History of CBS Records 30th Street Studio NYC (many pictures)

DANG! That IS pretty cool!!

Looking for The Galimir Quartet of Vienna (which is how Discogs credits the Lieberson piece players) leads to a quartet founded by Felix Galimir in 1927 and featuring him and his three sisters.

This label clearly shows that it is the The Galimir Quartet, with Felix Galimir and Marvin Morgenstern on violins, Samuel Rhodes, viola, and Charles McCracken on cello.

Looking for that other quartet in the pictures would have been a wild goose chase, so thanks for letting me know to look for four guys.

Looking further for pictures of him online finds some watermarked ones, as well as an obituary from November 12, 1999 in the LA Times (but without a picture):

"Felix Galimir, 89, a violinist, teacher and quartet player. Galimir was the only surviving member of the Viennese family that constituted the Galimir Quartet, which recorded Alban Berg's "Lyric Suite" and Maurice Ravel's string quartet, both under the supervision of the composers. Galimir was a leading exponent of the music of Berg and a major interpreter of Arnold Schoenberg and Anton Webern. Born in Vienna in 1910 to an Austrian mother and Romanian father, he formed the Galimir Quartet with his sisters in 1927 to commemorate the centennial of Beethoven's death. He joined the Vienna Philharmonic in 1936 and gave his first official performance at the Vienna State Opera, but rising anti-Semitism caused his abrupt dismissal the next year. On the advice of fellow violinist Bronislaw Huberman, he immigrated to Palestine, where he joined Huberman's Palestine Orchestra (now the Israel Philharmonic). Arturo Toscanini conducted the first concerts. In 1938 Galimir moved to the United States and in 1939 joined Toscanini at the NBC Symphony Orchestra, where he was first violinist until 1954. He reestablished the Galimir Quartet, which finally disbanded in 1993 nearly 65 years after its founding. One of the nation's most sought-after string teachers, he was a fixture for more than four decades at the Marlboro Festival in Vermont and taught at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, the Juilliard School and the Mannes College of Music in New York. At the age of 88 last year, he performed in a musical tribute to two other celebrated violinists, Louis Krasner and Adrienne Galimir Krasner, his sister. A reviewer for the Boston Globe praised the octogenarian's performance, writing that Galimir remained "an artist of quality, with an uncommon command of phrase and structure. . . . Everything he touches turns into music." On Wednesday in New York City."

The Wikipedia version is more compelling and personal:

"Born in a Sephardic Jewish family Vienna; his first language was Ladino.[1] He studied with Adolf Bak and Simon Pullman at the Vienna Conservatory from the age of twelve and graduated in 1928. With his three sisters he founded the Galimir Quartet in 1927 to commemorate the centenary of the death of Ludwig van Beethoven. During the early 1930s Galimir studied with Carl Flesch in Berlin In 1936, the Galimir Quartet recorded the Lyric Suite of Alban Berg and the String Quartet of Maurice Ravel under the supervision of the composers, who were present during the rehearsals and recording sessions.[2] In 1936, he joined the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. He was harassed because of his Jewish ethnicity - at one performance, writes the New York Times, "just as the lights went down, the principal clarinetist called out, in a voice audible throughout the theater, 'Galimir - have you eaten your matzos today?'".[3] The next season, the orchestra expelled him because he was Jewish. He then emigrated to Palestine to join the newly founded Palestine Symphony Orchestra.

"My mother was Austrian, but as my father was Romanian, we were considered enemy aliens and lived in fear of internment," he said of his family's plight in World War I.[4]

In 1938, Galimir moved to New York,[5] where he founded another quartet and served as member of the NBC Symphony Orchestra from 1939 to 1956.(later, when the NBC ensemble was disbanded, Galimir was concertmaster of the Symphony of the Air.) In the 1950s he began acquiring a reputation as a music teacher and began teaching at The Juilliard School in New York in 1962 and from 1972 at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. In 1976 he began teaching at Mannes College of Music in New York.

In 1952, after the death of Adolf Busch, pianist Rudolf Serkin asked Galimir to join the faculty of the Marlboro Music Festival, where he was in residence every year from 1954 until his death in 1999.

Galimir died on November 10, 1999 of natural causes and has since been honoured with memorial concerts and competitions in his name."

This is also interesting to me because there are a number of pictures of Adolph Busch in the Plaut collection, not to mention Serkin.

Thanks, Matt! I love learning about these people and what they did, even though their albums were not big sellers.

This is another example of Goddard's influence on CBS/CRI: sales were not the only thing. Sales were good and there had to be hit songs/albums, but the company's vision was big enough to use the hit albums to support other musicians and Culture. Disregarding his interest here in having his own work performed, of course.

 

Galimir: historically interesting recording of the Ravel quartet, have both this and the later Vanguard version (stereo) in my shelves.

Astonishing about the contemporary music releases on Columbia and other labels in the 1950s, passion and dedication. Had no idea Surinach made the first recording of the Blomdahl concerto, it was later recorded by Decca with LSO and Sixten Ehrling, principal Conductor of the Detroit Symphony for ten years.

 

Offhand I want to say no, but I think the Sinatra photo is too small to make any sort of definitive assessment.

 

Many more photos as part of that story. One is definitely from 30th Street, one has Fred Plaut (presumably 30th Street, but it's not clear), and a few more are CBS but may or may not be 30th Street.


Eyes closed and their faces mask-like in deep reverie, Helen Traubel (left) and Herta Glaz (right) sit in recording booth with sound engineers listening to their duet from Tristan.


Dorothy Kirsten, glamour girl of the Met, records Puccini arias after first removing all her rings and bracelets, which might jingle and spoil recording.

 

Whether it's the same mixer or not, here are some shots of the mixer in what I think is Liederkranz at various times:



That's Isaac Stern, and from other pics in the series I'm pretty sure it's Liederkranz. One pic has Isaac and the cracked mirror in the arch.

Here's Artur Rodzinski with that same mixer, which looks to be at least 3 separate pieces



Back to the Isaac Stern session, and we see the other side of the control room



with the VU meter just visible over Isaac's shoulder.

But I thought that side of the control room had a two piece angled window?

Here's another shot of Stern and his accompanist Alexander Zakin, part of the same series, next to a different window



Were there two windows/viewing rooms in there for a while?

This one is with Fred Plaut, but a different mixer. I left it with less contrast so you can see the mixer details as much as possible.



The other pictures in the series with Fred are few and perhaps more ambiguous as to where they are, but there is a control room wall and window that looks very similar to that last one although different. I'll put that in the next post by itself.

These pictures are from MSS 52, The Frederick and Rose Plaut Papers in the Irving S. Gilmore Music Library of Yale University, gathered with the help of Richard Boursey and Emily Ferrigno, wonderful librarians.

 

My guess is at least some of our confusion over differences is because some shots are probably from 799 Seventh Ave. That said, I really don't know what differences can be attributed to that and what to changes at Liederkrantz.

 

Thankfully I don't think they were ever at 799 Seventh Ave.

 

Hi Everyone,

Sorry I've not been posting. I started looking closer at the pictures to try to identify more helpful details as we try to determine what is Liederkranz and what is not, as well as what mixers were around at different times in all the studios. Starting at the beginning of the Plaut collection, I'm looking for pictures that fit into specific categories:

Liederkranz control room window;
Liederkranz mixers;
30th St mixers;
mixers used on remotes;
and pictures of that guy in the E. Power Biggs series who looks like a salsa singer to me. I'm pretty sure he was actually a Masterworks guy.

Additionally, I've found some other pictures of unknown (to me) studios and one of Howard Scott with hair.

However, this week and the next couple are going to be pretty intense for me work-wise and I can't spend more time on this today.

So, again, sorry.

 

This post would be almost completely off-topic except for the second part, which is tangentially related to the first part.

Today (yesterday now) I did my first mix down of a concert that I multi-track recorded two Saturdays ago. The artist was one of the Brothers Four, coincidentally a CBS act, and the first of the replacements for an original guy. He's been in the group long enough, though, that he recorded in 30th St, which I realized while setting up to do the mix. He had hired me to do the PA for the concert and mentioned that he needed a recording of the show, and I offered to do it since I've been wanting to learn how to do it. There were 13 inputs and this was my first ever multitrack recording and mix.

The tangentially on-topic part was that the movie "Tom Dowd and the Language of Music" had coincidentally worked its way to the top of our queue and it was our movie for tonight's viewing. The mixer that we think was the first mixer in 30th St. was visible several times in the first 15 minutes of the video, albeit a different individual and in a slightly different configuration. This one looked like two units stacked on top of each other with a setback to allow for the switches but the top was never shown, so I don't know if there was a meter on it or not. Each unit looked the same as ours, though. After my experience as a recording engineer today I felt a kinship with Mr. Dowd while realizing how trivial my experience was comparatively (needless to say).

It is a wonderful movie and worth a look if you have a chance; we get to see a lot of recording history in it. I have no visual proof he was ever in 30th St but will now keep an eye open. Don't you suppose he must have been in there at least once?

And in looking for where to buy it, it is quite expensive and only available used. Nobody has it, including YouTube and Amazon streaming.

 

Line studies, by Kenneth Gaburo, recorded June 15, 1959.

Walter Trampler, viola; Julius Baker, flute; David Glazer, clarinet; Erwin L. Price, trombone

 

About | Leonard Bernstein

I was wondering if this very famous photo of Leonard Bernstein at the piano by Don Hunstein was taken at 30th St studios. John McLure mentions producing the New York Phil at St George Hall, Manhattan Centre, Avery Fisher Centre and 30th Street.

 

It's hard to say with 100% certainty due to the relatively tight crop, but that definitely appears to be 30th Street to me.

While searching, it turns out there are lots from at Getty from 30th Street. Here are a few:


Composer Leonard Bernstein in a recording studio on November 5, 1974 in New York, New York.
November 05, 1974


Saxophonist Lawrence Brown, composer and pianist Leonard Bernstein, saxophonist Coleman Hawkins, and clarinettist Buster Bailey play in a recording studio, 1950s. The bassist is unidentified.
January 01, 1955


Prominent conductor and composer Leonard Bernstein conducts musicians from his piano during a recording session at a Columbia Records recording studio in New York City.
January 01, 1900


Prominent conductor and composer Leonard Bernstein conducts during a recording session at a Columbia Records recording studio in New York City.
January 01, 1900


Prominent conductor and composer Leonard Bernstein conducts during a recording session at a Columbia Records recording studio in New York City.
January 01, 1900

Leonard Bernstein Recording Studio Pictures and Photos | Getty Images

 

Eddie Jones on bass. From the album What is Jazz ? Released to accompany the Omnibus series I presume.

 

One rarely sees an RCA 44-BX at 30th Street, or have I missed it previously?

 

I've mainly seen them in photos from the first few years of the studio. Partial list here:

History of CBS Records 30th Street Studio NYC (many pictures)

 

Nah, sorry, those last three couldn't have been at 30th St because it was still a church in 1900.

[/snark]

Nice pics.

 

Great pics, dates notwithstanding

2nd pic should read "Trombonist Lawrence Brown"
He was a member of the Duke Ellington Orchestra and a regular session player

It's likely to be taken during a 1956 recording session for the "What is Jazz?" LP.
Bassist is listed as Eddie Jones

[/double snark]