The Festival Quartet RCA Living Stereo Recordings

Greetings! As always, thank you for all of your insightful comments this past week!

This weekend, I'd like to visit the recordings of the Festival Quartet, a chamber music ensemble based in the United States that toured and recorded for RCA from the late 1950's to the early 1960's. The group was composed of these four artists:  

• Szymon Goldberg, violin (1909-1993) 
• William Primrose, viola (1904-1982) 
• Nikolai Graudan, cello (1896-1964) 
• Victor Babin, piano (1908-1972)

Unfortunately, not a lot has been written about the Festival Quartet outside of the liner notes of their records. The Quartet formed in the late 1950's after a series of summer music festivals held at Aspen, Colorado. In Nikolai Graudan's obituary in the New York Times, the group was referred to as the "Aspen Festival Quartet". Goldberg, Primrose, Graudan, and Babin were all artists-in-residence at Aspen and had frequently performed together there when they made the decision to form a quartet. Each of them had already had an established performing career prior to the group's formation: 

• Szymon Goldberg, born in Poland, had his debut playing three concertos with the Berlin Philharmonic in 1924. He was concertmaster of the Dresden Philharmonic from 1925-1929, then served as concertmaster for the Berlin Philharmonic (under Furtwängler's direction) from 1930-1934. He became a naturalized citizen of the US in 1953 and taught at the Aspen Music School from 1951-1965.
• William Primrose, born in Scotland, performed with the London String Quartet from 1930-1935. He was a violist in the NBC Symphony Orchestra (under Toscanini's direction) from 1937-1941 and formed the short-lived Primrose Quartet in 1939. He made a number of chamber music recordings with Jascha Heifetz and Gregor Piatigorsky (eg, the "Heifetz-Piatigorsky Concerts" on RCA). Primrose also had a career as a soloist and teacher.
• Nikolai Graudan, born in Russia, was first cellist of the Berlin Philharmonic from 1926-1935. After moving to the US, he was a cellist at the Metropolitan Opera Company as well as with the Minneapolis Symphony.
• Victor Babin, born in Russia, studied composition in Riga with Franz Schrecker and piano with Artur Schnabel in Berlin. He and his wife, Vitya Vronsky, formed a piano duo team and had their American premiere in 1937. Vronsky & Babin, as they were known, became one of the most prominent piano duos of their time and recorded for RCA, Columbia, Decca, and EMI. From 1961 until his death in 1972, Babin was the Director of the Cleveland Institute of Music. Babin also composed several works.

Although their discography was limited, the Festival Quartet recorded many of the best known works of the piano quartet repertoire for RCA in the late 1950s and early 1960s, including:

• Schubert's "Trout" piano quintet, with Stuart Sankey on double bass (1957; LSC-2147)
• A two LP compilation of Schumann's Piano Quartet, Op. 47; Beethoven's Piano Quartet, Op. 16; and Brahms' Piano Quartet in C minor, Op. 60 (1959; LSC-6068)
• Brahms' Piano Quartet in C minor, Op. 60 (LSC-2330; 1959)
• Brahms' Piano Quartet in G minor, Op. 25 (LSC-2473; 1961)
• Brahms' Piano Quartet in A, Op. 26 (LSC-2517; 1961)
• Faure's Piano Quartet in G minor, Op. 45 (LSC-2735; 1964) 

Their last recording, as you can see, was released in 1964. It is not entirely clear why they disbanded, but perhaps Graudan's death in 1964 may have been the reason.

Let's explore a few of their recordings. I previously covered their recording of the Brahms Piano Quartet in C minor back in 2015. You can find my review of that here.

RCA LIVING STEREO LSC-2147

Schubert: Piano Quintet in A , Op. 114 ("The Trout")

Szymon Goldberg, violin

William Primrose, viola

Nikolai Graudan, cello

Victor Babin, piano

Stuart Sankey, double bass

"Shaded dog" label

Matrix numbers: 1S / 1S

US Indianapolis pressing

Year: 1962

This record is one of the less commonly seen RCA Living Stereos. It used to fetch pretty high prices on the used market (up to $200-300), but its price seems to have come down in recent years. I recently found this copy, my first ever, at a local record shop for $25. The recording was originally released in mono in 1957 with different cover art, and the stereo release was not issued until 1962.

Interestingly, I found online this advertisement for the original mono version of this LP, printed in 1958 in the Saturday Review. You may recognize that the same sketch of the musicians of the quartet was used for the cover of their recording of the Brahms third piano quartet (LSC-2330).

https://digital.hagley.org/AVDJOPN2014_rca-festival-quartet-1958#modal-close

This is a thoroughly enjoyable performance of the quintet. The ensemble playing is excellent. The sound of the recording is warm, perhaps a little dry to my ears, and you can hear a little more air around the musicians than in some of the other Festival Quartet albums described below. There is a good balance between the instruments. On my pressing, there was a touch of distortion during louder passages. By comparison, the HMV recording of the Trout Quintet with Hepzibah Menuhin and the Amadeus Quartet is a bit more natural sounding, with greater clarity, more atmosphere, and deeper bass extension.

In The RCA Bible, Jonathan Valin gave this recording an "Excellent", commenting: "Sonically this disc's only rival is the Curzon/Vienna Octet on London Blueback [CS 6090], which is recorded in a better, more intimate room. The Festival recording has a larger, drier, more studio-like acoustic but the playing is echt. The Victrola of this is top-notch, too." You can read more about the Curzon recording here.

    

This RCA release was reissued as a later "white dog" label pressing with the same jacket and a later RCA Red Seal pink label. Classic Records reissued this in the 1990s with a cover that combined the cover art of the original mono version with the Living Stereo banner at the top. I haven't heard any of these reissues for comparison.

RCA LIVING STEREO LSC-2473

Brahms: Piano Quartet in G Minor, Op. 25

Szymon Goldberg, violin

William Primrose, viola

Nikolai Graudan, cello

Victor Babin, piano

"Shaded dog" label

Matrix numbers: 3S / 3S

US Indianapolis pressing

Year: 1961

Recording engineer: John Crawford

I have loved the Brahms piano quartets ever since I first heard the Rubinstein/Guarneri Quartet recordings of the G minor and C minor quartets on CD as a teenager. It wasn't until my early 20's that I discovered this Festival Quartet record, and since then it has become one of my favorite versions of this quartet. As in pretty much all of the Festival Quartet recordings, the ensemble playing here is excellent.  The sound is warm and intimate with a somewhat dry acoustic and a more immediate presentation.

Jonathan Valin gave this one a "Very good" in The RCA Bible. 

The Stereo Record Guide, Volume 3 (Long Playing Record Library Ltd, 1963) says the following:

"Individually brilliant players, these musicians make a less convincing team on the whole than the D.G.G. ensemble [referring to Santoliquido Piano Quartet, D.G.G. SLPM 138014), and their tempi are rather more wayward. Their steadier view of the first movement is no disadvantage in itself, for it enables much of Brahms's complex polyphony to emerge clearly, but there is a tendency to allow the tempo to slow up here and there, and the overall impression is one of disappointment. The other movements are better integrated. The RCA recording is brilliant and the treble will need some control, but the balance is good. One's final choice, however, remains with the D.G.G."

There is a Canadian shaded dog pressing of this album, as well as a UK pressing released by Decca as SB-2136. 

RCA LIVING STEREO LSC-2517

Brahms: Piano Quartet in A , Op. 26

Szymon Goldberg, violin

William Primrose, viola

Nikolai Graudan, cello

Victor Babin, piano

"Shaded dog" label

Matrix numbers: 4S / 1S

US Indianapolis pressing

Year: 1963

Recording engineer: Allan Ballantine

I remember first being introduced to this album about 22 years ago by a fellow record collector who, to this day, is one of my closest friends.  I love the gorgeous fall scenery on the front cover, which reminds me of a New England landscape. This is another beautiful performance. The sound signature here is almost identical to the one on the G minor quartet recording above - warm, dry, intimate. On this record, you can even hear the breathing of the musicians at times.

As with LSC-2473, Valin gave this a "Very good" in The RCA Bible.

This album is also available as a Canadian, UK (SB-6583), and German pressing.

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That's it for Miles to Mozart this week. Please let us know if you have any additional information to share about the Festival Quartet. Also, if you have your own favorite recordings of any of the chamber works discussed here, please drop us a comment below. Happy listening!