Eugene Ormandy/Minneapolis Symphony Orch - Intermezzo 1 ('Jewels of the Madonna'-Wolf-Ferrari)(1935)

The Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra (82 members) conducted by Eugene Ormandy plays the Intermezzo No. 1 (ie from Act 2) from 'The Jewels of the Madonna.' The recording was made in the Cyrus Northrop Auditorium, Minneapolis, on 8 January 1935.

From Wikipedia: Eugene Ormandy (born Jenő Blau; November 18, 1899 – March 12, 1985) was a Hungarian-born American conductor and violinist...

Ormandy was born in Budapest, Austria-Hungary...His musical talents emerged early. He received his first violin lessons from his father at the age of three and a half and was proficient enough as a violinist to enter the Royal National Hungarian Academy of Music at the age of five, being the youngest student to date. From 1909 student of Jenő Hubay, he passed the finals in chamber music and in violin in spring of 1915. From 1917 he undertook first tours in Hungary and Germany; among other things as concertmaster of the Berlin Blüthner Orchestra. In 1918 he became briefly professor for violin at his old university. From 1917 to 1920 he also completed a degree in philosophy. Motivated by promises made by a dubious impresario, he emigrated to the US in 1921.

Until 1918 Ormandy used in public performances the stage name 'Eugen Blau.' About 1919...he changed to 'Jenö B. Ormándy' and since his arrivel in America in 1921 he used 'Eugen (later Eugene) Ormandy,' 'Eugen/Eugene' being the German/English equivalents of 'Jenő', but the origin of the surname 'Ormandy' is uncertain...

Arthur Judson, the most powerful manager of American classical music during the 1930s, first heard Ormandy when he conducted (as a freelancer) for a dance recital at Carnegie Hall by Isadora Duncan; Judson later said, 'I came to see a dancer and instead heard a conductor.'

At Judson's instigation Ormandy substituted for the ailing Arturo Toscanini with the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1931. This led to an appointment as musical director of the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra, a post he held from 1931 to 1936. In this post he became nationally known in the US through his recordings... In 1936 he returned to Philadelphia as joint conductor with Leopold Stokowski. After two years he became the orchestra's sole music director; he held the post for 42 years (1938–1980), before stepping down to be its conductor laureate... Ormandy built on what Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians calls 'Stokowski's voluptuous 'Philadelphia Sound'' and added further polish and precision. Despite, or even because of, this, among many music critics and others, as Harold C. Schonberg put it in a 1967 study, 'there was a singular reluctance in musical circles to admit him into the ranks of great conductors.' He was thought superficial; Toscanini dismissed him as 'an ideal conductor of Johann Strauss,' and a similar remark is attributed to Igor Stravinsky...Schonberg called Ormandy 'an excellent technician with a technicolored approach...'

Schonberg concluded his study of Ormandy with the words, 'Ormandy does not conduct with the overwhelming personality of a Furtwängler, or with the ferocity and clarity of a Toscanini, or with the immense knowledge and classicism of a Szell. But he has carved out an area for himself, and within it he is secure, a perfect workman and a sensitive interpreter. And it is an area that takes in a great deal more than Strauss waltzes.'

In 1980, aged 80, Ormandy retired as chief conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra, but continued to appear as its conductor laureate. His last concert was with his Philadelphia colleagues at Carnegie Hall on January 10, 1984. His tenure, as chief conductor and then laureate was the longest unbroken association between a conductor and a major American orchestra.

He died of pneumonia at his home in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on March 12, 1985, at the age of 85.

[Lily-kyew]

It's so beautiful. I like Eugene Ormandy. Thanks~~~