The Music of LUCIEN CAILLIET Volume Two (1935-52) - PASC532

The present program is the second devoted to the transcriptions and compositions of Lucien Cailliet (1891 – 1985), clarinetist of the Philadelphia Orchestra during the Stokowski era, and later teacher and film music orchestrator. For more on his biography, including the controversy surrounding the role he played in Stokowski’s transcriptions, the reader is referred to our first volume (PASC 444).

In Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D minor, Cailliet seems intent on distancing himself from the famous Stokowski version, at a couple points adding a brass counterpoint over the arpeggios of the lower strings. The recording dates from Cailliet’s Hollywood days, and comes from the soundtrack of a 1946 nature film short which presents a day in Bryce Canyon, Utah. Janssen’s orchestra plays with vigor, although with an occasionally scrappy ensemble that would never be confused with Stokowski’s Philadelphians.

The orchestra in the following track, however, might well be confused with the Philadelphia – appropriately so, as they were the same ensemble playing under a nom-de-disque. Charles O’Connell was a conductor, arranger and organist in addition to being Victor’s Classical A&R Director, and led the Philadelphia Orchestra on some of its 1936 cross-county tour dates. Cailliet here expands the strings-and-continuo of Bach’s original to include winds and brass.

Eugene Ormandy was a champion of Cailliet’s transcriptions even while he was still leading the Minneapolis Symphony. The third selection was Cailliet’s first credit in the recording logs as an orchestrator, even though the side remained unissued until the LP era. Ormandy continued his efforts on his behalf in Philadelphia, recording several of his arrangements and commissioning Cailliet’s orchestration of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition. The Prelude and Fugue in B minor was probably recorded to follow up Ormandy’s recording of Cailliet’s transcription of Bach’s Prelude and Fugue in F minor (one Volume 1), but it, too, was unpublished on 78 rpm.

The next two transcriptions feature works by Bach’s contemporaries. Buxtehude’s Organ Passacaglia in D minor has often been cited as an inspiration for Bach’s Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor. Cailliet emphasizes the connection by adding a preface stating the unadorned bass line. And at a time when Vivaldi was known almost exclusively for his Concerto Grosso in D minor in various modern arrangements, Cailliet sought to widen the composer’s renown with a full-orchestra version of one of his violin double concertos.

Taking leave of the Baroque era, Cailliet’s Debussy transcription was recorded three times by Ormandy; this is his first. By contrast, Ormandy only recorded the three Rachmaninoff preludes once, on a 10-inch LP. When they were reissued as a filler on a later 12-inch disc, the Prelude in C sharp minor was omitted. (Could someone have felt it was too over-the-top?)

Cailliet’s efforts were appreciated not only in Philadelphia. Arthur Fiedler recorded several of his works with his Boston “Pops”, including the famous Tchaikovsky song heard here and his “Pop! Goes the Weasel” Variations (on Volume 1). Our program ends with Fiedler’s recording of another of Cailliet’s fantasies on a well-known tune, “Happy Birthday to You”, a work which also inspired Stravinsky to write his Greeting Prelude.

Mark Obert-Thorn