Philadelphia Chamber String Simfonietta
Fabien Sevitzky
Pristine Audio PASC 375
Studio Mono recordings 1927-40, Philadelphia
Producer and Audio Restoration Engineer: Mark Obert-Thorn
Additional pitch stabilisation work by Andrew Rose
Cover artwork based on a photograph of Fabien Sevitzky
Special thanks to Bill Anderson, Nathan Brown, Richard Kaplan, Charles Niss and Don Tait
Total duration: 77:17

  • Marco Bosssi (1861-1925) : Intermezzi goldoniani, Op. 127 [7:15]
    Recorded 12 February 1927 in Church Studio No. 1, Camden, New Jersey
    Matrix nos. CVE-37812-2 and BVE-37813-2. First issued on Victor 9129 and 4022

  • Edvard Grieg (1843-1907) : Two Elegiac Melodies, Op. 34 [7:33]
    Recorded 12 February 1927 in Church Studio No. 1, Camden, New Jersey
    Matrix nos. BVE-37814-2 and CVE-37815-2. First issued on Victor 4022 and 9129

  • Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) : (arr. Sam Franko) Sinfonia from Cantata No. 156 (“Arioso”) [3:53]
    Recorded 25 April 1929 in Church Studio No. 1, Camden, New Jersey
    Matrix no. CVE-51825-2. First issued on Victor 9598 in album M-66

  • Arcady Dubensky (1890-1966) : Gossips [2:34]
    Recorded 25 April 1929 in Church Studio No. 1, Camden, New Jersey
    Matrix no. BVE-51826-1. First issued on Victor 4186

  • Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893) : Elegie from Serenade for Strings, Op. 48 (1880) [6:25]
    Recorded 25 April 1929 in Church Studio No. 1, Camden, New Jersey
    Matrix nos. BVE-51827-3 and 51828-3. First issued on Victor 4151

  • Percy Grainger (Arr.)
    - Londonderry Air [2:56]
    - Molly on the Shore [3:58]
    Recorded 25 April 1929 in Church Studio No. 1, Camden, New Jersey
    Matrix nos. BVE-51829-1 and CVE-51830-2. First issued on Victor 4186 and 11560

  • Ernest Bloch (1880-1959) : Concerto Grosso No.1 (1925) [18:54]
    Charles Linton (piano obbligato)
    Recorded 9 May 1929 in Church Studio No. 1, Camden, New Jersey
    Matrix nos. CVE-48999-3R, 48992-2R, 48993-2, 48994-2 and 48995-2
    First issued on Victor 9596 through 9598 in album M-66

  • André-Ernst-Modest Grétry (1741-1813)
    - Pantomime (from Zemire et Azor) (1771) [3:50]
    - Marche (from La caravane du Caïre) (1783) [1:44]
    - Tambourin (from Denys le tyran) (1794) [1:17]
    Recorded 19 October 1940 in the Academy of Music, Philadelphia
    Matrix nos. CS-056562 and 056563 (no take numbers listed)
    First issued on Victor 13590

  • Anton Arensky (1861-1906) : Variations on a theme of Tchaikovsky, Op.35a (1894) [16:52]
    Recorded 19 October 1940 in the Academy of Music, Philadelphia
    Matrix nos. CS-056558-1, 056559-1, 056560-2 and 056561-1
    First issued as Victor 11-8153 and 11-8154 in album M-896
A couple of things before we begin: no, you’re not seeing things - it really was a String Simfonietta with an ‘m’. If you are curious about the name, yes Fabien Sevitzky (1893-1967) was originally ‘Koussevitzky’, and he was a nephew of Serge. He was also later, in 1937, to become conductor of the Indianapolis Symphony, a position he held for nearly two decades.
The Simfonietta was drawn from the ranks of the Philadelphia Orchestra, and that included Sevitzky himself who was a bass player, and the ensemble gave its first concert in 1925. According to Mark Obert-Thorn’s note it was claimed to be the world’s first permanent string orchestra. The electric recordings followed in February 1927, and then another batch in 1929, after which there was a long gap until the final series in 1940.
Programming seems to have been arbitrary-to-light. Bozzi’s Intermezzi goldoniani is a genial affair graced by some sleek portamenti and expressive weight despite the hall’s dry acoustic. The Grieg Elegiac Melodies were recorded at the same time and reveal strong cantabile qualities and stylistic probity. They espouse Sam Franko’s famous Arioso, his arrangement of the Sinfonia from Bach’s Cantata No.156. Beloved of solo violinists, this sensuous performance stands up well for its corporate tonal qualities. Dubensky was a composer much performed in Philadelphia which was presumably where Sevitzky encountered him; certainly Stokowski was an avowed interpreter of Dubensky’s music and indeed recorded some of it. Gossips is a pizzicato study that evokes the chatter of those talkative people. Tchaikovsky’s Elegie from the Serenade for Strings offers a small-scaled approach: textually clear but necessarily underpowered. The two Grainger arrangements are largely non-calorific, but as in some of the other performances the texture can be slightly dominated by the first violin. The most important of the ensemble’s recordings was that of Bloch’s Concerto Grosso No.1, a recording made in May 1929. This was the work’s first ever recording and it wasn’t until Victor released a set by the Curtis Ensemble under Louis Bailly that it became supplanted. Charles Linton is the obbligato pianist in this crisp, warmly textured reading - buoyantly characterised, too.
The last sessions included a trio of Grétry pieces. The most famous is the one that Beecham loved to play as an encore, the Pantomime from Zémire et Azor. Fortunately Sevitzky likes to keep that pianissimo going as far as it can. Finally, at those same sessions in 1940, at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia, they performed Arensky’s ingratiating Variations on a Theme of Tchaikovsky in thoroughly elegant fashion. The wartime shellac is not great, and thus a bit noisy, and the last side has some passing thuds, which are pressing faults, but the performance is well worth hearing.
Finally Pristine, very unusually in my experience, doesn’t provide any catalogue and matrix numbers on its inlay (see Footnote), but fortunately this information is available on its website. This is a most enjoyable release.
Jonathan Woolf

Footnote
From Andrew Rose, Pristine Classical: We do always try and include catalogue and matrix numbers, as well as anything else we can find of historic importance, on our CD covers. Alas in one or two cases, especially where there are a large number of tracks to notate, it has proved impossible to squeeze everything in at a type size that's legible to the naked eye! This was one of those instances. As Jonathan rightly points out, the information is there on our website, on the page from where 99.9% of orders for this recording will be placed.

Producer's Note

This release presents for the first time in any extended-play format the complete issued 78 rpm recordings of a pioneering ensemble under its enterprising founder and conductor.*
Fabien Sevitzky (1893–1967), a nephew of Serge Koussevitzky, was perhaps best known as the music director of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra from 1937 to 1955.
Prior to that, however, he founded what was claimed to be the first permanent string orchestra ensemble in the world. Drawing seventeen players from the ranks of Stokowski’s Philadelphia Orchestra (of which he himself was a bass player from 1923 to 1930),
Sevitzky presented the first concert of his Philadelphia Chamber String Simfonietta in 1925. Within two years, they made their first recordings for Victor, following up with another series two years later.
Eleven years were to pass before they stood before the microphone again for their last session. They disbanded as Sevitzky’s involvement in Indianapolis increased.
The novelty of the ensemble, a wide-ranging repertoire, and a high level of playing from what was then arguably the finest orchestral string section in the world, led to high praise from contemporary critics.
Herbert Peyser of the New York Telegram wrote in 1929, “Orchestral or chamber music have brought few things outside Toscanini’s works of wonder to exceed them.”
The sources for the transfers were American Victor editions: Orthophonic pressings for the Bossi Burlesca, the two Grieg pieces and the Tchaikovsky; wartime “Silver” label copies for the Arensky; and prewar “Gold” label pressings for the remainder.
The earlier recordings were made in Victor’s Camden Church Studio, a small, unreverberant venue that tended to give an edge to violin tone and boominess to the lower strings.
The first two sides of the Bloch (the world-première recording of the work) were originally recorded on 10-inch matrices and then dubbed to 12-inch sides, with a resulting degradation in sound.
For the last session, the ensemble recorded in the warmer, more expansive acoustic of the Academy of Music, but was hampered, in the case of the Arensky, by substandard wartime pressings made from recycled shellac.

Mark Obert-Thorn
* One further recording, a 1940 Corelli Suite on two 12" 78rpm sides, remained unissued until a 1977 Neiman-Marcus LP set.