information comes from the web site of "soundfountain", which appears to be an authoritative source on the early Remingtons.]

Please see above for detailed description of condition (including play testing) and for photos.  Sold as is.

 Attention US Buyers:  I will ship by USPS Media Mail or USPS Priority Mail, your choice.  (Note:  If you have a Military Mail address (e.g. APO), I must ask that you choose USPS Priority Mail as it is my understanding that USPS Media Mail is not reliable to Military Mail addresses.)

 Attention International Buyers:  I will ship using USPS First Class International Parcel (to countries with e-Delcon service) or by using USPS Priority International Mail (worldwide), your choice.   [A list of the e-Delcon countries is available at the website of the United States Postal Service.]  Please note that the price does not include any customs that may be charged by the country to which this is delivered.