WALTER PISTON (1894-1976) -- A DISCOGRAPHY This is a thoroughly revised and expanded version of a discography that originally appeared in the American Record Guide of June 1977, Among the major differences between this revision and the earlier effort are the addition of foreign issues, recording and release dates, matrix and take numbers, and coupling information, none of which ap­ peared in the previous version. Every effort has been made to include all known commercial and semi-private records that contain music by Walter Piston, On the other hand, no attempt has been made to docu­ ment the many recordings that exist only on private tapes, air-checks or other instantaneous discs, a formidable undertaking which lies outside the scope of this discography. The format of the present discography conforms to the exemplary design created by J, F. Weber for his Discography Series which will be familiar to many readers of the ARSC Journal, For those readers unfamiliar with the Series abbreviations and symbols, a key is pro­ vided at the end of this introduction, The arrangement of the discography is chronological by date of composition, First performance information for a given work appears immediately after the date of composition (or, in some cases, after the date and source of commission) and is prefaced by the letters, "f.p." Where there is more than one recording of a single work, the entries are listed in the order in which they were recorded, insofar as this could be determined, Variant or reissue numbers for a single recording are listed in sequence according to the date of release, American record numbers are always given first; European or foreign numbers follow with the country of origin indicated in parentheses (see key). All entries are twelve-inch LP's unless otherwise indi­ cated. Side indications have generally been ignored except in in­ stances where it was deemed necessary to point up a difference be­ tween the format of a first release and that of its nominal reissue, Recording dates, in most cases, were obtained from the files of the respective recording company or from the record itself, Release and delete dates for American LP's are from Schwann; release dates for RCA Victor 78 rpm records are taken from that company's files. Artist credits are given in as full a form as the available data permits. All entries are numbered sequentially and a complete per­ former index is provided at the conclusion of the discography. Little has changed, unfortunately, since I lamented the lack of interest in Piston's music in a note prefacing the earlier discography, The most significant recording activity has been in the area of the symphonies; it is now theoretically possible to own at least one recording of each of the eight symphonies, The First Symphony has recently received its first recording on Louisville, and earlier accounts of the Third and Sixth Symphonies conducted by Hanson and Munch respectively have been restored to the catalog, Sadly though, Michael Tilson Thomas' wonderful reading of the Second Symphony on DG has been deleted, leaving only Dixon's routine performance in phony stereo. Especially welcome would be new versions of the Third and Fourth symphonies in stereo with present-day sonics; Hanson's Third on Mercury Golden Imports and Ormandy's Fourth on Columbia Special Products, fine though they may be from the standpoint of performance, are both showing their sonic ages, Aside from the symphonies, the most significant issues to appear since the 1977 discography are two historical performances of consid­ erable interest, neither previously issued: Walter Gieseking's 1947 performance of the Concertino (entry #26) and the Budapest String Quartet's 1945 recording of the Second String Quartet, taken from a Library of Congress tape (entry #22). The greatest area of neglect continues to be among the works composed for solo instruments with orchestra. A recording of the Variations for Cello and Orchestra (1966) is sorely needed and the same holds true for the Second Violin Concerto of 1960. The concertos for flute and for clarinet and the Fantasy for English Horn, Harp and Strings (1952) would make excellent couplings (would it be asking too much to hope for such a record from the first-desk players of the Boston Symphony Orchestra?). And speak­ ing of apt couplings, is there some enterprising record company out there that would consider putting together a record to comprise the Three New England Sketches (1959), William Schuman's New England Triptych and Ives' Three Places in New England? I would like to acknowledge the kind assistance of the many people who helped with the compilation of this discography, especially the following: Michael Gray; David Hall (Rodgers and Hammerstein Archives); Jeannine Ayotte and Diane Ota (Music Division, Boston Public Library); Ruth Watanabe (Sibley Music Library, Eastman School of Music); Dr. Donald Shetler (Institute of American Music, University of Rochester); and Ben Pernick (Fanfare). I would also like to thank the following people and record companies for providing recording dates and locations: Bernadette Moore (RCA); Don German and Martina McCarthy (CBS); Mona Griffin (Louisville); Dennis Miller (CR!); Jane Sarver (Coronet); and Dirk Keetbaas (CBC). Finally, a very special note of appreciation to Ed Fenninger of the Boston Public Library Sound Archive for allowing me to examine Piston's personal collection of recordings which were bequeathed to the library in his will. This last-minute endeavor produced no fewer than four new entries to what had been a substan­ tially completed manuscript. (Readers who are excited by the prospect of a sound archive in Boston should be cautioned that these facilities are, unfortunately, not open to the public at the present time,) Readers who can provide additions or corrections are invited to write to me in care of this journal. William David Curtis March, 1981 77 ABBREVIATIONS AND SYMBOLS (78: ) electrical 78 rpm record (45: ) electrical 45 rpm record [12595-6] single disc numbers (label numbers) for 78 rpm sets are indicated in brackets : mx. XCO 25390 matrix number engraved in the original wax (RCA serial numbers do not always appear on the record) (7"). (10") seven- or ten-inch record a sequence of numbers in a set is connected by a hyphen I parallel mono and stereo numbers are separated by a slash set a single number applying to two or more records is identified as a set (E), (F), (G) English, French or German record numbers (rel. , del, ) U.S. release and deletion dates according to Schwann or RCA's card file (RCA 78 rpm records) (rec, ) date and location of recording (GR rev. ) date of review in Gramophone (applies only to English record numbers) ls., 2ss,, etc. indicates number of playing sides w/COPLAND with, indicates coupling(s) so Symphony Orchestra f,p, first performed. , , 78 Three Pieces for Flute, Clarinet and Bassoon (1926; f.p. 8 May'26 in Paris) 1. Allegro scherzando 2. Lento 3. Allegro 1 Barrere Woodwind Ensemble (Georges Barrere, Fred van Amburgh, Angel del Busto) (78: New Music Quarterly Recordings Vol. II, No. 5/6: mx. 231, 232) (78: New Music Quarterly Recordings 1113: mx. not available) 2 members of the New Art Wind Quintet (Andrew Lolya, Irving Neidich, Tina di Dario) Classic Editions set CE 2003 (rel. 12-53, del. 10-61) 3 members of the Berkshire Woodwind Ensemble (James Pappoutsakis, Pasquale Cardillo, Ernst Panenka) Unicorn UNLP 1029, w/THOMPSON, RIETI, JONGEN (rel. 1-57, del. 1-59) 4 members of the Soni Ventorum Wind Quintet (Felix Skowronek, William McColl, Arthur Grossman) (rec. 1966 in Puerto Rico) Lyrichord LL 158/LLST 7158, w/GOODMAN, KRENEK (rel. 8-66) 5 Bennington Woodwind Trio (Sue Ann Kahn, Gunnar Schonbeck, Maurice Pachman) Golden Crest CRS 4140 (quad), w/KOECHLIN, LUENING, NOWAK, STRINGFIELD (rel. 3-76) Sonata for Flute and Piano (1930; f.p. 13 Feb'31 in Boston: Georges Laurent, Jesus Mar1a Sanroma) 6 Doriot Anthony [Dwyer], Barbara Korn Claremont CR 1205, w/DAHL, AVSHALOMOV (rel. 1-53, del. 12-64) 7 Jean-Pierre Rampal, Robert Veyron-Lacroix (E) Felsted RL 89007, w/CLEMENTI, FRAN~IX, MOZART (GR rev. 3-57) (F) Barclay A 89001, same coupling -- 1957 8 P. Thomas, Larry Sitsky (Australia) Brolga BZM 21, w/HONEGGER, HANSON -- c. 1958? 79 9 Albert Ratzbaum, Herman Brown (USSR) MK D 015435-6(a), w/C,P,E. BACH, PROKOFIEV -- 1958 10 Julius Baker, Anthony Makas (rec, Nov'66 at Stereo Sound Studios, New York) Westminster XWN 19121/WST 17121, w/MARTINfi, ROUSSEL, REIF (rel, 4-67, del, 4-71) Westminster Gold WGS 8146, same coupling (not in Schwann) 11 (1st movement only) Sarah Baird Fouse, Cecilia Ewing (rec, 1967 in Columbus, Ohio) Coronet 1245 (mono) (rel, 7-69) 12 Doriot Anthony Dwyer, Fredrik Wanger Music Minus One MMO 8107, w/DUTILLEUX -- 1973 N,B, Side A contains a complete performance using an abridged version of the second movement, Side B contains only the piano accompaniment and a second version of the accompaniment to the third movement played at a slower "practice tempo," Music for the flute part is included with the record. 13 Keith Bryan, Karen Keys (rec, May'76 in Ann Arbor, Michigan) Orion ORS 76242, w/COPLAND, BURTON, VAN VACTOR (rel, 10-76) 14 Laila Padorr, Anita Swearengin Laurel LP 14, w/COPLAND, DELLO JOIO, MUCZYNSKI (rel, 10-77) 15 Ingrid Dingfelder, Anita Gordon (rec, spring'78 at CBS Studios, New York) Composers Recordings CR! SD 394, w/ROREM, FRAN~IX (rel, 10-78) 16 Doriot Anthony Dwyer, Susan Almasi Mandel Grenadilla GS 1053, w/BARBER, COPLAND, DAHL, ROGERS (announced, not released) 80 Suite for Oboe and Piano (1931; f.p.