DESCRIPTION:
The New York Chapter of the Association for Recorded Sound Collections presents its April 2017 program:

AN INTERVIEW WITH GUNTHER SCHULLER ON HIS SEVEN STUDIES ON THEMES OF PAUL KLEE
Moderated by Tom Fine and Dennis D. Rooney

Tom Fine and Dennis Rooney will recall the work’s world premiere on November 27, 1959. The Mercury recording of it will also be heard.

"In 1959, Gunther Schuller was commissioned by Antal Doráti (with the support of the Ford Foundation in conjunction with the American Music Center) to compose a new work for the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra. Seven Studies on Themes of Paul Klee had its world premiere on November 27, 1959 in Northrop Memorial Auditorium on the Minneapolis campus of the University of Minnesota. The work, dedicated to Doráti and conducted by him, was subsequently recorded later that season and released by Mercury Living Presence.

In attendance at the premiere was Dennis Rooney, then an undergraduate Music Major at the U of M. Dennis would later get to know Schuller, meeting him regularly in New York and at Tanglewood, and also interviewing him for broadcast. Their acquaintance began in the late sixties and continued until shortly before Schuller’s death in 2015 at age 89.

In 1965, years after Schuller's work was first recorded by Mercury, RCA Living Stereo recorded it with Erich Leinsdorf and the Boston Symphony Orchestra. As part of publicizing that release, RCA recorded an interview with Schuller, edited out the questions, and produced a record and accompanying script for radio stations. The radio stations' on-air personalities recorded the questions, following the script provided by RCA, and then edited in Schuller's answers provided on the LP disc. This "interview" could then be broadcast along with the Leinsdorf/BSO recording
that RCA was promoting.

For this meeting, Dennis Rooney will perform virtual time-travel, "interviewing" Schuller as he was in 1965. We will also hear the 1960 Mercury Living Presence premiere recording of Schuller's work, as performed by the commissioning orchestra and conductor. Dennis and Tom will provide a brief overview of Paul Klee, and his paintings that inspired Schuller's music will be shown. Additional artifacts of the premiere performance (local reviews, etc.) will also be displayed, and Dennis will offer his memories and impressions as a member of the audience.

This will be a rare opportunity to hear a composer talk in detail about his work, listen to the premiere recording, and hear first-hand accounts by an ARSC member who both attended the premiere performance and later became friendly with the composer."

DENNIS D. ROONEY is Co-Chairman of ARSC’s New York Chapter. Since 1996 he has served on the ARSC Technical Committee, and reviews books and recordings regularly for the ARSC JOURNAL. A professional career embracing journalism, classical record production, broadcasting and narration has been accompanied by over six decades as a record collector. Discs from his collection are frequently used in CD historical reissues. As both a producer, and Archival and Catalogue Exploitation Consultant to the classical recording industry, he developed and contributed to important classical reissue lines for Sony Classical, Universal Classics and Vox. His writings on music have regularly appeared in THE STRAD for more than thirty years. He has also contributed to BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE, MUSICAL TIMES, CLASSIC RECORD COLLECTOR, AMERICAN RECORD GUIDE and musicalamerica.com.

TOM FINE is a member of ARSC and AES. He owns and operates an analog-to-digital audio transfer studio. With a primary base of archival and educational/ institutional clients, he specializes in transferring magnetic and grooved-disc media to high resolution digital formats. He is an avid collector of music recordings and a student of recording industry history.

THE ASSOCIATION FOR RECORDED SOUND COLLECTIONS (www.arsc-audio.org) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the preservation and study of sound recordings, in all genres of music and speech, in all formats, and from all periods. ARSC is unique in bringing together private individuals and institutional professionals—everyone with a serious interest in recorded sound.

Videographer: Joseph Patrych; www.patrych.com/index.html