1.Jules MASSENET
(1842-1912)
MANON: Je suis encore tout étourdie
[3:47]
6 October 1924; (cc5181-1) DB800
2.MANON: Allons! Il le faut…Adieu, notre
petite table [3:57]
6 October 1924; (cc5182-3) DB800
3.MANON: Suis-je gentille...Obéissons
quand leur voix appelle [4:08]
7 January 1925; (cc5550-2) first published
on HMB-176
4.THAÏS: Dis-moi que je suis belle
[Scène du miroir] [4:08]
7 January 1925; (cc5552-1) DB810
5.THAÏS: Te souvient-il du lumineux
voyage [4:14]
7 January 1925; (cc5551-2) DB810
VICTOR TALKING MACHINE COMPANY
6. Charles
GOUNOD (1818-1893)
FAUST: Jewel Song [3:37]
12 September 1927; (BVE-40006-1) Unpublished
7.THAÏS: Te souvient-il du lumineux
voyage [4:30]
4 January 1926; (CVE-34255-1) 6578
8.Ruggero LEONCAVALLO
(1858-1919)
PAGLIACCI Qual fiamma avea nel guardo...Che
volo d’augelli [4:42]
20 January 1926; (CVE-34161-9) 6578
9.Gioacchino
ROSSINI (1792-1868)
La Danza [3:11]
26 March 1928; (CVE-42564-1) 6878
10.Leo DELIBES
(1836-1891)
Les filles de Cadiz [3:46]
26 March 1928; (CVE-42563-1) 6878
11.Johann STRAUSS
(1825-1899)
Voci di primavera [4:30]
11 October 1927; (CVE-40297-3) Unpublished
12.DAWDON/BESLEY
The Second Minuet [2:45]
with Elmer Zoller, pianist; Lou Raderman,
violinist
23 September 1927; (BVE 43584-3) Unpublished
13.NORRIS
Little bit of a fellow [2:54]
with Elmer Zoller, pianist; Lou Raderman,
violinist
18 April 1928; (BVE-43583-3) Unpublished
14. Carrie JACOBS-BOND
(1862-1946)
The hand of you [2:37]
7 March 1927; (BVE-38209-1) Unpublished
15.Charles Wakefield
CADMAN
(1881-1946)
From the land of sky-blue water [2:23]
with Clement Barone, flautist
4 January 1926; (BVE-34250-6) 1140
16.LOHR
Little grey home in the west [3:02]
4 January 1926; (BVE- 34249-7) 1140
17.Stephen FOSTER
(1826-1864)
The old folks at home [3:35]
12 September 1927; (BVE-40007-3) 1345
18. EMMETT
Dixie [2:30]
26 March 1928; (BVE-42565-2) 1345
THESAURUS: TWENTY-FIVE SELECTIONS TAKEN
FROM TRANSCRIPTION DISCS, 1936-1939
19.Wolfgang Amadeus
MOZART (1756-1791)
EXULTATE JUBILATE: Alleluia [2:55] (MS
102438) 363
20.Johann Sebastian
BACH (1685-1750) - Charles
GOUNOD (1818-1893)
Ave Maria [3:03] (MS 03544) 339
21.Easthope MARTIN
The Holy Child [3:19] (MS 03574) 604
22.TRADITIONAL
Elli Elli (arranged Schindler) [4:13]
(MS 03542) 337
CD 1:
Accompaniment: Tracks 1-11; 14, 16-18
with orchestra; Tracks 12-13 with piano
and violin; Track 15 with orchestra and
flute; Tracks 19-22 with chamber orchestra
Languages: French [1-7, 10]; English [12-18,
21]; Italian [8-9, 11]; Latin [19-20];
Yiddish with Hebrew [22]
1.Franco FACCIO
Principe Hamleto (Franco Faccio) [3:43]
(MS 03539) 334
2.Nicolai RIMSKY-KORSAKOV
(1844-1908)
LE COQ D’OR: Hymn to the Sun [3:26] (MS
03540) 334
3.Wolfgang Amadeus
MOZART (1756-1791)
LE NOZZE DI FIGARO: Deh, vieni, non tardar
[5:27] (MS 03572) 430
4. Jules MASSENET
(1842-1912)
THAÏS: L’amour est une vertu rare
[3:49] (MS 11552) 561
5.Maurice RAVEL
(1875-1937)
L’ENFANT ET LES SORTILÈGES: Toi,
le coeur de la rose [2:02] (MS 11551)
619
6.Franz SCHUBERT
(1797-1828)
Wohin? [2:28] (MS 03540) 334
7.Franz LISZT
(1811-1886)
Die Lorelei [7:17] (MS 03574) 604
8.Du bist wie eine Blume [2:08] (MS 03572)
430
9.Richard STRAUSS
(1864-1949)
Wiegenlied, op. 41, no. 1 [4:25] (MS 011634)
494
10.Morgen, op. 27, no. 4 [3:05] (MS 03865)
357
11.Ständchen, op. 17, no. 2 [2:55]
(MS 11634) 494
12.Reynaldo HAHN
(1874-1947)
Si mes vers avaient des ailes [2:06] (MS
03543) 363
13.Josef SZULC
(1875-1956)
Clair de lune [3:12] (MS 11634) 494
14.HAGUE-ROSS
Carmen Carmela [[2:40] (MS 03866) 414
15.Ay, ay, ay {Traditional} (arranged
Pérez-Freire) [1:59] (MS 03540)
334
16.My lovely Celia (Monro) (arranged Wilson)
[2:50] (MS 03865) 357
17.Annie Laurie {Traditional Scottish}
(Douglass-Scott) [3:25] (MS 03573) 355
James MOLLOY
(1837-1909)
18.The Kerry Dance [2:08] (MS 03544) 339
Thomas MOORE
(1779-1852)
19.Last rose of summer [3:37] (MS 03544)
339
20.Danny Boy (Traditional: Irish) [3:44]
(MS 03542) 337
BÖHM
21.Still wie die Nacht [3:12] (MS 03866)
414
SIECZYNSKI
22.Wien, Wien, nur du allein [2:30] (MS
03539) 334
Eugene FORD
23.Rain [2:32] (MS 11554) 552
Stephen FOSTER
(1826-1864)
24.My old Kentucky home [2:44] (MS 03572)
430
Mary Lewis (soprano)
With accompaniments as above, if known
CD 2:
Accompaniment: All tracks with chamber
orchestra
Languages: Italian [1, 3, 16]; French
[2, 4-5, 12-13]; German [6-11, 21-22];
Spanish [14-15]; English [17-20, 23-24]
Mention the name of
Mary Lewis to dedicated vocal collectors
and they will probably say one of two
things; French repertoire or Vaughan
Williams’ Hugh the Drover. In
terms of the balance of her recordings
that’s not unjust. She did record a
deal of Massenet in particular and her
major discographic undertaking was the
abridged late acoustic 1924 set of Hugh,
which she’d premiered shortly before,
and where she partnered the clarion
Welsh tenor Tudor Davies. That set featured
a raft of vocal talent – Nellie Walker,
Frederic Collier, Keith Faulkner and
Trefor Jones amongst others - conducted
(in his first recording) by Malcolm
Sargent. It can be found on Pearl.
Mary Lewis was an American,
born in Arkansas in 1897. From a tough
background she sought an escape in singing,
progressing through restaurants and
vaudeville to the Ziegfeld Follies in
the early 1920s. She sailed for further
training in Europe and was soon cast
in an impressive series of roles – it
wasn’t every newly arrived, technically
untried soprano who sang Marguerite
in Vienna opposite Emmanuel List and
Viorica Ursuleac under no less than
Weingartner’s baton. She sang for Lehár
but wasn’t to follow the operetta route,
instead decamping for a spell in London.
She joined the British National Opera
Company, which is why she premiered
Hugh the Drover, made records
and then went to Paris. She sailed back
to America and joined the Met in 1926,
married (briefly, for the second time
and explosively) Michael Bohnen, the
celebrated German singer who was also
at the Met, and then things started
to fall apart. Her third marriage was
to a millionaire, by which time she’d
withdrawn from opera, though continued
to make broadcasts and promote concerts.
She died at an early age in 1941 from,
it’s alleged, radiation poisoning from
a radium-painted dress she’d worn for
an "in the dark" theatrical
song performance from much earlier in
her career. If true it was a bizarre
end to a strange career.
With Marston’s splendidly
documented and transferred two CD set
we can at last say that she has achieved
a degree of restoration. Not only do
we have the series of HMVs and Victors
from 1924-1928, and some unpublished
sides into the bargain, but we get a
substantial collection of 25 transcription
discs made between 1936 and 1939. She
did give some concert performances in
the later 1930s and recorded for the
NBC Thesaurus series, from which these
transcription discs derive. They were
subjected to populist salon-style accompaniment
from unnamed but clearly top-notch instrumentalists
from the New York Philharmonic-Symphony.
I wonder if the violinist wasn’t Mishel
Piastro? These broadcasts expand our
appreciation and understanding of Lewis’s
art substantially. They find her in
repertoire never previously recorded,
in good forward well-preserved sound
and revealing her increasing awareness
of lieder. In every way then this is
an important set for her collector admirers.
But even back in 1924,
despite her rather on-off training,
we can hear a fine voice and one perhaps
influenced by Mary Garden and not only
in repertoire. Her coloratura is fine
though not outstanding in the Manon
but we can hear how well supported is
the voice in Allons! Il le faut.
It was a voice that also projected
what one can justly call charm – try
her first Victor here, the 1927 electric
Faust Jewel Song. She remade Te
souvient from Thais in America
electrically; the violin solo accompaniment
is not as distinctive as the London
recording but her registral work is
better. Though she was famed as an exponent
of the French repertoire her Pagliacci
extract was famous and is a fine example
of her art. In view of that it’s surprising
that Victor proceeded to shunt her off
into the Carrie Jacobs-Bond hinterland
with over half of their recordings.
I’m certainly not complaining that we
have previously unreleased recordings
here of such as The Second Minuet
and Little bit of a fellow but
Lewis was really worthy of finer stuff
than this fluff. I can add one thing
to the documentation. The violinist
sans forename is Lou Raderman,
an excellent player.
The range of items
sung on the Transcription discs nevertheless
increases the range of Lewis’ discography
substantially. It shows us the directions
in which she was moving in the mid to
later 1930s which, though it included
nineteenth century lieder and Richard
Strauss, still invariably included a
ration of Scottish, Irish, Yiddish and
Spanish songs as well as an encroachment
into the repertoires of Tauber and McCormack.
She’s as much at home in the parlour
sentiments of the Easthope Martin as
she had been a decade earlier in her
Victors but what strikes one is the
deepening of her expressive potential;
Elli Elli is a rather powerful
case in point. There’s sometimes a certain
strain and discomfort at the top of
the register, as one can detect in the
Faccio and Liszt but the rare example
of her Ravel has an unforced simplicity
of utterance that is immediately appealing.
Her Ay, ay, ay is delightfully
languid and she shows her versatility
(and reminiscences of her earlier life)
in the Siecynski, although her Wiegenlied
is not ideally steady. True, the accompaniments
have a lot of sugar – harp arpeggios,
salon-sweet strings and the like - but
the focus is on Lewis’s warmth and sensitivity
and the diversity of her repertory as
reflected in these rare survivals. They’re
in excellent aural shape by the way.
So, in short, we have
here a complete edition of Lewis’s acoustic
HMVs and electric Victors. There are
also a number of previously unissued
sides to whet the collecting appetite,
as well as the twenty-five radio transcriptions.
The notes are splendidly informative
and there are some welcome, very well
produced, photographs as there are invariably
are with Marston. This is a superior
production and will earn a worthy place
on the shelves.
Jonathan Woolf
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MARSTON 52047-2 [77.59 + 77.33] 
